Riley moaned at the sound of her alarm, so chipper and darn optimistic in the morning, and fumbled on the side table to hit Snooze. All she managed to do was knock her phone onto the floor, where the alarm continued to buzz its cheerful crickets-on-the-hillside greeting. She was about to swing her feet over, plant them on the floor, and do her grown-up adulting thing, when an arm snaked around her waist and pulled her into the heat of Caleb’s body.
Oh yeah. That. Suddenly, the cricket alarm seemed further away. She wiggled into her favorite spooning position and let out a deep sigh. “That’s nice. You’re nice.”
“I’m trying.” His hand swept up her stomach and cupped her breast. Caleb hadn’t spent every night of the past few weeks here, but enough that she suspected what was coming next and knew she had to hush the alarm or it would seriously spoil her chance to enjoy being the sole focus of Caleb’s attention.
“Give me a sec.” She tried jackknifing her body and hanging her shoulders over the bed. Caleb didn’t seem to mind the extra pressure of her butt to his groin. In fact, he pushed back, helping her forward those crucial few inches so she could reach her phone. “Got it.”
Thankfully, the crickets hushed. She flipped to face him, cupping his face in her hands, holding them nose to nose.
And nose. LouLou hopped onto the bed and pushed her snout under Riley’s wrists, bumping for attention.
“’Morning, LouLou.” Caleb patted the dog. “You need to go out?”
“I’ll do it.” Riley liked Caleb staying over, liked it a lot, but she wasn’t ready to share dog-care duties yet. She wouldn’t want LouLou to come to rely on him and then one day, poof, he disappears and LouLou never knows what happened or why. Yeah, it was LouLou Riley worried about feeling abandoned. She didn’t have abandonment issues of her own, not at all. And they certainly weren’t aimed at her ex, or dad or mom. No, they weren’t. She dropped her feet to the floor, and the dog dashed out of the room.
LouLou seemed to know it was a special day. Before Riley even had the chance to hit Start on the Keurig, the poodle had her nose pressed to the front door, her tail thumping wildly against her back. At the sound of the coffee maker initiating its duties, LouLou whined and pawed at the weather stripping at the bottom of the door.
“LouLou, no!” Riley hated replacing the weather stripping, but unfortunately, life with this particular poodle meant it was a biannual chore. “Do you need to go out?”
Riley walked toward the back door to let LouLou out onto the patio, but the poodle wasn’t having it. She amped up her whining, pawing more frantically at the door.
The doorbell rang.
Riley checked the clock over the stove. Who on Earth would come by this early in the morning? Maybe Sydney was swinging by with a dog park opening outfit, some kind of athleisure perhaps, with a matching outfit for LouLou. Riley chuckled at the mental image and opened the door without looking through the peephole.
“Sorry for barging in this early.” It was Sydney, garment bag in one hand, drink carrier in the other. “I’m really excited about today! I wanted to get an early start and figured you’d want to be the first to see the changes anyway. I can’t wait for the temporary fences to come down so we can finally see everything. Did I mention I’m excited? Because I am!”
“Me, too, especially if one of those is for me.” Riley swept the door open.
“Of course!” Sydney handed over a cup. “Mocha latte with coconut milk. That’s how you know we’re friends. I know your Starbucks order.”
Riley would’ve laughed, but she was too busy sucking down caffeine. “Where’s Chewy?”
“Right here!” Sydney spun around, showing Chewy dangling from a baby-type backpack, his itty-bitty legs sticking out in all directions. She knelt down to let him out, and soon he and LouLou were out on the patio having a good sniff. He even used her two-by-two box of grass to pee in, which meant she had to pee in it, too. Then he peed on top of that pee, and that kind of one-upmanship could go on all day, so Riley led Sydney to the couch.
“No one’s coming for setup until eight,” Riley reminded Sydney, although she couldn’t be mad at someone who brought her lattes in the morning. “What exactly was your plan?”
“Pure nosiness. But then I figured you’d be curious, too. We can grab a sneak peek, then come back later with the supplies.”
“Sounds great.” Caleb entered the living room, tucking a dark polo shirt into the khakis he’d worn yesterday. “I’m excited to see it myself.”
Sydney’s eyes widened. She took a gulp of her coffee and then another gulp. And another. Finally, she said, “Sorry I didn’t bring you anything. I didn’t know—”
Caleb waved away her concern. “Don’t worry about it. I can fend for myself.” He headed for the Keurig, which was almost done with the cup Riley’d started anyway. “Do you think we’ll get many people today?”
“Are you kidding?” Sydney sat one foot under her, the other dangling to the floor. “It’s going to be chaos.”
