Chapter Twelve

MOLLY: Umm…where are the pictures you promised?

Julian looked at his phone in horror, then back at the dog in front of him, still happily rolling in the mud puddle as Bruiser marched around her, sniffing at her and licking her side. There was no reason to pull her out of the puddle now. For one, he’d already tried and she’d gone right back into it. For two, she was already a mess.

Cole walked toward him, leash in hand, presumably to gather Bruiser before he got in the same state as Sprinkles.

“Please tell me Molly lets her play in the mud,” Julian gritted out.

“I wish I could tell you yes, but honestly, on days like this, I’ve only ever seen her keep Sprinkles leashed.” Cole offered the information up with a sly grin.

“Now you tell me.” Why could he not have mentioned that from the get-go instead of watching Julian let her trudge along in the wet grass? At least before, he’d had a little bit of damp fur to contend with, to maybe make his phone smell like wet dog, but now things had reached nightmare levels. Julian held out his phone toward Cole, text visible on the screen. “I am so, incredibly, insanely screwed.”

Cole laughed. “You’re not. This is a quick fix. There’s a dog wash right up the street. Get on Washington, take a left onto Sixteenth, and then take Lincoln. You’ll run right into it on the left-hand side.”

“A dog wash?”

“Like a car wash, but for dogs. It’s self-service but has everything you’ll need. Brushes, sponges, dryer, nice deep tubs, shampoo. It’s affordable too.”

“A dog wash,” Julian clarified. This had to be some ridiculous joke. There couldn’t be that level of demand, could there? Or were there, much like Julian, gobs of dog owners accidentally letting their dogs roll in the mud and get absolutely coated in muck, desperately needing a solution before they even reached home? A dog wash beat cleaning out the shower again by a landslide.

“That’s what I just said.”

“You have got to be kidding me.”

“You swipe your card, you get twelve minutes in the booth, and—”

Julian burst out laughing. “I’m sorry. You’re making this sound absolutely obscene.”

Cole’s face turned bright red. “I…I mean, it’s…the…um…the stall!” he insisted. “You put the dog in the stall. You pay the money. You bathe and dry the dog in the allotted time and then you leave, the end.” He rushed out the words all at once, as if trying not to lose focus again.

Julian nodded, looking at Sprinkles. “With as mud-soaked as she is, I think it’s going to take me a few sets of twelve minutes to get her clean.” He walked over, picked her up in his hands, and held her at arm’s length. Still, when she shook her head, mud got all over his sleeves, bits of dirt dotting his face. “Fantastic. I don’t even know the first thing about how to deal with you, dog.”

Cole snorted, looking up at him. “You know, if you need help, all you have to do is ask.”

*

THE DOG WASH wasn’t exactly what Julian expected. He’d anticipated something… bigger. More like a car wash like Cole said. Something with multiple stalls, or heck, maybe something inside a larger building like a groomer or pet store. No. This was a tiny little building on the edge of a parking lot, no bigger than a small shed, with glass walls and a little place on the outside to swipe a card or insert cash.

“Here we are,” Cole said, window down as Julian pulled up and parked beside him. “Let me just make sure Bruiser’s secure and keep the AC going for him, and then I’ll help you out with her.”

“Thanks.” Julian looked at the seat of his car. After the dog wash, he’d likely need a car wash. An interior car wash. She’d gotten mud all over his backseat, dancing back and forth along it, rolling and rubbing her face on the seats, cleaning her paws. It was an absolute mess. He should have brought her kennel or something to transport her, but he didn’t think that was an option, and he’d never needed to contain her before.

He got out, then opened the back door to scoop her into his arms. He’d also need to do laundry. And she’d have to ride in the front seat to avoid getting dirty again. He moved her seat belt harness up front to avoid having to deal with it later. How was that thing going to keep her safe in an accident if it couldn’t stop her from destroying his seats?

“You have towels?”

“If I did, my backseat wouldn’t be an absolute disaster right now.”

Cole laughed and pulled some towels out of the trunk of his small sedan. “All right. You can borrow these.” He handed them over. They were worn and ratty, clearly the dog’s towels, secondhand or after Cole had worn them out or something. “Now, ready? We have to work pretty fast once we swipe. We’ve only got so much time to get her clean.”

“She’s tiny. Is it really going to take that long?”

“Oh, trust me. It’ll take that long.”

Julian couldn’t imagine how. Wasn’t it as easy as spraying her and shutting the water off? That was sort of what he’d done with the poop incident in the shower. Then again, that was a tiny mess on her little paws. This was a full-fledged mud bath, all over her entire coat. And she was a snow-white dog, not that you could tell right now.

Cole opened the door to the booth. “Pass her to me. You’ll swipe, and then you can step in with us.”

This seemed easy enough. He did what Cole asked, handing over Sprinkles. She writhed in Cole’s arms. If a dog could mock or giggle, he’d swear that was what she was doing. She looked completely pleased with herself. Cole set her down on the ground and hooked a finger in her collar to keep her in place.

Julian didn’t know how much time he had after he swiped to get in the booth. Did it start immediately? In a minute? He swiped, selected “Full-service dog wash”—it was the only option, which left him wondering why they offered any choices at all—and stepped into the booth. He closed the door. The space was a tight fit, with him hunching over just to get in place. In spite of their usual height difference, he was face-to-face with Cole in tight quarters. He was damn near breathing into Cole’s face. Good thing he’d brushed his teeth that morning, but he probably had some sort of tea breath.

An ominous countdown had started, a mechanical voice.

Ten. Nine.

“Okay, grab that sprayer behind you,” Cole instructed.

Eight. Seven.

