Page 35 of I Need You Tonight
I had a feeling he was just saying that to temporarily distract Heidi and Nicole from the fire.
And it worked. Heidi elbowed him in the stomach—gently, but enough to give him a hard time for his comment. “Of course, if you were shirtless right now like Mason, I’d love you even more.” She gave him a faint smile to show that she was trying to stay calm.
Chris chuckled. “Sorry, but the T-shirt stays on.”
We watched in silence as the firefighters worked. A few more people, who I soon figured out owned the other businesses in the strip mall, showed up and asked us questions, but quickly realized we didn’t have any more in the way of answers than they did. They moved to the side, lost in their own uncertainty.
Nicole shivered. I pulled her against me and wrapped her in my arms. She leaned back, exhausted but unable to leave.
A sudden need to do whatever I could to protect her rushed through me, and I kissed the top of her head. She sighed and sank deeper against me.
The early signs of dawn were stretching across the sky when a firefighter approached the man and the woman Heidi had indicated earlier. Without saying anything to us, Heidi walked over to the small group. Chris, Nicole, and I joined them.
“Fortunately, the sprinklers were working and the fire was quickly extinguished,” the fire chief said. “Only the store at the end suffered some structural damage due to the flames. Unfortunately, the smoke and water damage is extensive, and the premises won’t be usable in their current state.”
“When can we go inside and check the damage?” Nicole asked.
“I’d say not for a few more hours. Go home and get some sleep. Call your insurance company. We have to finish our investigation first, and then we’ll let you back inside to remove whatever you need.”
“Do you have any idea what caused it?” Chris asked.
“Not yet. It started in the pet store, but for now we don’t know the cause.”
The group asked him a few more questions, but for the most part there was nothing more he could tell us. Heidi and Nicole made plans to return later in the morning, and I drove Nicole home.
It was six-fifteen by the time we entered her house. She traipsed to the kitchen, which like the hallway was now a gray-blue, and removed the single key from the counter. “I need to walk Bernie,” she told me, palming the key for his owner’s house. Her words were slurred from tiredness.
“No, what you need is sleep, Nicole. Go to bed and I’ll let him out to do his business. We can walk him before we go back to the shop later.”
She opened her mouth to argue. I placed my finger against her lips. “Either you go willingly to bed or I’ll hoist you over my shoulder and carry you upstairs.”
“Mason, it really isn’t necessary. I’ll be fine. Plus you’re supposed to return to L.A. today, since you’re hitting the road in three days.”
“Hey, as long as I’m back there by Friday afternoon, I’ll be okay. Which means I can stick around until then and help you and Heidi out. So unless you’re planning to kick me out on my ass, you’re stuck with me.” Besides, if Zack were here, he would’ve done the same. I was merely filling in for him while he was away.
You just keep telling yourself that,said an annoying voice in my head, almost as if rolling its eyes.
It took a few seconds, but she eventually nodded. Her eyes drifted shut for a heartbeat and she swayed on her feet.
“C’mon, I’ll help you.” I was prepared to scoop her up and follow through with my original threat of carrying her upstairs, but she started toward them before I had a chance.
I parked my hand on her lower back and assisted her up to her room. Once I had her settled back in bed, I left to deal with the oversized beast next door.
A car drove past, likely on its Wednesday morning commute to work, as I walked next door. I opened the front door and called out, “Morning, Bernie.”
A deep woof answered, and a beat later the monster of a dog lumbered into the hallway from the living room and barked again. He leaned against me, the same way he usually did with Nicole whenever we had walked him during the past four days.
“Hey, dude,” I said, rubbing his side the way he liked it. “Nicole’s still sleeping, so you’ve got me for a few minutes. But I’m only taking you out to do your business, okay? We’ll be back later to take you for a walk.”
At the word “walk,” Bernie let out a rumbling bark. I guessed I shouldn’t have used that term. Now he had expectations that I wasn’t planning to meet.
I retrieved his leash from the hall closet, along with his poop bags. “All right, let’s get outta here,” I said, snapping the leash onto his collar.
Bernie was obviously eager to do his doggy business. He dragged me out the door as soon as I opened it. If Nicole had been the one holding his leash, I wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d dragged her along on the ground behind him. Determination was his middle name.
We walked a few yards before Bernie dropped the biggest dump known to dogkind. With a groan, I crouched down and scooped it up with the blue bag. Thank God Kirk couldn’t see me now—he might’ve given me a hard time, claiming I must be in love with Nicole because I was picking up the monster’s shit so she could sleep.
“C’mon, boy.” I tugged on his leash, hinting I wanted to return to his house. Bernie yanked me forward instead. Evidently he wanted to sniff out a squirrel or two.
“Look, I get you’re a bachelor and you don’t understand. After all, I’m a bachelor too. But unlike you, I love sex and right now there’s a warm, sexy woman waiting for me. And yes, I know that she and I won’t be having sex once I’m in bed with her. That’s okay. But what I would like to do is hold her while I still can—because in three days I’m hitting the road again, and it’s back to mindless one-night stands with groupies. So give me a break and let’s go home.”
I stumbled as what I had said about the one-night stands being mindless hit me. What the hell was wrong with me? Since when did I consider them mindless?
Bernie woofed and resumed heading in the direction I didn’t want to go. I huffed a long breath. So much for our man-to-man talk.
“Okay, you win.” I had a feeling I wouldn’t enjoy what would happen to me if I tried to get my own way. He looked like the kind of dog you didn’t want to piss off if you could help it.
Luckily, he was also the kind of dog who didn’t like to go for long walks. After traveling two blocks, he decided that walking was overrated and turned around. So I was happy when I opened the door to his house and he went inside without complaint. I washed my hands thoroughly and jogged the short distance back to Nicole’s home.
In her room, I slipped out of my clothes and carefully climbed under the covers, doing my best not to disturb the sleeping blonde next to me. I watched her for a few minutes before sleep crept into my brain and body. The last thing I remembered was thinking how much I would miss her once I returned to my regular life.
