It Started with a Dog, page 32
“Eeew,” they said simultaneously.
Harper didn’t know what her plans were, really. She’d agreed to cat-sit for her parents in Houston for a couple of weeks, but the invitation did not extend beyond it because of Mr. Snuggles. They didn’t think he would take kindly to a crusty old bulldog. Harper was going to use the occasion to think about what was next.
She and Jonah had continued on as if nothing had happened, falling in love more every day, pretending Jonah wasn’t leaving in two weeks for six months. As if Harper had a job. They talked about everything but never the thing that sat between them—it wasn’t a question of “What now?” as much as it was “What next?”
Harper had kept her thoughts to herself because it seemed ridiculous and presumptuous of her to ask Jonah to commit to any sort of relationship right now. He was embarking on something so new and different that he might never make his way back to Austin. So she just kept on as if everything was fine, drawing on years of disappointments suffered in living with her parents. She knew how to go through the motions and keep her disappointment hidden from view. She knew how to wrap it up in the end and store it away.
Olivia was talking about moving to Austin now, because she and Kendal were a real thing. Harper meant what she’d said—Kendal was good for Olivia. And she was crazy about him.
Olivia didn’t want to hear that Harper wasn’t going to ask Jonah for a commitment. But she said that if Harper didn’t, she needed to get right back out there. Her theory was that the last thing she needed to do was sit and pine. “You have to find someone new. That’s how you get over the last guy.”
But Harper didn’t want to get over Jonah. Or replace him with someone new. She could never replace him. She was destined to pine for him forever and was okay with that.
The entire Rogers family was gathered when Harper arrived at the Lucky Star with Bob in his tuxedo. Everyone complimented him, and Bob barked or growled and refused to make eye contact. Lulu had on a new bright pink collar with a bow, and was hopping around, her tail whirling like a propeller. Jonah’s parents were in the store but had opted to stay behind with the book club and Robert and Lloyd so that the rest of them could go to the King Mutt crowning. “Someone better bring home a crown!” Jonah’s mother insisted.
Last night, Harper had dinner with Jonah’s family, including Jonah’s cousins, Allen and Andy, and Allen’s wife, Naomi, and their new baby girl. Burt had unveiled his new lasagna, which came with an explanation for why it was so good for you. He’d really taken to improving the menu. “He’s been attending some classes at Central Market,” Jonah confided. “That’s just how crazy things have gotten around here.”
Harper sampled the lasagna. Burt stood nervously, waiting for everyone’s opinion. “Ohmigod,” Harper said through a mouthful. “This is wonderful, Burt! You know what you should do? Get Amy’s brother to make a sign that says something like, Burt’s lasagna, voted best in town by the people we have tied up in the basement. You know, something fun.”
And Burt, who never so much as cracked a smile, actually laughed.
“Excuse me?” Jonah’s mother put down her fork and looked at Burt. “Did I just hear you laugh?”
“I can laugh if something’s funny,” Burt said. “Not that you’d know that.”
“Whoa!” Jonah exclaimed with glee. “And he’s got a sense of humor!”
After Burt had gone out, Harper nudged Jonah. “Seriously, this is so good, Jonah. You’re going to have more business than you know what to do with.”
“Yeah,” Jonah said, and looked wistfully at his plate.
They put on their sun hats and gathered the dogs, then walked up Congress Avenue to the site of the King Mutt crowning. They had three strollers, one for baby Lena, one for Lulu, and one for Bob, who had a tendency to lie down and refuse to go farther when he was tired.
They were a little late to the festivities—the parade of King Mutt’s court had already begun. Bob had raised slightly more money than Lulu, which Amy insisted was because Lulu had entered a week later. Nevertheless, neither of them had earned enough votes to make the court. The voting public were assholes, Amy and Harper decided. Who could pass up a three-legged dachshund and a mean old bulldog?
In third place was the black Lab from The Tavern, who Harper had proclaimed was a dime a dozen. Apparently, there was a reason for that—Labs were very popular. A Great Dane was the first runner-up, loping down the street as if he’d just woken from a nap and was still a little sleep drunk.
And then came the winner. Of course it was Duke, because he was still an adorable puppy. But he didn’t like the look of the walk down the street. He dug his heels in and wouldn’t budge. He lay on his side and refused to get up. Someone had the idea of loaning a kid’s wagon to the handlers, and two people lifted the Saint Bernard puppy into the wagon. Duke sat up and took notice then and allowed them to wheel him the length of the street to the stage.
The handlers brought Duke up on the stage and set him on the pedestal. He immediately jumped down and ran to the Great Dane, trying to get the bigger dog’s attention. The Great Dane looked up, gave Duke a once-over, and then went back to chewing the bone someone had given him.