“The good kind, I hope.” Caleb smiled over his Crazy Poodle Lady mug. Riley’s brain melted just a little, watching him sip out of the corny coffee cup Grams had brought back for her from one of her field trips to the outlet malls with some of the other women in the building. He really was a kind man. A good man. She hoped everyone would see that today.
“Dogs!” Riley called, and the poodle and Chihuahua came running in. “Let’s do this, shall we?”
* * *
The morning was the very best type of South Florida fall day—not cool, but not sweltering and humid, either. The light breeze off the ocean made Riley wish she’d worn a T-shirt instead of her tank top. Florida problems, she reminded herself. She could always change later. The festivities weren’t supposed to start for another few hours.
Yet even though the scheduled start time was hours away and the volunteers weren’t scheduled to arrive for another hour, the dog park was plenty busy. Lady was on her back in the middle of the newly laid sod—St. Augustine grass—big paws wiggling in the air as she got in a good back scratch. Smaller dogs raced from tree to tree in a sniffing extravaganza. Princess Pugsley sat at the top of the A-frame ramp, regally surveying the goings-on.
Caleb unhitched the first gate. “After you.”
Riley and Sydney unclipped the dogs and hung the leashes on the multihook leash rack in the holding area. After making sure the first door was secured, Riley opened the second gate. LouLou and Chewy dashed toward Lady, tails wagging a thousand miles per minute.
“So fancy with a gate!” Sydney wiped her palms on her yoga pants. “Imagine not squeezing through the crack in the fence anymore. And no more escapees now that there’s the holding area. Antechamber? What should we call it?”
“I don’t know, but it’s sure going to give dog owners peace of mind. Everything looks fantastic!” Riley’d seen the sections, even paged through never-ending lists of equipment with Caleb, choosing the right accessories for their dog park, but nothing had prepared her for the reality of it.
The grass was a healthy green and stretched in an uninterrupted plain. A plastic-coated chain-link fence enclosed the perimeter, and another length of fence bisected the park into small- and large-dog sections. A gate at the north end allowed the two sections to be joined, and now the gates stood open, dogs racing from side to side with no regard for size. On the small-dog side, the agility equipment was sized for small to medium-size dogs. Jumps, weave poles, rings. Riley couldn’t wait to see what LouLou thought of them. On the large-dog side, the ramps, tunnels, and a seesaw were big enough to challenge even Lady.
Right now, no one was using the agility equipment. The dogs sniffed and marked each piece, of course, but the owners gathered near the grouping of newly planted trees—placed to provide shade to both sides of the park once they grew to their full size—and enjoying the comfort of the dog-bone-shaped benches.
Riley checked her watch. “The volunteers and vendors should be here soon. Let’s think about where everything should go.”
Sydney pulled a tablet out of her see-through backpack. “On it, boss. I already have a few options sketched out.”
After a few clicks, she tabbed through her designs until Riley said, “That one. You’ve been incredibly helpful, Sydney. What would I have done without you?”
“It was my pleasure.” Sydney looped her arm through Riley’s and steered her toward the other owners. “See, you’ll get the hang of this friendship thing eventually. For now, let’s make sure all these folks are coming back later to spend their money. Our Howling Halloween party must be a howling success!”
* * *
Fur Haven Dog Park. Caleb loved the intricate iron scrollwork that spelled out the park’s name over the front gate. He’d overseen the construction of twenty-story high-rises, five-star resorts in foreign countries, even a luxury spa or two, but he couldn’t be prouder of this dog park if he’d single-handedly built it himself. Oh wait, he had. Not actually, of course.
They’d eventually caved to necessity and hired a landscaper to deal with the sod and new plantings. A handyman Lance recommended assembled and installed the equipment and benches. Other than the actual work, though, this was Caleb’s first project completed all on his own. Okay, not on his own, either, but his new partner was definitely not the usual Donovan conglomerate. He searched for her in the crowd.
Riley waved at him from across the length of the park, a hot-pink shirt with a rhinestone lipstick kiss helping her stand out from the other owners. No one brightened a day like Riley, and her organizational skills had kept everything running smoothly, no setbacks on her tightly managed schedule. With everything in place, today could truly be a celebration of what they’d accomplished.
“Your father would be proud of you. How I wish he could be here with us.”
Caleb flinched at the sound of his mom’s voice. He spun to find her directly behind him. “What’re you doing here?”
“That’s a fine way to greet your mother.” She leaned in to let him kiss both her cheeks. “You didn’t think Mr. Pom-Pom would enjoy your dog park?”
The Pomeranian in question rode in a custom Hermès bag, his fur freshly groomed, head peeking out of the gap between the handles. When he saw Caleb, he shivered with delight and pushed a paw out of the bag.
“Hey there, little guy.” Caleb shook Mr. Pom-Pom’s paw and got his knuckle licked in response. “How did you even find out about today?”