Julian tried to turn, but the enclosure was so tiny. It could fit maybe one small person and a large dog, or one slightly larger person with a small dog, but it was definitely not designed for the two of them and Sprinkles. “What spray—”

Six. Five.

“I can’t, uh.” Julian shifted uncomfortably, then bumped his head on the top of the booth. “Ow! Shit!”

Four. Three.

“Here, just…sorry.”

Two. One.

Cole reached around him, brushing his side as he grabbed the sprayer. When he pulled the sprayer forward, it clicked on, drenching Julian’s side with cold water.

“Holy fu—”

“Sorry!” Cole yelped again. As the spray reached Julian’s stomach, it had warmed up a little bit, enough for Sprinkles’s comfort, at least. “Okay, hold her while I spray, and then kind of…just…rub her sides and everything. It’ll be a couple minutes of water, and then it’ll be some gentle soap inclusion.”

Julian tried to do what he said, but half of his body was dripping wet. As he bent down to wash her sides, he looked up to try to see what Cole was doing and found himself at eye-level with his crotch. Never mind. He’d focus on Sprinkles instead. The water was kind of working, but…not really. He was trying. “It’s not coming off!”

“The soap will help,” Cole promised, but his voice sounded hesitant. “And, uh…if not it’ll help until you get her home for a proper bath?”

“God. We’re going to need like, two rounds here, aren’t we?”

Cole chuckled and just kept spraying.

“Soap commencing now,” a robotic voice piped in, and Julian watched as the clear water turned to a sudsy mix. This helped too, but the soft purple-ish foam turned brown as soon as it hit Sprinkles’s usually white fluff and flowed down the drain in the bottom. Every few seconds she shook, and every single time she did, Julian’s entire torso and legs would get covered in soap and water thick with leftover mud. He wanted to ask if the towel Cole offered was to dry Sprinkles or himself, but he didn’t dare open his mouth out of fear he’d get a mouthful of foam and dirt.

“Okay, it’s going to be water soon and then we’ll really see how her fur is looking.”

Julian hoped for the best but feared the worst. If this wasn’t going to work, he didn’t know what he was going to tell Molly. What he’d show her when sending her a picture.

“Rinse cycle begins.”

“What is this, a washing machine?” Julian quipped, but sure enough, the foam slowed and eventually stopped as clear water flowed through, gentle this time, and Cole instructed him to separate her toes and work it through her tail to make sure every part of her was rinsed. “Everything?”

“If you don’t, she’ll get itchy.”

Julian did what he was told, but God, the process seemed so complicated. Far more complicated, he thought, than when he’d let her sit on the floor of the shower, then towel dried her at the end of the whole situation. Then again, this was a lot more mud. Could he have done this on his own? Probably not.

“Okay, there’s going to be a little bit of conditioning lotion right before the blow dry,” Cole said quickly. “It’ll really help make her feel better after the whole thing.”

“This really is full-service, huh?”

Cole kneeled next to Sprinkles and passed the sprayer to Julian. “Here. Hold this. I’ve got her.” Was he saying he didn’t trust Julian with this part? Maybe. But Julian didn’t trust himself with it either. So, he took the sprayer in his hand. Then, feeling shocked as Cole reached between his legs to grab a smaller hose, he listened as the mechanical voice started again.

“Grab hose two now. Conditioning lotion dispensing in five, four, three—”

“You’ve done this a lot?”

“Bruiser likes digging, and he doesn’t fit in my bathtub easily.” Cole held his hand out and took the lotion. He worked it into her skin, her fur, and into her ears and tail, then between her toes and onto her paw pads. “Okay. Hand me the blow dryer. It’s, uh…right above my head.”

Julian leaned forward, grabbed it, and lowered it down to Cole. “Really? The dog gets a blowout? I just used a towel the last time.”

“That’ll mat her fur. Trust me, this is going to look really nice.” Cole looked up at him, offering a genuine smile without any judgment. Julian had worried the comment about fur matting would really give him away as being useless, bad at being around dogs, and…he was. But this time, Cole didn’t seem to react negatively to it. Instead, he seemed to accept it, and offer the help Julian needed. “Here, watch.”

“Three-minute blow dry in three, two—” the mechanical voice started, and a second later, it was so noisy in the tiny booth that Julian couldn’t have heard Cole talking if he tried. He didn’t know how Sprinkles could stand the sound. And maybe she couldn’t. Her mouth was open to bark, but the tiny yaps were drowned out by the sound of the blow dryer.

Cole worked his way around her, taking on every little bit of her fur, holding her tail out and blow drying her ears for good measure. When the dryer shut off, he lifted Sprinkles up to Julian. “Here. Good as new.”

“Thank you,” Julian said, opening the door to the little booth and holding Sprinkles out, far from his soaking wet body. The last thing he wanted to do was get a neatly dried dog wet. “I wouldn’t have known anything about what to do.”

Cole took one look at Julian and laughed. “Maybe…maybe we should have used the three-minute blow dry on you instead.”

“Hold her for a second?” Julian passed Sprinkles back to Cole, who was miraculously somehow mostly dry. How, Julian had no idea. Other than, well, Julian hadn’t absolutely sprayed the daylights out of Cole the way Cole had sprayed him. Accidentally, maybe, but…honestly, who knew with Cole? The guy was basically a helpful stranger, and they hadn’t gotten off on the best foot at first. He peeled his drenched shirt off and wrung it out onto the ground. If he didn’t know any better, he’d think Cole’s eyes were on him, tracing down his body, but he pushed that thought away. Just because he thought Cole was potentially attractive—and that the dog wash and his help only made him more attractive—didn’t mean Cole felt the same. He wasn’t about to assume Cole was actually staring. “Thanks,” Julian said, taking her back out of Cole’s arms.

“Anytime,” Cole said softly. “Seriously. Anytime.”