Noah opened the front door, and I made my way over to the van. He read the name on the side. “Waggin’ Wheels. Clever.”
“Thanks.” I got out my keys to unlock the van.
He apparently had no concept of personal boundaries, as he stood close enough to me that if I moved even a fraction of an inch, my back would be pressed against his front. Flustered, I dropped my keys not once, but twice.
Shaking my head, I finally pushed the unlock and then the door open buttons to open the van. The lights popped on as I climbed in.
“Wow,” he said. “This wasn’t what I was expecting.”
“It’s nice, isn’t it?” The inside was a pristine white with different stainless steel stations for each part of the grooming process, along with white overhead cabinets to hold all of my supplies. It almost looked like the inside of a spaceship. “Come in,” I told him. “I call it my Hair Force One.”
His expression didn’t alter.
“Get it?” I said, just in case he didn’t realize it was a joke.
“Oh, I got it. It just wasn’t, you know, funny.” I realized that he was teasing me in that sardonic tone of his, and it both annoyed and thrilled me.
Although the van had a high ceiling, Noah still had to duck when he got in and stand with his head slightly tilted. Magnus was sniffing everything in sight, and I shut the door behind us.
And realized just how tiny the space was with the three of us in it. I felt pressed to fill the silence with words. Any words. “Part of the benefit of using a mobile service like mine is that Magnus will have a chance to check this all out and get comfortable before we do anything. I’ll also play with him for a little while and give him a belly rub and a treat, so that he’s comfortable with me, too. There’re no other dogs here, no scents or sounds that will stress him out. Hopefully it’ll be an enjoyable experience for him.”
He nodded and reached for one of the knobs on the cabinet closest to him. “Sounds good. Did you always want to be a dog groomer?”
“Like, since I was a little kid? No. My mom wanted me to be an accountant, and that’s what I was studying in college, and then Shelby, the friend I mentioned earlier? You met her the other night. Her fiancé’s mother is the one who ran the seat-filler thing for the awards show.” I was veering into babbling territory and got myself back on track. “Anyway, a few years ago, Shelby got sick with acute lymphocytic leukemia, and it changed everything for me. One day I was looking at her lying in a hospital bed and it just hit me—what was I doing? I didn’t want to be an accountant. Life was too short. I wanted to do something I loved.”
“That makes sense,” he said.
Magnus finished his exploration, and I sat down on the floor next to him and gave him a treat. I started scratching behind his ears, which he seemed to enjoy.
Noah was watching me, as if expecting me to go on, so I did. “Anyway, I tried a bunch of different things for a couple of years. And I realized that I didn’t want to work in an office. I wanted to be my own boss, making my own schedule. My mom owns a housecleaning business and I was temporarily working for her, and she had this client who had bought this van for his third wife who wanted to start her own business, but it turned out she didn’t like animals. And I’d always loved dogs. So I offered to buy the van and he sold it to me at a discounted rate. I pay him monthly installments.”
“Was your mom disappointed?”
“She was furious,” I said. “I think in part because she had given up on her dream to be an actress to take care of me and so she wanted me to have a sensible, reliable job, too. I think she finally realized that was more her issue, and she backed off.” I let out a little laugh. “Wow. Sorry to drop my whole life story on you like that.”
“No, I like it. I was the one who asked, remember?” I tried not to read too much into his words. I also tried to ignore how disconcerting it was to have him towering over me as I attempted to bond with Magnus. He asked, “Do you have a dog?”
I shook my head. “I don’t. My mom was allergic and I currently don’t because my landlord doesn’t allow it. But someday I will. Someday I’m going to have my own ranch with a barn and tons of land so that I can bring in as many rescue animals as possible and take care of them. For now I get my daily fix from other people’s pets. Don’t I, Magnus?” I was scratching his belly, and his tongue lolled out of his mouth.
“I wasn’t allowed to have any pets growing up, either, and now I wonder how anyone can be happy without a dog of their own. I had no idea how much you could love one until I got Magnus. I have a hard time imagining loving anyone more than I do him.”
“I bet your girlfriend loves hearing that,” I said.
“I’m not dating anyone.”
But what about Barbie Mummy? I wanted to know, but decided it was none of my business. Maybe we had different definitions for the word dating. Keeping it professional, remember? I reminded myself. “I should probably get started.”
“Yes,” he said, handing me the leash. “I’m sure you have other things to do. I didn’t mean to pull you away from any plans you might have had this evening. Is someone . . . expecting you?”
I led Magnus over to the table I used for brushing. He was a heavy beastie, easily 150 pounds, if not more. I did manage to get him up with the offer of another treat. “Expecting me? Other than Shelby? No.”
“So . . . you’re not seeing anyone? No boyfriend?”
“Uh, no,” I said with a laugh that was tinged with a bit of frenzy. “No, definitely not.” Never had, never would.
Wait. Why was he asking me that?
He immediately shot down any notion that he meant something more by it by adding, “Good. I felt bad about calling you over here last-minute, and I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t infringing on your time. I’m going to grab a shower if you’re okay here.”
Maybe he’d felt obligated to ask me about my dating situation because I’d kind of asked him first. I went for some humor to relieve the tension I was feeling. “So what you’re saying is that you’re about to get groomed, too . . . Nope, I hear it out loud and I take it back. Too lame of a joke. I’ll just see you in a little bit.”
That hint of a smile was there, and I wondered what it would take to get that dimple of his to reappear. Not that I was going to try, but I did wonder.
He opened and then closed the van door, and I let out a sigh of relief. It was like my entire body tensed up around him, and I was glad to be able to calm down and focus on the job I’d come here to do. “We’ll get you clean and shiny and soft, won’t we, Magnus?”
Magnus barked in response, and I concentrated on making him beautiful. Muscle memory made it easy to go through the motions quickly. That Magnus was so cooperative helped, too. Which left me time to think. Like, would Noah come back out here to the van? Or would he expect me to come to the front door? It wasn’t something I’d ever considered before with other clients, but it suddenly seemed important.
Shelby sent me a text.
I took a picture of myself and Magnus’s tail. Noah had always come across like a private person in his interviews, and I got the feeling he wouldn’t want me to be taking pictures of his dog.