Page 9 of Just Another Meet Cute

“Nina, are you ready?”

“Yeah, pretty much. Thanks for dropping me—” I stopped short at the front door and let out an involuntary gasp.

All I could do was blink at Linh and the huge brown dog next to her on the front step.

A dog that was so fluffy that it resembled a giant teddy bear more than an actual dog. “What’s that?”

She stooped down to scratch between its ears. The dog cocked its head to the side and nuzzled against her arm. “Nina, I want you to meet Chrissy. Chrissy, this is Nina.”

I still didn’t move. “Uh, hi. So, why—why exactly are you introducing me to Chrissy?”

“Well, you need to get to know each other before you go on your walk. Don’t worry. I borrowed her from my neighbor for the entire day so you can take your time.”

With a cough, I automatically took a few steps back. My fingers reached behind me to grasp the doorknob. “Excuse me? Who is taking what for a walk?”

Linh let out a heavy sigh. “Come on! We know that Ryan is a dog person because of the key chain he had. So, you can bring Chrissy along when you meet him at the park. Bond over your mutual love for canines. He’ll fall in love with both her and you.

Boom. You’re dating by dinner time.” She jumped to her feet and shoved the navy leash at me, or at least tried to. “It’s the perfect plan.”

“There’s only one tiny problem that you left out.

” I held both hands up when she tried to hand me the leash again.

“I’m allergic to dogs, and I’m pretty sure one whiff of that particular furball will make my face swell up in five seconds flat.

And I doubt Ryan has any interest in dating a blowfish. ”

“Oh.” She frowned. “I didn’t know that.”

“It was a recent revelation.” Thanks to Dad , I quietly said to myself.

In one of his dozen ploys to win me over six months ago, he brought home an adorable corgi named Melanie.

I’ll admit, it actually started to work.

Dad and I took her on walks and had a few conversations that weren’t totally awkward.

That was until we realized that my burning eyes and itchy face weren’t because of the pollen outside or my new contacts. It was little Melanie.

The next day, she went straight to Mom’s coworker, Heather, and our conversations disappeared right along with her.

Linh’s disappointed face was so long that I stopped trying to get away for a second. “Well, maybe I could take some Benadryl or something. That might help.”

“Won’t it make you sleepy though?” Before I could answer, she snapped her fingers together. “Maybe some coffee will cancel out the effects of the medicine. Come on. We can pick some up from Starbucks on the way to the park.”

“I’m not sure that’s how it works, but we could try.” Even though the thought of drinking coffee again made my stomach turn, I made one last ditch effort to get out of the plan. “Wait, do we even have any allergy medicine? Maybe you should take Chrissy—”

“Don’t worry, we should have some Benadryl in the kitchen. Along with a box of Salonpas and a dozen tiny bottles of d ? u xanh. You know, the green Eagle Brand oil that B á loved.”

With that decided, Linh tugged the dog down the porch steps, or at least tried to.

It was pretty difficult, since Chrissy was gigantic—her head was practically at Linh’s waist—and she clearly didn’t feel like moving yet.

“By the way, Chrissy called shotgun so you’ll have to sit in the back.

Don’t worry, I cleared out the back seat for you already. ”

“Gee, thanks. Are you going to roll down the window for me, too?”

She winked. “Only if you’re good.”

This time I didn’t even try to suppress my groan as I trekked back into the house to search through the medicine cabinet. As I rummaged through the stacks of various bottles, one thought kept looping over and over through my mind.

Ryan better be worth all this trouble.

Out of all the dogs in the world, Linh had to get me the happiest, fluffiest dog that everyone wanted to pet. On the one day I did not have time to be friendly.

It took nearly fifteen minutes for me to drag Chrissy across the park to meet Ryan.

Not only did she stop to sniff every freaking flower along the way, but also people kept fawning and stopping to play with her.

Kids, teens, adults. It didn’t matter. Everyone loved this dog.

Plus, they kept asking me questions about her breed and her age.

And they wouldn’t take “I don’t know” for an answer.

At least the Benadryl seemed to be working. Twenty minutes in the car with her and I hadn’t gotten itchy or puffed up yet. Thankfully, Linh wasn’t joking about cracking a window for me, so the fresh air helped.

Finally, after saying goodbye to what felt like the hundredth person that afternoon, I spotted Ryan by the hot dog stand next to the fountain.

