Binding 13

34

Mauled by dogs and feelings

Sha

Feeling shocked, I sat in the back seat of Aoife's car and stared up at the Kavanagh house, debating my options.

Should I go inside?

Should I wait out here?

Should I curl up in a ball and pretend I wasn’t here?

Was his mother inside?

Was his father there?

I was mortified over what happened Friday, and while I had been okay when we were together at the pub and the cinema, I'd spent the last two nights lying awake and drowning in humiliation over throwing up in front of Joh

I was thrown off kilter by this boy, and being in his personal space was something I didn’t know how to handle.

I wasn’t sure I could handle my feelings for him.

My thought process was interrupted when two pairs of enormous yellow paws slapped against the window.

Startled, I swung my gaze to find two identical looking dogs with bright pink collars staring back at me, whining loudly, with their mouths open and tongues lolling to one side.

Without thinking twice about it, I slid Joey's seat forward and climbed out of the car.

The second my feet hit the gravel, I was assaulted with kisses and yodels as both dogs tried to climb my body.

"Hi, guys!" I reached down and rubbed them both.

My affection only seemed to rile them up because one of the dogs jumped at me, her paws slapping hard against my chest.

"Whoa."

Losing my balance, I collapsed on my arse with a loud ooof.

The minute I was grounded, they both dove for me, slobbering all over my face and neck.

Laughing, I tried to duck my face, but it was useless, because these dogs were persistent with their loving.

What I failed to notice in the car was that both dogs had clearly rolled in cow dung lately because not only were their coats matted with mud, but they reeked so bad.

After a fruitless battle to stand up, I ended up on the flat of my back on the rain-soaked gravel, as they sniffed and pawed at me and basically licked every inch of exposed skin.

"You're a friendly pair," I snickered, giving up on any attempt to escape. I could feel the damp seeping into my clothes, but I made no move to get up.

I couldn’t if I wanted to.

"Hi," I laughed, gri

She had her paws pressed firmly on my shoulders as she licked at my face.

"You're a lovely girl, aren’t you?" I cooed, as I ducked and dodged a tongue to the mouth.

It was pretty pointless considering the other one was standing by my head, fighting for attention.

"Careful," I warned the one by my head. "My face is tender."

"Bo

Instead, they seemed to up their efforts of loving me into a canine coma.

A few moments later, a pair of hands hooked under my armpits.

Startled by the sudden contact, my limbs locked tight of their own accord as I was lifted clean off the ground.

Joh

"No!" he ordered. Keeping an arm around me, he held out the other in warning. "Bo

Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a te

"Yeah, you see that, don’t you?" Joh

It landed somewhere out of sight and the two dogs bolted after it.

I took the opportunity of his momentary distraction to pull my hair tie out and drape my hair over my left shoulder, concealing the side of my face from his view.

"Sorry about them," Joh

I was so stu

"Your clothes," he explained, gesturing up and down.

I looked down at myself and bit back a groan.

Yep, he was right.

I was destroyed in a combination of mud, rain, clumps of hair, and dog slobber.

"Oh, ah, yep." Mortified, I attempted to wipe my hands on my navy tracksuit pants, but the drool stuck to my fingers. "Yes, I am," I offered, forcing a small laugh, when all I wanted to do was dive into the back of Aoife's car and vanish.

"Sorry about them," Joh

Shaking my head, I exhaled a heavy sigh and said, "No, it's okay. I didn’t mind. Bo

"Bo

"Are your parents at home?" I asked, feeling incredibly nervous at the thought of my brother being in close confines with either one of his parents.

Joey shot from the hip and was partial to saying whatever was on his mind.

It was quite possible that he would talk about the concussion incident.

"No, they're above in Dublin," Joh

My eyes widened. "You're home alone?"

He smirked. "I'm not four."

"I know that," I replied, blushing.

"My folks travel for work," he explained, taking mercy on me. "I'm usually alone."

For whatever reason, those words bothered me.

I'm usually alone.

That was a sorrowful statement.

Frowning, Joh

"What the fuck is that?" he demanded, voice deathly quiet, as his blue eyes blazed with fire.

"What?" I squeezed out, panic-stricken.

Tipping my chin up, he brushed my hair off my shoulder and released a low growl.

"That," he growled, trailing his thumb over my cheekbone. "And that," he added, skimming the curve of my eye.

The contact was so gentle that it caused me to jump from nerves rather than pain.

He dropped his hand from my face but remained exactly where he was standing, so close that I could see the vein ticking in his neck as he clenched and unclenched his jaw.

"Sha

"Oh, that?" Laughing nervously, I tucked my hair behind my ear.

I immediately regretted the action when I felt the snot-like drool squelch between my fingers and hair.

It wasn’t bad enough to look like a homeless person, I had to go and add drool-soaked hair to the equation.

"Yeah, that," Joh

"Nobody. I fell over my brother's Lego tower last night and almost poleaxed myself on the kitchen table," the line I had rehearsed to perfection for school tomorrow spilled from my mouth with the expert precision needed to sound believable.

I had been telling lies for so long about where the cuts and bruises on my body came from, that the lie poured effortlessly from my lips.

"You expect me to believe that?" Joh