One Day in Apple Grove(17)
By the time she caught up to him, he had started to chew on the edge of the braided rug in front of the fireplace. “Oh no!” She lunged for the dog and was stepping onto the edge of the rug just as he set his teeth into the thick braid and tugged.
Caitlin had nothing to grab on to as her feet went out from underneath her and she landed on her back. Stunned, she lay there for a moment before she realized the odd noise came from her as her lungs desperately tried to drag in air. She’d knocked the wind out of herself when she’d hit the floor. She struggled to calm her racing heart and draw in that first painful breath.
She pushed herself up on one elbow as the small black juggernaut ran toward her from across the room, landing in the middle of her chest. As he licked her face from forehead to chin, she couldn’t decide if she should yell at him for trying to eat the rug or for knocking her off her feet.
Deciding he wouldn’t really understand why she was yelling at him, she began to stroke him from the top of his head to the tip of his tail. He lay down on top of her, putting his nose beneath her left ear and sighed a huge doggy sigh of contentment. As he started to snore, she was lost. At the tender age of twenty-six, Caitlin Cathleen Mulcahy had fallen in love—really in love—for the first time in her life, with a little black fuzzy puppy.
She couldn’t bring herself to move the little guy. He must have had a tough day, either getting lost or being dumped. So she continued the soothing movement, beginning at the top of his head and stroking her hand along his spine. The weight of the dog, combined with the heat he gave off, relaxed her until she let her eyes drift closed. Contentment like she’d never experienced before filled her. With a hand to his back, she gave in to exhaustion.
***
Jack fought the panic that had assailed him, arriving home to a semidark house and no one in sight. Following the trail of shredded paper towels and newspaper, he found Caitlin and Jamie asleep in the middle of the living room. The rug was all the way over by the entrance to the hallway, but that wasn’t what had him kneeling down beside them. It was the soft sound of the puppy and Cait snoring.
Who knew that the middle Mulcahy sister would make such an inelegant sound when she slept? The realization that he couldn’t tell anyone about this hit him like a ton of bricks. People would start to think that he and Cait hooked up and had a thing going on. Looking down at the way she had the dog curled protectively against her, he had no choice but to acknowledge the need that speared through him.
He reached out and brushed the hair out of her eyes, as was becoming a habit whenever he was around Caitlin. She shifted and moaned softly, drawing his attention to her full bottom lip and the curve of her mouth.
He was fighting the urge to press his lips to hers when Jamie woke up. His yip and accompanying wiggling woke Caitlin.
“Hey,” she said, shifting the dog off of her so she could roll onto her side. “You’re back. How’s Honey B.?”
He grinned. “She’ll be fine come fall.”
Cait looked as if she had absolutely no idea what he was talking about. “What’s wrong with her?”
Jack couldn’t keep from smiling at her naivety. “Oh, she’s not ill.”
Cait sat up and rubbed at the back of her head. “That hurts.”
The medic in Jack switched gears. “What hurts? What happened?” he said, reaching for her, gently letting his fingers probe the area while he watched her face for an indication of pain. Her sharply indrawn breath sounded as he found a knot at the base of her skull. “Easy, that’s quite a bump. How did you fall?” She didn’t answer quickly enough to suit him, so he asked another question, “Did you trip on the rug?”
She nodded and winced. “I was trying to get Jamie here to quit chewing on the rug…he had other ideas.”
“Ah.” Jack pushed to his feet and held out his hand to Caitlin. “Let’s just take a quick look at your eyes in the kitchen. The light’s better there.”
“Probably because you need to get with the program and install fluorescent lights in here. It’ll help reduce—”
“My carbon footprint,” he finished for her. “Yes, I know. Give me a break and a little time. I just got here.” He liked the feel of the calluses on her hand as he tugged gently to get her to follow along behind him. “Are you dizzy?”
“Nope.” She let herself be led until they were in the middle of the mess Jamie’d made of the kitchen. “I’m really sorry about all this. I was trying to clean up the pee and then I thought maybe he’d have to do more doggy business and I—”