Page 76 of Heart and Soul
“Watch it, mister.”
“I don’t know what else to tell you, Shayne, except…maple bar.”
“I’ll tell you where to stick your maple bar.”
“I don’t have a lot of set-in-stone ways; I guess you’re right. Maybe I don’t know what I want until I see it. But when I see it, and when I know it, Iknow it. And nothing and no one can stop me after that.”
“Nowthatis something I do know about you.”
“It’s true. You never stood a chance.”
“Oh, really.”
“Honestly, Shayne. It’s pathetic how easy you were.”
“I will slap that grin off your face.”
He pulls me toward him. “Do it,” he challenges, inching closer. The morning light catches his green eyes, and I melt into him, kissing his lips with desperate intensity. The stress and anxiety of the worst night of my life fades away. This is a new day, and Jay’s still here.
By the time we come up for air, a woman is unlocking the door to the donut shop. The neonOPENsign flickers on. Time for me to make the decision. I can take him in there, buy him a maple bar, and call it good. He would never know that I actually brought us here for something else.
Before I can change my mind, I say, “You know, thereisone other thing I know about you. C’mon.” I open the door and step out of the car. He follows, joining me on the sidewalk in front of the donut shop. Fighting back the urge to shudder, I point to the shop next door—a dog shelter. Its owner is just now flipping the door sign fromclosedtoopen. I can hear several of the beasts yapping inside.
Jay’s jaw drops. “No, Shayne.”
“Don’t try to tell me you’re not a dog person, because when we first met, you were ready to let a junkyard mutt tear my throat out before you’d even consider shooting it, and Russo said you always wanted a dog, but couldn’t because you lived in a tiny apartment. He told me how you would always complain about having to watch Haley’s dog, but that secretly you loved it and one time he caught you brushing its hair.”
“I did not!”
“Fine, I made that last part up, but still. Am I wrong?”
“Babe, I don’t know what to say. This is incredible. Really. But you and dogs…it’s too much.”
“That’s exactly why I want to do this.” I step in front of him, and we lock eyes. I need him to see that this is no joke. “Jay, I’m tired of being the me that’s all me. I want to start being the me that’s part you.”
He kisses me again. “Okay, but I would have been just fine with a maple donut.”
“And you saidIwas easy.”
I follow him inside, and the demon spawn waste no time in validating my grudge by showing that the feeling is mutual. For Jay’s smiles and outstretched hand, the dogs have nothing but playful paws and wagging tails, but the first sight of me sends them all into tantrums of rage. And not just the big dogs, either. Tiny rat dogs no bigger than a football are leaping at their cages with bared teeth. I would laugh in their tiny faces if Jay didn’t look so concerned.
“I see what you mean,” he mutters.
I have to shout just to be heard over all the yapping and cage rattling. “What, you thought I was just being a diva? It’s genetics, Jay. Dogs instinctively hate”—I’m about to sayfoxes, but the kennel lady is standing there, befuddled—“something about me,” I finish.
“I don’t understand,” the lady says. “I’ve never seen them like this. Do you have a steak in your pocket?” She laughs, moving from cage to cage, soothing her “pretties” with soft words and caresses.
I am the steak, I say to myself. “Maybe I should go.”
“You’re just new to them, is all,” Jay says. “After a day or so, they’ll warm up to you.”
“Funny, that’s what everybody keeps telling me about Nick Gorgeous.”
“Look, you made your point, babe. After this, it’s obvious you’d do anything for me. I’m telling you, it’s enough. Let’s go.”
I’mthisclose to gratefully accepting his lifeline when a great booming bark silences all the other dogs. It came from another aisle, where the big cages are kept.
The lady is delighted. “Well, look who wants some attention! Couldn’t wait your turn, huh? It’s just killing you to wait another second, isn’t it? Here we are, then.”