“Come on, Chrissy. Time to make him fall in love with us.” I tugged on her leash until we were both practically running. Skidding to a stop about ten feet behind Ryan, I walked the rest of the way and tried not to look too eager.

Chrissy, on the other hand, didn’t care about playing hard to get. I barely said hi before she nuzzled his leg and leaped up until her paws were all over his chest. To my horror, she left a couple of big ol’ brown paw prints on his clean blue polo shirt.

“Oh my God! I’m so sorry!” I tugged on her leash. “Down, girl. Come on, down!”

Thankfully, Ryan just laughed, which only encouraged her. Woofing excitedly, she stretched up and licked his face a few more times before finally jumping down.

After I was sure that she wasn’t going to pounce on him again, I rushed to his side. “I’m so, so sorry. Here, let me …”

My hands swept up and down the front of his shirt to get the dirt off. Even though I felt terrible, I couldn’t help noticing how firm his chest was. I pressed down a little bit with my fingertips. Yep, definitely all muscle through the thin shirt. Those gym sessions must be REALLY worth it. Damn …

The hot dog guy coughed, and I realized that it looked like I was standing there stroking Ryan’s chest like some kind of perv. I swear, even Chrissy was giving me The Look now. Like she hadn’t been doing the same thing a minute ago.

And yet … I was still feeling him up.

My cheeks exploded with heat, and I yanked my hands back. “So, uh, what do you want to do?”

“We could walk around the park for a bit. There’s a dog park not too far from here.” Chuckling, Ryan nodded at Chrissy. “It looks like she has some pent-up energy to work off.”

“She definitely does.”

“You’re a pretty girl.” He reached down and scratched behind her left ear. She cocked her head to the side for him to get better access. “Although I usually like to get to know someone’s name before I let them go to second base with me, but I think I’ll let her be an exception.”

I laughed. “Her name is Chrissy.”

“Chrissy.” Ryan nodded with satisfaction. “Now I feel better about being so easy.”

Shaking with laughter now, I fell into step beside him and we started down one of the walking paths.

It was a little narrow, like it was made for only one person.

Every once in a while, the back of our arms or our hands would brush against each other—just for a second or so. And then again. And again.

Whenever this happened in the movies, the guy would always end up catching the girl’s hand and holding it. In anticipation, I’d tense up every time Ryan brushed against me, but he still didn’t make a move.

Maybe he wasn’t a big movie person.

“So, it’s obvious that you like dogs. Do you have any?” I asked to fill the silence.

Shaking his head, Ryan gave me a wistful half smile. “Not right now. I had a dog, Chance, for five years, but he died two years ago. It still makes me sad to think about him sometimes.”

So much for bonding over our mutual love for dogs. I grimaced. “I’m sorry for bringing it up.”

“It’s okay. You didn’t know. The funny thing is, he wasn’t even mine at first. My mom brought him home for one of my siblings.”

“One of your sisters?”

He stopped short. “How did you know I have sisters?”

Crap. “Uh, you mentioned them to me. The other night when we were waiting for the police. Remember?” I crossed my fingers, praying that he didn’t.

“Oh, I guess that night is still a blur for me.” His hand rubbed against the back of his neck. “But no. Chance was for my brother.”

I tugged on the leash to get Chrissy to stop sniffing the flower. “I didn’t know you had a brother.”

“I didn’t mention him? That’s funny. We’re pretty close—”

Before he could tell me exactly how close they actually were, Chrissy let out a low growl and sprinted off toward the trees. The leash flew out of my hand as she chased down a squirrel in the distance.

Ryan and I exchanged alarmed looks and raced after her. “Stop, Chrissy!”

“Come here, girl!”

Completely ignoring us, the sweet-tempered fluff ball became a fierce wolf as she charged at the poor squirrel like it was her mortal enemy. They both ran in circles as we got close to them.

Panting slightly, Ryan lunged forward to grab her leash. And missed. “Does she do this often?”

I tried to block her off on the other side, but she easily ran around me. Man, she was super fast. I whirled around and attempted to slow her down. “No clue. This is the first time I’ve ever walked her.”

“Wait, what? Isn’t she yours?”

“Not really. She’s my cousin’s neighbor’s dog. I’m walking her as a favor.” Something I was definitely never going to do again, I noted to myself with a heavy sigh.

Finally, the squirrel sprinted up a nearby tree and out of danger. All Chrissy could do was stand at the bottom of the tree trunk and bark furiously up at her.

Still breathless, I reached her side and grabbed the leash off the ground. “Bad dog!”