Page 94 of Men or Paws

I laughed, feeling like a schoolgirl. “Yeah. A lot.”

Rocco grinned. “Good to hear.” He glanced at my lips again, this time more focused, his eyes darker than I’d seen them before.

This was it.

He leaned closer, licking his lips.

My heart began to pound.

Nothing was going to stop us now.

Except for maybe the knock on the window that made us both jump.

This was getting absurd.

For crying out loud, we had more kiss interruptions than a Hallmark movie.

I sighed and lowered my window, surprised at who I was seeing.

“I thought this had to be your car!” Douglas said, bending down to look inside at my co-pilot. “You finally took it out of the garage! Are you two all right?”

Rocco gave him an unenthusiastic wave of the hand, like he was just as disappointed as me to be interrupted. “Hi, Douglas. We’re fine, nothing to worry about.”

“Good to hear. I saw the skid marks on the road and got worried. What happened?”

“Rocco yelled because there was a rabbit in the road and I slammed on the brakes,” I said. “Although I never saw the rabbit.”

“I did,” Rocco said.

“So did I!” Douglas said. “I darn near ran over one just before I pulled over.”

I glanced over to Rocco to see his reaction.

He gave me a knowing smile. “Well, the good news is we’re fine, and so is the rabbit.”

“I would give you an interesting fact about the amount of poop a rabbit makes, but I’m pretty sure that little guy is completely empty after you nearly hit him,” Douglas said, laughing.

“Thanks for not sharing,” Rocco said, laughing with him. “We’re going to head to lunch. We’ll see you later.”

Douglas smiled. “Sounds good, my friends. See you for bowling night.”

“See you then,” Rocco said.

“Bye, Douglas,” I added, smiling.

Douglas was about to walk to his car, then stopped. “Hey, I just thought of something. Are you okay that bowling night is going to land on your birthday? We can change the day if you and Beth were thinking of doing something.”

Rocco hesitated, then shrugged. “I was going to keep my birthday low-key this year, so that works fine with me.”

“When’s your birthday?” I asked.

“In two days!” Douglas happily answered for Rocco. “I’m surprised you didn’t know that since you’re the apple of his eye.”

Rocco looked like he was going to correct Douglas, but then changed his mind. That didn’t mean I was going to sit still and let those words pass me by without saying something, especially if I could have a little fun at the same time.

“Yeah, Rocco,” I said, reaching over and playfully pushing him on the arm. “I need to be informed of these things, since I’m the apple of your eye.”

“More like a thorn in my side,” Rocco said, playfully pushing me back. “Don’t make me come over there.”