“Was it a secret?” His mom pushed her Louis Vuitton sunglasses on top of her head, her carefully kept ice-blond hair a perfectly straight curtain to her shoulders.
“No.” Caleb rocked on his feet. Where was Riley? Didn’t she need him for something? Anything? But no one came to his rescue. “I’m just surprised to see you.”
“If you must know, you suspicious thing, your father told me.” She lifted Mr. Pom-Pom out of the bag and held him under her arm. He squirmed a few seconds before settling with his head on her arm. “Though I can’t imagine it would’ve been all that hard for you to pick up a phone and let me know yourself.”
“Robert?” That made even less sense. “I didn’t tell him anything. I wouldn’t tell him anything.”
“Your grandfather visited. When was it, maybe last week? Filled him in on the details.” She ran French-manicured fingers through Mr. Pom-Pom’s fur. “Of course I had to come and see it for myself.”
“To see if I’d embarrassed the family, no doubt.” He’d rocked so much on his heels that he’d dug an indentation into the new sod.
His mom narrowed her eyes at him. “How could you say that? When did I ever miss an awards ceremony? A graduation? I’ve always been here for you, Caleb. You know that.”
“Except when you weren’t.” Now was not the time to get into it with her. He knew that. Too many people around, and she’d clearly come to be nice. Years of feeling like second choice bubbled to the surface, though. “If you were in town, you came to everything. You were gone a lot, though.”
“You know why I had to travel with your father.” Her mouth straightened into a tight line.
He’d upset her, but apparently he wasn’t done yet because he found himself saying, “Yes, I’m well aware how all our lives have to revolve around him. Here’s a change, though. Not anymore. This is my thing.”
“You’re still angry.” His mom soothed fingers over Mr. Pom-Pom’s head. “You have to forgive him someday.”
Riley was walking toward him, LouLou trotting at her heels even though she wasn’t on a leash. He let out a long breath. “Not today.”
His mom looked him up and down. “No, apparently not. Eventually, though. I’ll call you about setting up a visit.”
Before he could tell her not to waste her time, Riley arrived, sliding in next to him and leaning in to his side. His arm came around her, and the jaw he hadn’t realized was quite so tight relaxed.
“Mom, meet Riley. Riley, this is my mother, Christine.”
“Nice to meet you. How wonderful of you to come today!” Riley kissed the air near his mother’s cheek in greeting.
His mom took in the rhinestones, the stringy jean shorts, the pink-and-yellow polka-dot flip-flops. He feared what would come out of her mouth, but all she said was, “And who’s this adorable fur baby?” and pointed to LouLou with her one free hand.
“This is my LouLou.” Riley squatted to pet her dog. Mr. Pom-Pom wiggled so much that eventually his mom let him down. LouLou and the Pomeranian took a few moments to suss each other out, then LouLou took off at a run, and Mr. Pom-Pom followed, yipping in delight.
“Mr. Pom-Pom, come!” Caleb’s mom called, but the dog ignored her, already halfway across the park with his new friend.
“He’s perfectly safe,” Riley assured her, eyes on the dogs. “Caleb’s created a really great space here for the neighborhood, don’t you think?”
Although he’d been thinking something similar earlier, he didn’t like that she didn’t mention her part in the process. “Riley and I planned it together. The whole community came together, actually. It was quite the collaboration.”
“It’s nice.” His mom shrugged the Hermès bag up higher on her shoulder. “I mean it, Caleb. You’ve made something of your own here. We’re proud of you.”
He sought out Riley’s hand and squeezed it, hard, because he loved his mom, he really did, even with her revisionist history and blind loyalty to his father. He’d always wondered why she didn’t leave, like Robert’s other wives had, but today, for the first time, he was glad she’d stayed. What would his life have been like without her?
For all the times he’d felt left out of his parents’ tight twosome, there were also the memories of her beaming face at his graduations, her urging him to blow out candles on his birthday cakes, the soft touch of her hand checking his forehead for a fever. She’d done the best she could. He acknowledged that now. He didn’t know what it would change, but something did feel lighter and brighter within him.
“Give her a tour.” Riley tugged him closer to his mom. “I need to check on a few details with the vendors, but make sure she stops by the bakery booth. There are these cookies that are apparently good for both dogs and humans!” She dashed away with a jaunty wave, and he immediately felt the loss of her presence. Alone with his mother in the first time since forever, he decided the best thing to do was follow Riley’s suggestions.
“Shall we?” He crooked an arm.
She placed her hand on his elbow. “We shall.”
Caleb marveled at how the dog park really did bring people together. Or maybe, he reflected after showing his mother the dog bakery and splitting a pumpkin-spice cookie with her, just maybe, the magic was Riley.