We slow down and he jumps at her legs, barking for us to keep running. "Oh my God, you are so cute." She stops and scrubs his wet, sandy hair. "What are you doing out here alone?" She checks his collar but there's no tag.
"Is he a stray?" I ask her.
"I don't know. What do we do?"
There's a few people on the beach we could ask. "Follow me."
We walk the dog over to a family on the beach. They say he's not theirs.
"I guess he's ours for now." I take off running with him again, this time holding his leash.
"Ours?" She follows behind us and catches up.
"He wants to run with us. Let's run." An energetic dog has decided to join us on our run. I'm okay with that so I go with it.
Back at the parking lot, we catch our breath and drink some water. The dog drinks right out of my hand. "Good boy."
That's all I had planned for today, but I'm not ready to say goodbye to Mila yet.
"Want some ice cream?"
Her eyes light up as she's wiping the sweat from her neck. "Sure. Probably not healthy after a workout, but who cares?"
"Exactly. No rules."
"Let's go to Gina's Gelato down the block." She points down the road toward a small shopping center.
"Gelato? What's that?"
"It's like Italian ice cream."
"What? You only eat Italian ice cream?"
Her brow scrunches. It came out a lot more accusatory than I intended, and I might have been projecting some of my fears onto ice cream.
She sounds a little offended when she answers, "No. I'll eat any ice cream, but there happens to be a gelato shop right there and it tastes mostly the same, a little better if you ask me. Creamier. But if you won't eat Italian ice cream, we can take the bikes out and find a real ice cream shop."
Oh yeah. She did not like my jab about Italian ice cream. "Any ice cream is fine. Let's go." She puts on her shades again and pulls the ball cap down over her eyes.
We walk with the dog over to the shop. It's a cute place. Not as pretentious as the rest of the Hamptons. People are lounging around on the lawn and there's lots of dogs outside. The dog we picked up trots happily beside me like he's part of our team. We tie him to a small table outside.
Inside, she orders a red velvet waffle cone with double dark chocolate ice cream. She smiles at me when I order the same thing. "You copying me?"
"No, I happen to love red velvet and double dark chocolate too. That's exactly what I would've ordered."
"Hmm." She blinks and smiles as she takes her cone from the guy who runs the shop. "Thank you."
We sit down with our new dog at the table and eat our ice cream. "You're right. Gelato is better than ice cream," I admit.
"See? I told you." She's grinning again. Proud of herself. I'm glad I made her smile so much today. She looks down at our new furry companion. "What do we do with him?"
"Take him to the shelter?"
"No. They have so many dogs. We can't do that to him."
"You take him." I purposefully drop a dollop of my ice cream into the grass and he licks it up happily.
She frowns as she watches him lick it up. "I've always wanted a dog. I would love to take him. My dad would never allow it."
Ahh. Her dad. The ruler of her world. She brought it up so this is my chance to pry a little. "You're an adult. You can have a dog if you want."
She shakes her head no. "Trust me. No dogs." She looks down at him longingly.
"I'll adopt him then." I didn't really think it through, but if she wants a dog and I have one, we can hang out together and he can run on the beach with us. This date keeps getting better and better.
"You'd do that?"
"Yep. I was a stray myself once."
She tilts her head and stares into my eyes. "That's very kind of you."
"It's nothing." Now Henry might freak out when I come home with a dog, but I don't mind adopting him. I like him.
"What will you name him?" she asks me.
Hmm. I hadn't thought of it. He's mostly white and really scruffy. We're at an ice cream shop. "Blizzard," I say.
"Blizzard?"
"Sure."
She pets his head. "Hi, Blizzard."
A piercing yowl of a child interrupts us. The dog looks and jumps so hard, he yanks the table over. We have to hold our cones up to keep them from getting whacked by the table.
A little girl in a flowery dress runs over and embraces the dog as he licks her face like it's an ice cream cone. Looks like he found his owner. A pang of disappointment rumbles in my chest. I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up.
"This your dog?" I untie him and hand the girl's mother the leash as she walks up.
"Yes. Thank you so much. Where did you find him?"
"He went for a run on the beach," Mila says with a smile.
The owner laughs. "He does that! He's so crazy. Well, thank you so much for bringing him back."
"No problem," I say. I'm happy the dog found his owner and for a brief second, I held a fragile possibility of a future with Mila that included us enjoying the love of a dog together.
"C'mon, Humphrey." The little girl walks away with the dog and the mom hugs her shoulders.
Mila's lips sputter, holding back her laughter. "Humphrey?"
I shake my head. "Poor dog. Coulda been a Blizzard. Now he's just a Humphrey."
"I'm glad he found his people." Her gaze drops down and her smile becomes stiff. She feels the same disappointment I feel for the lost chance at a future.
"Me too."
***
Back at the truck, the sun's setting over Callihan's Beach. I like being around her. I like watching her eyes take everything in and waiting for her reactions. I've managed to keep my hands off her today but I'm aching to feel her skin and kiss her again.
"Let's get dinner tonight."
She pauses and grimaces as she fishes in her pocket for her car keys. "I, uh… I have to get back to the house."
"Tell him you're having dinner with a friend." I step closer to her until her back leans against the side of her Jetta.
She bites her lip and removes her shades to look me in the eye. "I shouldn't push it. We're on a family vacation. We're supposed to spend quality time together." She rolls her eyes.
I wonder what quality time looks like at the Bianchi vacation home. I doubt they are playing board games around a coffee table. Ugh. The thought of coffee table reminds me of her stupid bruises and I want to punch a hole right through her car window. Forget staying away, she needs me in her space right now.
She gasps as I push in closer, lining us up, and pressing my weight on her. She feels hot and smells sweet mixed with sweat. Even her perspiration is pretty. I worked up a good stink, but she's not pushing me away. "Come back for a workout here tomorrow."
Her chest rises and falls with her sigh. "I'll be too sore to do this again."
She's making excuses. "Rest a day. Come back the day after tomorrow. I'll let you set the pace." I tuck a flyaway hair back behind her ear, but the wind whips it out again.