Page 31 of Knight's Fall

She shrugged. “Well, maybe between the two of us, we can get this done. It couldn’t hurt to have the help, right?”

“Fine,” he grumbled, but she could feel his relief.

The bath wasn’t easy. Mo enjoyed her attention, but he insisted on shaking the water from his coat as Wings rinsed the shampoo away. Water went everywhere, and by the time they were done, she and Wings were soaked. But Mo was clean. They secured him to a leash outside, and he was able to run around in the sunshine to dry. Wings stored the water hose out of sight before handing her one of the three towels he had on the deck, and then he took one for himself.

She dried herself as much as she could, but her clothes were still wet, and her hair was damp. She handed the towel back to him and could feel her shyness overcome her. Averting her eyes to watch Mo play, she watched Wings out of the corner of her eye. Since he thought she wasn’t watching, he started to rub his injured leg.

“I’m surprised you decided to give Mo a bath by yourself. Your injury must be throbbing.”

He snorted derisively. “He didn’t give me much of a choice. Isobel dropped him off and then invited me for breakfast. We figured he’d be fine on his own, but he somehow got into some paint I had in the house. I was back before he had time to make a big mess inside, but he had paint all over him. Thanks for the assist.”

“You’re welcome. I’ve always loved dogs, but I can’t afford to have one of my own. I guess that’s why I offer to walk Mrs. Dobb’s dog all the time. He’s a little too active for her to manage, and it gives me some puppy time I wouldn’t have otherwise. If you need some help with Mo while you’re watching him, just let me know. I would love to dog sit.”

“Thanks. I know you work a lot, but I might take you up on that. Speaking of work, we had breakfast at the diner this morning, but there was a new guy in the kitchen, I noticed.”

A thrill chased through her stomach. He noticed she wasn’t at work this morning. The idea gave her a crazy amount of happiness, and she had to quickly chastise herself to rein her emotions in.

“I had the day off so Tabby could try out a new cook. If he works out, he’ll take some shifts, so I don’t have to work as much.”

“You must like that.”

She shrugged. “Part of me does. The other part actually liked the hours. It gave me more money to save for my food truck. I’m so close to having enough.”

“Have you thought about getting investors?”

She smiled as she watched Mo roll in the grass, undoing their efforts to clean him. “I have, but I want this to be all mine. I want to prove to myself that I can make it happen without help from anyone.”

She blushed when she realized how she rambled. This time she couldn’t blame it on her fatigue. She glanced at him, expecting him to appear bored and not watching her so intently.

“I don’t know why I told you all of that. I should go and let you get back to your day.”

Wings shrugged. “You could. Or you could come inside and hang out with me and Mo for a little while. You might want to go home and change first, but you could get some extra puppy time. We could watch a movie or paint some trim or whatever.”

She felt her smile beam from her face. She was such a loser to be that excited over an invitation to work on his fixer upper, but the fact that he wanted to spend time with her was more than she hoped for. All ideas of a nap fled from her mind as she nodded her acceptance.

“I’d like that. Just give me a few minutes to clean up.”

“We’ll be here whenever you get back.”

She held his gaze a moment longer before turning to half jog, half walk back to her house. She fought the urge to call Olivia and tell her. For now, she would see how this invitation played out without her best friend planting ideas in her head.

∞∞∞

“Are you serious? Oh my God! What did he do?”

Courtlyn shifted her position on the floor, so she could reach an unpainted section of the baseboard with her paint brush. Wings stood at a different spot by the same wall, painting the high part of the trim while regaling her with tales from his basic training days. This last story about a prank he and his buddies played on another private had her laughing and shaking her head in disbelief.

“Oh, he got us back. One night while we were sleeping, he hid all of our fatigues and our boots. He got wind that the COs were going to get us up in the middle of the night for a hike. We all had to take the hike in our skivvies and bare feet, except for him.”

She giggled. “I bet you stopped with the pranks after that.”

“Hell, no. It was a full-on war at that point.”

She coated the last spot with paint and set her brush aside. “All done here.” Her gaze fell on where Mo slept in a ball on Wings’ recliner. “I think Mo has the right idea. I could go for a rest.”

Wings dropped his brush into his paint tray and walked over to her. “Why don’t we just call it a day? There’s a utility sink through the kitchen that I use to wash the brushes and trays.”

He reached out to her, and she hesitated a moment before putting her hands in his. She loved the feel of his fingers wrapping around her hands as he gently pulled her to her feet.

---