1. Puppy Love Valentine-2
700 Words
The dog park was great. Completely fenced in so the dogs could run free, it had a stream running through the south end and a large grassy area for the dogs to run around together. This time of year, it was more snow than grass, but the dogs still loved it.
Julia nodded and smiled at the handful of other hardy souls that were already there playing with their dogs. She recognized most of them from her prior visits. It was usually the same old crowd—about sixty percent single older women and forty percent men who were married or in relationships and had been assigned puppy entertainment duty. Every once in a while an actual couple would show up, but Julia had yet to meet a single guy in the four months she'd been bringing Maisey there.
She sauntered along behind Maisey as the pup raced along the fence, chasing after a squirrel who'd been stupid enough to venture into the doggy domain. Well, maybe not so stupid. The little creature stopped and chittered at Maisey, its tail twitching as it watched her try to scale a tree with no success.
Julia shook her head. That squirrel was having way too much fun.
A little ball of black fur ran up to her.
"Well, hello there. How are you?" she asked, crouching down to pet the wiggling ball of excitement. The puppy stretched, trying to lick her face, but couldn't quite reach. That didn't stop it from continuing to try as it wiggled and cried in excitement.
Julia laughed. "Calm down, little one, it's okay." She scratched behind the puppy's ears, glancing around for its owner.
A man stumbled his way towards her, his tennis shoes slipping and sliding on the snow. He was attractive in a middle-aged man sort of way. Not stunning but still in shape, with wrinkles on his face from smiling not frowning, and a full head of light brown hair and blue eyes.
A man she could be interested in.
"I'm so sorry," he said as he finally reached her. "This is the first time I've taken him to a dog park and he hasn't yet learned his manners. Frodo, down."
"Frodo?" Julia raised an eyebrow in amusement.
The man shrugged. "My son's choice. Frodo was his Christmas present." He bent down and scratched the pup's ears. "Of course, you can see how that worked out."
She laughed. "Ah, yes. Never fails. Buy the pup for the kid, end up with all the responsibility for its care."
"Yep."
He stood back up and Julia found herself drawn to his kind smile. She shook it off. He had a son. Which meant a wife somewhere, too, most likely. "What kind is he?" she asked, falling back on her litany of standard dog park questions.
"A labradoodle."
Yes, the man definitely had a wife. Single straight men rarely chose designer dogs for themselves. She glanced over at Maisey who had settled into a staring contest with the squirrel.
"Well, he's absolutely adorable." Julia pet the little creature's belly as he rolled on his back in glee.
The man winced. "Yes, although prone to rolling in the mud as you can see."
"At least he doesn't try to climb trees at every chance," Julia said, nodding towards Maisey.
"A golden?"
"Yeah. Eight months old."
"She's adorable."
"Thanks. I wish she'd sleep in on weekends, but otherwise I can't complain."
He laughed. "I'm with you there. This one's still up a couple times a night."
"Oh, I remember those days. Pretty sure I cried once or twice from sheer exhaustion."
They exchanged a smile and then fell into an awkward silence. Frodo tried to climb Julia's legs and the man scooped him up. "Sorry. We're still working on manners."
"Oh no worries. It's hard, isn't it? My trainer said to turn your back on them when they jump up, but who wants to turn their back on a cute puppy, right?"
"Exactly."
They stared at each other for a long moment until Julia shrugged and looked away. "Well, I best get going or Maisey's going to freeze to the ground over there." She gave Frodo one last scratch behind the ears before walking away.
"See ya around." The man flashed her a picture perfect smile.
Julia sighed as she walked away. Why were all the good ones already taken?
- Writer
