Page 38 of Sleeping with the Frenemy

Sofi slowly lifted her hand and placed it on the dog’s head for a tiny pet. “Good boy,” she told him again.

That seemed to be all the dog needed to hear, because he suddenly launched himself at her.

Sofi let out a short scream and Leo hopped forward, but their alarm was unnecessary since all the dog did was rub himself against her and attempt to lick at her face. Well, it was unnecessary on Leo’s part. Sofi was still very much alarmed.

“Shit,” she cried when he knocked her over and she plopped her ass onto the dirty asphalt. “He’s getting dirt and slobber all over me. Stop it,” she told the dog to no avail. “Get him, Leo.”

“I don’t think I should break this up,” he told Sofi with a laugh. “He doesn’t like me, but he loves you.”

“Son of a bitch,” she cursed again. It only seemed to amp the dog up. “Okay. Okay,” she told the dog, pushing him back. “That’s enough.”

Amazingly that worked. He backed off a little bit, but stayed close enough to lean his body against hers. His tail was wagging so hard that his hips were wiggling.

“Aww. He loves you,” Leo teased.

“Shut up,” Sofi said. “You owe me a new outfit by the way.”

Leo laughed and took a few steps forward. “Well, you’re going to be waiting awhile for that, because I’m too broke to afford Gucci..”

The dog watched him alertly but didn’t move away or stop wagging his tail.

Sofi looked up at him from her seat on the ground. There was a smudge of dirt on her forehead and the dog had effectively licked off whatever shiny stuff she’d put on that gave her a glow. She still looked like the most beautiful woman he’d ever laid eyes on. “So now what?” she asked.

“We try to get him in the house.”

“Our house? Absolutely not.”

Leo ignored how much he liked hearing her say “our house.” “Where else can we put him to make sure he doesn’t run off?”

“I don’t know. Can’t we just walk him around until we find his owners?”

“That’s a great plan. Why don’t you put the leash on him and we can begin?”

“What leash? He doesn’t even have a coll—” She paused. “Oh.”

Leo smirked. “Exactly.”

“Let’s take him inside and see if anyone recognizes him,” Sofi suggested.

“You want to take a filthy stray dog that was just eating garbage into my sister’s busy restaurant kitchen?”

“But what about Liam’s?”

Leo was already shaking his head. “Liam’s allergic to animals.”

“Of course he is,” she said.

“What does that mean?”

“That means that Liam is the kind of guy who’d already own a dog if he could. You know, like the big silent guy with a big strong dog he’d talk to because it was his only friend.”

Leo had to laugh. “I see that.”

“So what are we going to do with him, Leo? You just said that animal control is closed. Are we supposed to just sit here with him while he eats the rest of this trash?”

“Probably not.” He wanted to point out that these were all reasons he’d suggested taking him back to their place, but he knew that wasn’t going to help the situation at all. Sofi needed to think it was her idea or she’d get stubborn about it.

Sofi sighed. “We’re going to have to take this dog into the apartment, aren’t we?”

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