AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Hello to you, too,” I grin. “How can you be late?”
“I was going to walk Bella and then call in our order.”
I shrug. “So let’s walk her.”
He glances at my feet. “Can you walk in those?”
I look down as well. “I haven’t fallen down yet,” I say cautiously. I’m wearing dark jeans and a cream sleeveless blouse with a tropical green and orange scarf, and my strappy gold sandals sport a two-inch heel.
He laughs. “Sorry. I’m used to women who buy ‘cute shoes’ they can’t walk in.”
I scoff, recalling Whitney’s too-tight-to-walk-in dresses and sky-high stilettos. “That’s because you’re dating the wrong women. Cute or not, I’m not wasting money on non-functional footwear.”
He grins. “Let me get Bella’s leash.”
I drop to my knees as the huge red dog bounds up the stairs toward me. She nearly bowls me over in her excitement before covering me in slobbery kisses. Tom reappears from just inside the house and playfully grabs her muzzle. “Bella, sit.” She stops playing and does as commanded. “Lay down,” he says, and again, she immediately obeys. He clips her leash onto her collar.
“Such a good girl,” I croon, and she licks my hand.
“If she’d quit knocking people down, I’d be a lot happier.”
Maya and Skyler stay behind while Tom and I walk Bella. She trots happily along, ears flopping as she excitedly investigates every scent.
“You’ve fostered a lot of animals. What made you keep Bella and Eddie?”
He shakes his head. “Bella was small, maybe four months old, abandoned in an old warehouse. Somebody had chained her to a leaky pipe and left her there.”
Like me. Despite the warm evening, a shiver runs down my spine.
“She was just skin and bones when a construction crew found her. She’d ground her teeth down to the gum line chewing on rocks and bricks because she was so hungry. When I fostered her, I fell in love. I couldn’t give her up. They had to remove all of her teeth, so she's like the snow monster in that kids’ Christmas movie – scary-looking, but harmless.”
I frown. “She’s not scary. She’s beautiful.” Bella turns back, thumping her tail and pushing her face into my palms as though she knows what I’m saying. I rub her jowls. “And sweet.”
“She is beautiful,” he agrees. “True fighters always are.”
“That’s why you named her Bella?”
“Technically, her name is Bellissimo Guerriero. It’s Italian for ‘Beautiful Warrior’. But yeah, we call her Bella.” He shrugs. “I know. You can say it. I’m sappy.”
I grin. “What about Eddie?” Eddie is their friendly black and white cat who’s surprisingly athletic despite his disability. He can run faster and corner better with three legs than most cats can with four.
“He lost his leg in a trap, and no one wanted a three-legged cat. He looked miserable at the animal rescue center, so I brought him home to give him some normalcy. He fit in perfectly with us and bonded with Bella immediately.”
I chuckle. “So your dog is ‘Beautiful Warrior’, but you named your cat Eddie Edwards?”
“Eddie is short for Edward. He’s Edward Edwards.”
A small giggle escapes me. “Bella and Edward? You named your pets Bella and Edward?” He glances over, not grasping the significance. “Who named him Edward?”
“Maya. Why?”
I stop walking, laughing out loud.
He stops, too. “Are you going to let me in on this joke?”
“Seriously? Bella and Edward?”
I see his mental wheels struggling to turn, but he’s still not catching on. “I know Maya made you watch the movies. I had to endure your endless complaints.”
