Page 23 of Love and Other Trials
“Shit,” was all he whispered before taking a protective step ahead of her. “Stay behind me.”
“We don’t know where it is.” She craned her head until she spotted it near the rusted-out car by the edge of the marsh—a solid distance from where Sherlock was poised at the edge of the backyard, tail pointed in the air, but not moving. He knew better than to mess with wildlife, but he would defend her if it came to it. He was that kind of dog.
“Eleven o’clock.”
“I see it.”
Her insides cringed at the sight. Seven feet to her mind. Beady eyes. Big, scary body. “Head back to the house. No sudden moves.”
“You mean I can’t invite it for a beer?” His voice was calm, but then again, he flew military jets for a living. “I want you to go ahead of me. If it takes off for us, run to the house for Scooter and get Sherlock out of here.”
Like she’d leave him, but she appreciated the knight in shining armor act. “Let’s go. Slowly.”
She kept her gaze on the gator, not fighting with Dax about the way he was keeping himself between her and the reptile. When it didn’t follow them, she breathed a sigh of relief. When they neared the house, Scooter slammed the screen door open as he came out, making the gator hiss and the hairs on her arms stand straight up.
“You’ve met Bumper, I see,” Scooter commented in that agreeable drawl. “Don’t worry about him none. He’s just saying hello.”
Saying hello…
Tell that to her poor heart and her dog.
“Bumper, huh?” She and Dax traded a relieved look. “How’d you name him that?”
“Found him under my bumper one day when I got home from watching the Cocks up in Columbia.”
“Cocks?” Dax mouthed to her.
“Football team,” she mouthed back, pretending to throw a pass, which he mimed catching.
“Bumper there wouldn’t come out when I looped a gator hook around his neck. Tore off the side of my bumper in the tussle. I finally caved. He’s been around ever since. Normally, he’s pretty docile, but his blood is up. It’s mating season right now, and he’s got a lot of alligator misses to impress. You might have been part of the show.”
She looked around for potential suitors and spotted another gator partially hidden behind the shed. “What we do for love,” she joked, wondering what gator courtship looked like. Lots of teeth preening? Did they worry about whether their skin was scaly enough?
“Sounds like my courtship with my high school sweetheart,” Dax added dryly. “You got that invoice written up, Scooter? Because I’m going to need to find myself a drink after this.”
He pulled a crumpled piece of paper out of his overalls and thrust it out to her. She gave him a weak smile. “Thanks, Scooter. We’ll see you Saturday morning.”
“Please tell your missus and Bumper goodbye for us,” Dax added, patting Scooter on the back. “It was a pleasure.”
Sherlock was waiting for them at the edge of the house, his gaze trained on Bumper. She gave him a good rubdown when they reached him.
“Good boy,” she crooned.
“Yeah, Sherlock, thanks for the alert.” Dax glanced back at the gator. “Tell me you don’t have any gators at your grandma’s house.”
“No big bad wolves either,” she quipped.
His smile had the icky feeling in her stomach subsiding. “Clever. Count me relieved. I really like you, Ariel, but worrying about finding a gator under my car every time I came to visit might have been too much for me.”
She knew he was only kidding. But she liked the allusion to him visiting her. Was he thinking they might have more time in them after the wedding? She could certainly see that. Except she cautioned herself. They’d only truly met yesterday.
They crowded into the golf cart with Sherlock between them. “You know,” Dax said, “that gator is lucky I’m a peaceful kind of guy. He interrupted a pretty serious moment back there.”
She turned her head to see him watching her with that heated glint in his eyes. “I know what you mean. I know a place that serves gator bites if you’d like to exact some revenge.”
His laughter rang out as she started the golf cart, making her want to join in. Her family trials might be upon her like the plague of locusts on Egypt back in the day, but even after running into a gator, there was nothing about being with Dax that remotely resembled a trial.
SIX
