“I don’t care who you are,” I snap. I’m shaking a bit now, the adrenaline rush in my veins dissipating. God, I was so scared there for a few minutes.
Otis plants his butt in front of me and Lola, staring at us with sad but hopeful eyes. Shit.
Easton sighs. “I’m sorry. He caught me off guard and pulled the leash out of my hand.”
I purse my lips, looking at Otis, not Easton. “He does look apologetic.”
“He always looks like that. But I’m sure he is. He gets in trouble a lot.”
“Maybe you need to take him for some obedience training.”
“I would, if he was my dog.”
“He’s not yours?”
“It’s a long story.” He sits on the bench too and rubs the back of his neck. “I don’t know how I ended up with him and I can’t get hold of his owner so I’m kind of stuck with him.”
“Oh.”
“And I have to go out of town tomorrow.” He shakes his head. “He’ll destroy my apartment while I’m gone.”
“You can’t leave him alone while you go out of town!” I turn alarmed eyes on Easton.
“I know, I know,” he says hastily. “What am I gonna do, though?”
I don’t know. Not my problem. I slump back onto the bench and rub my hip where I landed on the ground.
“Are you okay?” he asks.
“I might have a bruise. But that’s okay.” I sigh. “It’ll just match my bruised spirit.”
His lips twitch and his eyebrow lifts into a slightly wicked arch. “Uh-oh. That doesn’t sound good.”
“I haven’t been having the best luck lately. You could say my life is like the love child of a train wreck and a dumpster fire.”
Easton chokes on a laugh.
I focus on Otis again. He’s gazing longingly at Lola. Clearly he just wants to be friends. I cautiously set Lola on the ground and watch as Otis sniffs around her.
“He is hard to resist,” Easton says, watching them too. “He seems to like women. What else is going wrong in your life?”
I’m not about to share all my woes with a douche stranger. “Nothing.”
He shrugs. “You’re too pretty to have a dumpster fire of a life.”
I roll my eyes, even though my heart quivers at the compliment. Because, yeah . . . he’s gorgeous. “This isn’t the time for flirting. Read the room, dude.”
He laughs, and it’s a fantastic laugh—low and deep and rumbly. “I’m not flirting. I’m just being extra friendly to someone who’s extra attractive.”
“Oh my God.”
Lola is now checking out Otis, sniffing his butt. Otis responds by checking hers out, and they do the canine version of shaking hands and introducing themselves.
“I admire how you jumped in to save your dog—er, your friend’s dog—when she was being attacked. That takes guts.”
I study him with narrowed eyes. Is he for real?
He gives off an air of bold confidence and a reckless charm, but his smile is genuine and his expression sincere. That annoys me even more.
I reach out and rub Otis’s head. I’m not mad at him. “He’s not vicious. And it wasn’t his fault. He’s a baby. He just needs to be controlled better.” I give Easton a pointed look.
“I get it.” Easton holds up a hand. “I’ve learned my lesson.”
“How old is he?”
“I don’t know.”
“What? You don’t know how old he is?”
“Like I said, I got stuck with him.” After a beat he adds, “Although I admit he’s fun.”
“Of course you are. Aren’t you? You just need to grow up and learn how to behave.” I lean forward and kiss Otis between his big brown eyes. “You’re a good boy.”
“I don’t suppose you’d want a job dog sitting?”
I snort and flash Easton a sideways glance.
“Really. I don’t want to just get rid of him to a shelter.”
I give him a look with my chin down. “You don’t even know me.”
“Babe. You’re gorgeous, smart, and gutsy. And you like dogs. You rescued a dog that’s not even yours. You have to be a decent person.”
Heat washes down through me at the compliments from this hunk of hotness, but I laugh. “Wow, you do know me.”
He smiles too, a sexy bad boy smile that heats me up and makes my belly flutter.
“Seriously, you don’t even know me.”
He nods at Lola. “Someone else trusts you with their dog.”
“True.”
“I’d pay well.”
This piques my interest. Little does he know, but I’m in debt up to my formerly well-groomed eyebrows. But still . . . “What if I took off with your dog and your money and you never saw me again?”
“I wouldn’t be much worse off,” he says dryly.
“Ha.” I play with Otis’s funny ears. “How much?”
“How much what? Pay?”
“Yes.”
“Hell, I don’t know. Would you come to my place and look after him? Or take him home with you?”
“Well, since you’re obviously extremely trusting and naïve, I’ll point out that letting a total stranger have access to your home is probably not wise.”
He rolls his eyes at the “trusting and naïve” comment.
“So I would look after him at my place.”
“Okay. Five hundred dollars?”
I gasp. “You’re kidding me.”
He lifts his hands.
“For one night?”
“Sure. Except I won’t be back until late Wednesday, like really late, so it would be three nights. Five hundred a night.”
Holy shit. That would be fifteen hundred dollars. Is this guy for real?
I study him through narrowed eyes. He’s holding my gaze and seems honest. “Cash.”
“Sure. I can drop him off tomorrow morning.”
This is all weird. The guy can’t keep his dog under control. Except it’s not even his dog. And he’s kind of a flirty, cocky ass.
But watching him with the dog . . . he’s gentle, if a little awkward. And he’s willing to pay big bucks to have the dog looked after.
I’m trying to see the downside to this. Looking after a pup isn’t that much work. It’s not like I have much else going on. If I get the money up front, the worst thing that would happen is Easton doesn’t come back for the dog and I’d have to deal with it. “Okay. Deal.”
He lifts his arms in the air. “Yes!”
I grin.
“It doesn’t put me in a good bargaining position,” he says. “But I was desperate.”
So am I. “Well, worry no more. I’ll take good care of Otis.”
“Give me your address.” He pulls out his phone.
I hesitate. Giving my address to a stranger doesn’t seem very smart. Would it be wiser for me to go to his place? I gnaw briefly on my bottom lip. “Maybe I should pick him up.”
“Okay.”
I remove my phone from the pocket in my leggings and he gives me his address. His place is only a few blocks away, on Riverside Boulevard. Given the address, I’m pretty sure his apartment is a lot nicer than mine. Maybe he really does have fifteen hundred bucks to spare.