Page 19 of Falling for the Guy Next Door

Jack was one of those cool professor types, with rolled up shirt sleeves and an intellectual-ish look on his face. Although, the whole academic aura was shattered when I looked out and caught Ava hand feeding him a bite of her chicken sandwich. Ranch dressing dripped on his chin as he nodded his head in approval.

“I always wondered what went on behind the closed door of the staff lounge at college,” I said.

Ava and Jack laughed as they looked toward the door. Jack wiped the ranch dressing from his chin with a napkin. “I suppose you thought we were all sitting at tables exchanging dissertation nuggets and scholarly opinions,” Jack said.

“Well, I certainly didn’t think you were exchanging sandwich bites. I’m just here to change, and then I’m taking the neighbor’s dog on a walk, and I’m ridiculously excited about it.”

Ava turned more my direction. “Which neighbor? What dog?”

“The man who’s renting Audrey’s cottage has the coolest big dog. His name is Rocky. Carry on with your lunch.”

I always smelled like sugar after a day at the bakery. I normally showered after work, but something told me Rocky wouldn’t mind the scent. I pulled on shorts and sneakers and went out to the kitchen for a quick snack and glass of water. My plan was to walk Rocky down the road all the way to the end, where the public beach access trail started. It was a relatively quiet road, and aside from Mr. Roberts’ barking dogs behind his front gate, there weren’t many obstacles to pass.

I walked next door and pushed the key in the lock. Rocky started barking. I opened the door. “Hey, Rocky, it’s me. Your new best buddy.”

Rocky leapt off the couch, knocking over the guitar that was leaning against the sofa. It made a clamoring noise, which panicked the dog. He scurried over to me and sat down with a worried look. I rubbed the top of his head. “It’s all right. No damage done.” I walked over and picked up the guitar. There were some sheets of paper with words and musical notes scribbled on them in pencil. Emily mentioned that the band had been sought after for a record deal, but they didn’t have enough original songs for an album. It looked as if Nash was working on one of those songs. The papers had been sent into disarray from Rocky’s sofa dismount, so I straightened them. My eyes just happened to pass over some scribbled lyrics. “Copper hair and a smile that could break a heart in two.” I stared at the words a second, then shook my head with a laugh.

Rocky’s cold nose pushed against the back of my calf. “Well, sir, we’re going on an adventure.” I headed toward the hook with the leash, and Rocky bolted past me, sat beneath it and started twirling his tail around fast enough to cause a breeze. He sat perfectly still like a gentleman as I attached the leash to his collar. I smiled, pleased with myself for handling this like a pro. Then, I opened the door, and he shot out like a torpedo. I pulled the door loudly shut behind us and followed behind like a kite on the end of a string as Rocky headed down the driveway to the road.

“Whoa, there, buddy. You’re pulling too fast.” My feet finally caught up to him, and once the tension on the leash lightened, Rocky slowed his pace. He dropped his head to start a sniffing extravaganza like I’d never seen before. His nose must have brushed over every blade of grass, every crack in the sidewalk, every mailbox post before he finally tired of sniffing. He lifted his big head and trotted proudly ahead of me, tail in the air and ears shifting forward and back. We headed toward the small green space at the end of the road. It wasn’t a park, more of a big shade tree with a bench below it.

After marking some territory, Rocky returned to sniffing mode. His tail began to wag wildly as he picked up the scent of something that excited him. His head shot up and he barked once. A squirrel dashed out of a nearby shrub and ran for the tree as if his tail was on fire. Stupidly, I hadn’t braced myself for what would follow. Rocky bolted, and the leash left my hand. He ran for the tree and, once at the trunk, got up on his hind legs. His two front paws were halfway up the tree. His ears fell back as he stared up into the branches.

My body relaxed with relief as I reached him. I was sure he’d take off at a full run, and I’d have to chase him. He was so fast I’d never catch him and then I’d have to let Nash know that I’d lost his dog. Rocky stayed there, pressed against the tree, in a dog-squirrel game of chicken.

It was such a funny sight; I pulled out my phone and leaned in with Rocky for a selfie. “All right, Rocky, I think we’ve pestered the squirrel long enough. Let’s go.”

He released a doggie sigh of defeat as he pulled his paws off the trunk and started back toward the road. My phone rang as I pushed it into my pocket. It was Emily. I froze. I wasn’t exactly sure why. Actually, I knew why. Walking Nash Ledger’s dog was like a massive act of betrayal. I hadn’t even let my best friend know that I was living next to her crush yet, and here I was out walking his dog. Maybe it was time to come clean. As Ella liked to point out—no one dealt with guilt worse than her baby sister, and she was right. One time I borrowed Jenny Furman’s pretty ladybug pencil sharpener, and I liked it so much I didn’t return it. I put it in my backpack hoping she wouldn’t notice it missing. By the time I got home, my stomach hurt, and I was in tears. I spilled out the whole confession to Nonna in loud sobs. She walked me right over to Jenny’s house to return the sharpener and apologize. I felt better, but the guilt of my indiscretion made it hard for me to ever look Jenny in the eye again.

I considered letting Emily’s call go to voicemail but decided to just confess. “Hey, Emily, what’s up?” Rocky trotted ahead, once again tail in the air and ears on alert. Now that I knew how he’d react to a squirrel, I was ready.

“I’m on my lunch break.”

“Wow, that’s a late break.” Rocky stopped to sniff some shrubs, so the walk was paused.

“Tell me about it. I was so hungry it felt like my stomach was chewing itself. We had a sale, and the shop was packed. I love summer, but it’s hard work.”

“I know. The line to get in the bakery lasted until eleven o’clock.” I was about to mention the incident with Dustin, something I would have normally called her about right away, but I didn’t want to explain how it ended. I now had two stories that involved Nash Ledger and both were the kind of stories that you’d definitely relay to your best friend, but I couldn’t talk about either of them with Emily. At least not right now.

Rocky’s nasal inspection was interrupted when a cat decided to meander across the street. The cat looked the dog’s way with that typical cat arrogance and kept walking at a leisurely pace. Cats were smart, and this one knew his big furry nemesis was attached to a leash that was attached to a human, so he could stroll across without worry. Rocky didn’t react as wildly as with the squirrel, but his tail started wagging and he barked.

Emily laughed. “Did you just bark?”

“Yep, been taking bark training. Woof, woof.”

“I hope you’re not paying too much for that training. Are you out on the beach?”

She’d given me an out. I could just say yes and mention that there was a dog out on the sand, but lying always came with guilt, and I was having such a great time on my walk with Rocky, I didn’t want to spoil it with a stomachache.

“Actually, I’m out walking this big, wonderful dog named Rocky.”

There was a pause. “You got a dog, and you didn’t tell your best friend?” Boy, if only that was the big secret I was keeping.

“He belongs to my neighbor, the man renting Audrey’s cottage for the summer. He has to work all day, and I told him I didn’t mind taking Rocky out for a walk in the afternoon.”

“Well, you’ve always wanted a dog. I guess that’s the second-best thing. What’s he like?” she asked.

“Big and shaggy, sort of like a Muppet with a long tail.” We reached the end of the road and began to circle back. We walked on the opposite side, so Rocky could gather up a whole new crop of smells.

---