“I’m tired enough to do exactly that.”
“So I won’t be getting any tonight?”
“Is that all you think about?”
“When you’re around?” He grinned. “Pretty much.”
“I guess we do have something in common,” she said.
“We have plenty in common,” he said, “and we have all weekend to figure out what.”
She was looking forward to spending time with him more than he could possibly realize. They talked on the phone a lot, but those conversations always quickly turned to sex and them spouting their attraction to each other. She was ready to get to know him on a deeper level. He never said much about himself, and she couldn’t help but wonder about him. She was naturally nosy.
He opened the truck door and Melanie climbed out her side, practically collapsing from weariness when her feet touched the ground.
“I hope you like to sleep in,” she said, stifling a yawn behind her hand.
“My second favorite thing to do.”
She had a suspicion as to what his first favorite thing was and that it also involved a bed. Sometimes.
She weaved her way toward the front porch, glad she was responsible for carrying only herself and her purse. She doubted she could have lifted her poorly packed suitcase. She appreciated Gabe being her baggage handler.
When she stepped on the porch, a security light blinded her and a deep, loud woof, accompanied by a second, less terrifying bark, boomed from the house. Heart thudding, she froze. Gabe nudged her in the back with his shoulder.
“I hope you aren’t afraid of dogs,” he said.
“Are they vicious?”
“Only if you touch me,” he said with a grin.
“Then I’m bound to be mauled to death.”
He set their luggage by the door and unlocked it. As soon as he turned the knob and pushed the door open, two giant blurs of fur—one blond, one black—knocked Gabe flat on his back and commenced to give his face a thorough cleaning. The two Labradors didn’t even notice Melanie standing to the side of the door giggling at their tail-wagging enthusiasm.
“Beau,” Gabe said in a tone that didn’t sound the least bit authoritative with all the laughing he was doing. “Heel, Beau. Sit.”
The larger of the two dogs—the yellow Lab—released one deep, loud bark that made Melanie jump and began to clean Gabe’s ears. The smaller of the pair—a sleek black Lab—was bouncing on Gabe’s chest and belly as if he were a trampoline.
“Lady,” he gasped. “Settle down.”
The dog whined loudly and wagged her tail. Only she didn’t wag just her tail—she wagged her entire body. And when she could no longer contain her glee at seeing her master, she began to jump up and down on him again.
Breathless, Gabe laughed. “I missed you too, Lady.”
“Do you need help?” Melanie asked, wondering if she dared to grab the dog’s collar. The animals didn’t know her, and she was rather fond of her fingers. They didn’t look like mean dogs, but most dogs weren’t mean to their owners. Strangers on the other hand…
Gabe struggled to rise to his knees on the large wooden porch. When he finally managed to get his legs under him, his face got another thorough licking by two wide pink tongues, and Melanie couldn’t help but laugh at the way he cringed, squeezing his eyes tight and clamping his lips together with comic exaggeration. He wrapped an arm around each dog and forced them to sit on either side of him. Beau licked his nose and sat panting. If dogs could smile, he was smiling. Lady was trembling with her efforts to contain her exuberance, but she managed to keep her haunches mostly on the ground. Her tail thunked loudly against the boards beneath her.
“Melanie,” Gabe said from his kneeling position, “I’d like to introduce you to my poorly behaved dogs. The big guy is Beau.” He stroked the head of the dog to his right.
Melanie extended her hand towards the yellow lab. He sniffed her fingers and gave her a courteous lick. Melanie petted the sleek fur of his ears. The dog was definitely smiling now.
“Aren’t you a sweet boy?” she said. The dog thunked his tail on the ground, seeming to agree with her assessment.
“And the bundle of energy is Lady,” Gabe said about the smaller, black lab.
Lady barked happily several times and undoubtedly would have started bounding off the porch planks again if Gabe hadn’t had her collar fisted firmly in one hand.
“She’s a beautiful dog,” Melanie said.
“With very bad manners,” Gabe said and laughed. “I’m afraid she’s not much of a lady.”
“She’s just happy to see you,” Melanie said. “Aren’t you, girl?” She bent closer to Lady and slapped her thighs.
This attention sent Lady into a fit of exuberant barking. Gabe released her collar and shoved her toward the steps. “Go run off some of that energy,” he said, and Lady raced off the porch to run circles around the heavily shadowed yard. “Do you need to run too?” he asked Beau.
Beau swiped at his nose with one paw and groaned. Gabe chuckled and rose to his feet.
“I guess I should have warned you that I have dogs,” he said to Melanie.
“They are a nice surprise.”
“I’m not sure nice is the right word.” He patted Beau’s head affectionately, and the dog looked up at him in adoration, his tongue lolling out to one side.
She wondered why Gabe had never brought up his dogs before. They obviously meant a lot to him, and he was obviously their god. In fact, he never talked much about his home life at all. Getting him to tell her anything about himself the night they’d met had been nearly impossible.
“Gabe, why don’t you ever talk about yourself?” she asked.
“What do you mean?”
“We talk every day, but I don’t feel like I know much about your past, your friends and family, your home.”
“No one wants to know all that boring stuff,” he said, hefting Melanie’s suitcase and his duffle bag from the porch.
“I do,” she said, following him into the house.
“You don’t talk about that stuff either,” he said.
“Well, that’s because my life is boring.”
“Not to me,” he said.
She paused just inside the threshold to gape at the interior of his home. It was an open plan. Very open. The two-story living space had Melanie craning her neck to view the exposed wooden beams high above. She could see all the way through the house to the expansive kitchen at the back. A loft above the kitchen looked cozy with its massive fireplace. The home’s furnishings were masculine and strong. Tables and shelving were all heavy, dark woods paired with black iron hardware. The fabrics were forest greens and navy blues, beige and browns and plaids. She didn’t see any dead animal heads hanging on the walls, but the place definitely had the feel of a hunting lodge.
“Do you hunt?” she asked.
“Do you?”
“Uh, no.”
“I’m more of a fisherman. I’ll take you out on the boat tomorrow. If I decide to get out of bed.”
He whistled for Lady, and the dog scampered into the house, her nails clicking against the dark hardwood floor. Beau flopped down on a thick rug near the door and Lady lay on top of him, much to Beau’s obvious annoyance. When no amount of squirming would move Lady from her resting place, the big, yellow dog huffed in acceptance and closed his large chocolate-brown eyes.
“Do you like to fish?” Gabe asked as he shifted both bags to one hand so he could close the front door and lock it.
“I’ve never been,” she admitted.
“You’re from Kansas and you’ve never been fishing?”
She shook her head.
“What in the world have you been doing all your life?”
“Riding tornados to Oz and following yellow brick roads,” she teased.