Nothing but Love (2 page)
Authors: Holly Jacobs
A ramp would give the dog a bit of independence.
Damn.
He reached over and took his hated prosthetic leg and strapped it in place.
It looked as if he was going to build a ramp.
Angela got home at the end of her shift, anxious to check on her dog, Sera.
Her dog.
She had a dog.
She still wasn’t quite sure how it happened.
One minute, Nana Vancy was introducing her to the dog, the next Angela was filling out papers, listening to instructions and bringing Sera home.
Nothing but love
, Nana Vancy had said. Words have power, she’d said. Well, here she was, the owner of a special needs dog.
Angela was terrified that she was going to do something to hurt Sera. She’d been nervous putting her wheels on this morning.
But as she worked the straps, Sera turned around and daintily licked her hand, as if to say,
you’re doing fine
. Well, at least one of them thought so.
There was a strange sound coming from her backyard and it distracted her from her worry about the dog. It sounded like pounding, then something else.
She hurried back and some guy looked up, a drill in his hand.
“Pardon me, who are you?” she asked.
“I’m Justin. Justin Stein. I talked to Stu at the station. He gave me your address.”
Stu Stewartson was the WLVH programming manager. But she couldn’t believe Stu would give out her address to a stranger. “He just told you where I live? My home address?”
“I did some work on Stu’s house last year. He knows me. I heard you on the radio, and know your dog needs a ramp. I thought I’d see if I could help.”
Angela’s annoyance evaporated and was replaced by gratitude. The move had tapped out her savings. She didn’t have money to pay someone to build the ramp and had been afraid that it was beyond her nonexistent abilities to do it on her own.
“Oh, Justin was it? That was so nice of you. Why would you want to help my dog?”
The man stood up awkwardly, then thumped his lower left leg. “I know what it’s like to have to adapt to a loss.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“I didn’t ask for your pity,” he snapped. Then he looked awkward, as if he was embarrassed that he’d snapped. “And it’s Christmas. Nothing but Christmas everywhere I look,” he muttered. More loudly, he said, “I just thought I’d help out with a ramp for the dog.”
She wasn’t sure if his discomfort had to do with her comment, or with his situation. She looked at the half assembled ramp. “Let me change, and then I’ll give you a hand. And before you get short with me, that’s me offering as the home and dog owner, not me offering because you’ve got a messed up leg.”
“It’s not messed up, it’s gone.”
She didn’t know what to say to that, so she simply asked, “Would you like something to drink? I’ve got water. Or tea.”
Two hours later, Justin was finishing up the ramp. “The lumber’s pressure treated, so it should last a long time for you,” he said.
Angela pushed her brown hair back from her face. “That’s good. Now, I need to settle up on the materials and—”
“No, you don’t. A friend just built a deck, and he gave me some of the scraps and a few left over pieces. I had the galvanized screws in my garage.”
She protested, “But—”
“Really, it’s nothing.”
“It’s definitely something.” She paused and added, “Would you like to meet Sera?”
“I would.” Angela had let the dog out the front when she came home, so he’d yet to meet her.
“Let’s have a test run.” She disappeared into the house, and while she was gone, Justin got awkwardly to his feet and sat on a bench.
Angela opened the door and a tiny black dog stuck her face out the door and sniffed the air, as if she wasn’t quite sure what she was going to find.
She eyed the ramp as if assessing whether or not she could navigate it. He didn’t blame her. He’d become more cautious, too since his accident. His physical therapist said that eventually, he’d get used to the prosthetic leg and forget he had it on.
Justin had looked up a video on YouTube of a guy running in some race…a guy with two artificial legs. He’d felt guilty then for his anger over his situation, but it didn’t erase his anger, it simply added a layer of guilt to it.
“Hi, Sera,” he called. “You can do it.”
The little dog’s tail started to wag. Not just wagged. His grandmother used to refer to him as a
whirling dervish
. He’d never quite known what a whirling dervish looked like, but Sera’s tail was exactly how he imagined it would be.
She didn’t simply try out the ramp. She sprinted down it, her tail looking like a propeller as she ran up to him and gave him pick-me-up, I-love-you eyes. He leaned down and picked her, wheels and all.
She snuggled up against his chest, her tail still going as he stroked the wiry hair on her head.
Angela pulled up a second chair and sat down next to him. “She’s a charmer, isn’t she?”
“She acted like we’d been best friends for years.”
“They say dogs are great judges of character,” Angela said.
“I’m surly and cantankerous according to my physical therapist.”
