it, slowing down a few steps before so she didn’t look like a lovesick fool over a second date.
The dogs had been chasing her, thinking it was a game and when she slowed down they bumped into her legs, sending her toward the wall to catch herself, her hair falling into her face. What a great way to make an impression.
She got to the door and opened it, Brian standing there looking yummier than the chocolate he’d brought her days before. She’d never reacted over a man like this in her life.
“Hello,” she said.
“Hi,” he said, moving into the foyer, lowering his head and putting his lips to hers. Oh man, what a welcome, and she found herself putting her arms around his neck and deepening the kiss.
That is until Luke started to bark and jump up on their legs.
“Looks like someone is jealous already,” Brian said. “Is he going to bite me if I pet him?”
“I think it might be smart if I introduced the two of you. I should have realized how protective he’d be, but I figured it was just for his sister.”
“Looks like it’s for his owner too. I guess I can’t blame him one bit.”
Brian hadn’t expected that exuberant of a welcome but was damn glad of it.
When Robin leaned back, her brown hair was half in her face, her eyelids were slightly closed and her mouth was parted, her breathing a little heavy. What he wanted to do was yank her in again, not bend down and meet the two new additions to her family.
No reason to rush though.
“And you must be Luke,” he said to the bigger of the two bundles of fur as he squatted down. The dog took a minute to sniff his hand while his little sister sat back. He put his other hand out for her to see what she’d do and she charged him.
Not that these dogs were big, maybe ten pounds tops, at least Luke was, but he hadn’t been expecting it any more than the way Robin returned his kiss and he found himself on his ass on the floor.
“Oh boy, I’m so sorry,” Robin said. “They aren’t the best behaved dogs at the moment.”
“It’s fine,” he said. “I didn’t expect that with Luke not moving. You said she was the shy one.”
“She is, but I guess she likes you. Must be we share that trait.”
He laughed and sat up, both dogs in his lap now while he gave them equal attention.
Once he felt they were fine with him being in the house, he stood up and took his jacket off, hung it up and followed Robin to the back of the house. “When is your furniture coming?”
She’d told him she’d gotten new living room furniture for the front room. There was a dining room table in the other room now.
“Living room furniture in two weeks. I special ordered the fabric. The table and two beds arrived on Monday. They were pretty fast since they had them in stock. Now I’ve got places for guests.”
“Do you get guests often?”
“No,” she said. “My brother, maybe. Normally he’d stay with my parents because he never wanted to stay with me and Alex. And my apartment only had one room in it. But here there is plenty of space.”
“How often does he visit?”
“One or two times a year, if that. Normally holidays. He said he was coming for Christmas this year, so he’ll skip Thanksgiving. He’ll probably stay a week or so. He doesn’t take much time off.”
“That’s nice,” he said. It’d give him time to prepare for the older brother introduction, but he had no plans on saying that to her. He knew how he was when Meena brought a man home so he was expecting something similar if they were as close as Robin had said.
“I hope you’re hungry. I made a lot of meatballs. I figured I’d send you home a couple of containers of it to put in the freezer too. That way it’s a quick dinner for you.”
Talk about sweet. “That’d be great.”
“Can I get you a drink? I picked up a few of the beers you told me about. Just help yourself.”
He walked to the fridge and opened it up, saw two different kinds of his favorite and grabbed one. “This was nice of you.”
“I said I was going to do it,” she said.
“I know, but I didn’t expect it already. I guess I’m finding I didn’t expect a lot of things so