She nodded at his leg. “So its fairly recent?”
“The surly and cantankerous, or the leg?”
“Both,” she said, laughing.
Justin realized he’d just made a joke…a joke about his missing leg. That was a first. The first time he’d joked at all since the hospital. It was a lame joke, but it was a joke. “Yes, both are recent.”
“Well, you seem to be doing very well. Well, enough to take Sera for a walk? She’s been alone for a while and seems to really enjoy a couple blocks in the evening.”
She offered the invitation, commenting matter-of-factly about his leg doing well. He wanted to say no to the walk and get away from this optimistic woman and her whirling-dervish-tail dog. But for some reason he couldn’t quite explain, he found himself saying, “If you’re not going too far I’d like that.”
“You just let me and Sera know when you’ve had enough.”
Angela led Sera on her leash. When he stumbled over a crack, she thrust out her hand and took his, steadying him. And after he’d recovered, she continued to hold his hand. As if it were second nature. As if they’d walked this block, holding hands, a hundred times before.
“Here’s my favorite house.” She said, stopping in front of a red brick home. “It looks like a castle. Sera and I enjoy looking at it and imagining what it would have been like growing up in a house like that. Look at the Christmas tree in the window. We have a small tree that we’re putting up tonight, but nothing like that.”
“Where did you grow up?”
“In Pittsburgh. You?”
“Here in Erie.”
Sera squatted and did her business despite the wheels. “I wasn’t sure how she managed,” Justin said.
“The woman at the shelter told me that when she first arrived, they had to help her by squeezing her abdomen, but now, she’s able to go on her own.”
“Does she wear the wheels all the time?”
“No. When she’s going out, or wants to play, but most of the time, she’s content without them. I got her a doggie bed that sits on the end of the couch. As long as I’m next to her, she seems happy.”
Justin had no problem understanding Sera’s happiness at simply being next to Angela. “Angel,” he whispered more to himself than to her.
“Angela,” she assured him. “Just a regular woman in a new town.”
“I’m not quite regular,” he said, gesturing to his leg.
“No, you’re not. A man who’d hears about someone in need on the radio and goes out of his way to help? That’s not quite regular at all.”
“I’m bitter and cantankerous—”
“You’re hurt. But even so, you’re generous and kind.”
“Angel—”
“Listen, why don’t we both agree that we’re each marvelous and then head back to my house. I’ll order a pizza and you can help me and Sera decorate the Christmas tree.”
Justin looked at the woman next to him and suddenly knew. He remembered what she’d said about the old woman who’d matched her up with Sera…words have power. “I don’t think that’s going to be enough?”
“Pardon?”
“One Christmas tree and a pizza? Nothing but Christmas?” He shook his head. “No, that’s not nearly enough. What are you doing New Year’s Eve?”
Angela smiled and instead of answering, she asked, “I don’t know, what are we doing?”
From the author:
I
wrote this story to give readers a brief introduction to my two Avalon series,
The WLVH Radio
series, and
The Everything But
… series. I wrote the books for Avalon, a small mainstream publisher that distributed beautiful hardback books to libraries. In June 2012, Montlake Romance bought Avalon, along with its backlist. Montlake has rereleased all the books in both series in both paperback and eBook versions.
As a writer I’m thrilled to see the two series get a chance to reach a whole new group of readers.
And as a dog owner, I’m happy to tell a story about a special little dog who found her forever home with a WLVH disc jockey…and the man she falls for.
I have written romantic comedy since I started writing. Someone once called one of my comedies “frothy” and I was so complimented. That’s exactly what these books are meant to be, “frothy” treats. Stories to give you a break from the real world for a little bit. I’m still writing more emotional, heart-tugging stories for Harlequin’s SuperRomance. I enjoy writing them as well. But my first love is frothy romantic comedies, or sweet humorous romances. I hope you’ll check out the WLVH Radio and the Everything But… books.
And I so hope you enjoyed this first Nothing But… short story! Merry Christmas!
Holly
WVLH Series and Everything But…series short stories:
Nothing But Love
Nothing But Heart
Nothing But Luck
WLVH Radio—
where love is more than just a song
—series:
Pickup Lines
Lovehandles
Night Calls
Laugh Lines
Everything But—
where every Hungarian knows that words have power
—series
:
Everything But a Groom
(named one of Booklist’s Top 10 Romances of ’08)
Everything But a Bride
Everything But a Wedding
Everything But a Christmas Eve
Everything But a Mother
Everything But a Dog