“Amateurs,” Harper said. “This is not how you stage a King Mutt coronation.”
A woman with a bright yellow ACC T-shirt and two long braids walked to the mic. “Thank you, Austin! We have raised over eighty-five thousand dollars this season for the ACC!”
The crowd began to cheer.
“Please put your hands together and join us in welcoming this year’s King Mutt! Duke!” She whirled around as one of the handlers tried to get Duke to face the crowd. But Duke was busy trying to dig through the synthetic turf on the stage. The crowd began to chant Duke’s name. Someone tried to put a crown on his head. Duke thought it was a chew toy.
Amy was still furious about the results. “I can’t even watch this. Lulu and I are going to get some beer. Anyone want some?”
“I’ll help,” Andy said, and went off with Amy to get the beer.
Allen and Naomi were showing their baby the dogs that surrounded them. And Belinda and Marty had stopped at a vendor’s booth to look at some vintage prints of Austin.
“Hey,” Jonah said. He took Harper’s hand. “Can we go somewhere and talk?”
Harper’s heart seized. She’d been expecting the official breakup for days now. She’d be a fool not to know it was coming—Jonah was leaving Saturday. She was heading for Houston on Sunday. Her apartment was already neatly packed, and the new dog bed she’d bought Bob carefully tucked into a basket . . . because Bob refused to use it. “Sure!”
She watched as Jonah handed off Truck to Allen, who had to pull the dog back from licking the baby’s face.
With his hand on the small of her back, Jonah indicated an empty bench under a stand of trees.
They sat on the bench and Bob crawled under it. “So . . . is this what I think it is?” Harper asked. She tried to smile. “Has the end come, Mr. Rogers? Are you breaking up with me now?”
He frowned. “That’s not exactly what I wanted to say.”
So he was going to ease into it. Okay. This is it. Harper swallowed down the sudden lump in her throat. There was not enough preparation in the world to make her ready for it. She had tried, and couldn’t manage to imagine life without Jonah. She looked down at Bob, and for once, he was looking up at her, as if he, too, was concerned that this was the end of the road.
Jonah didn’t speak right away. He seemed to be gathering his thoughts.
“Say it,” Harper said. “I can’t stand the sitting and waiting for the inevitable.”
“I know. I’m trying to get my thoughts together—it’s not easy.”
“Oh God,” she groaned.
Jonah laughed and brought her hand to his lips. “Will you relax? I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about us.”
“Here we go,” she muttered beneath her breath.
“I don’t want this to end,” he said quietly.
Did he think she did? “So you’re inviting me to go to Spain with you.” She rolled her eyes.
“Maybe to visit?”
“Right.”
“What would you think about running the Lucky Star while I’m gone?”
That was definitely not what Harper was expecting. This was not a breakup—this was a job offer? “Excuse me?”
“I know this comes as a surprise, but we were talking about it, my family, I mean, and we need someone like you to run the place. Dad is too sick, and no one else understands or wants to understand the business end quite like he does. Or I do. And you . . . you know everything, Harper. You’re perfect for the job.”
“Wait . . . are you trying to hire me? Like make me your employee?” She almost felt insulted. It seemed impossible to believe that Jonah, the Most Perfect Guy Ever, would ruin that illusion by thinking it was okay to offer his soon-to-be-ex a job.
“No!” he said, as if the very idea were horrifying.
“You just offered me a job!”
“What? No! Wait, wait, wait. Let me start over. Harper, I know this sounds spur of the moment, but it’s not, I swear it’s not. You are the only thing I have felt one hundred percent right about in . . . in ever. I love you so much, and you love me, and the sex between us is so freaking hot, and—”
“And you think for all that I should jump at a chance for a job?”
“Not a job!” he said, as if she was willfully misunderstanding. “As a partner. My partner.”
She was still confused. “So you’re inviting me to buy in, or—”
“Good God, this could not possibly go any worse.” He suddenly stood up from the bench, then went down on one knee. Bob thought he’d come to play and crawled out, rising up on his back legs to put his face near Jonah’s. “What I am trying to do,” Jonah said, dodging Bob’s tongue, “and very badly, is ask you to marry me.”
A woman walking by gasped.
“What? What?” Harper shouted.
“I know! I blew it,” Jonah said. “And I don’t have a ring. But I am getting one,” he hastened to assure her.
Harper stared at him. Bob lost interest and crawled back under the bench. Jonah’s smile was a little anxious. “You haven’t answered.”
“This is like the worst proposal ever.”
“It really is,” he agreed.
“If I were doing it, I would plan something super romantic. With candles and flowers and something really delicious to eat.”
“Good feedback,” he said. “I had a different plan, but I was looking at you while we were watching Duke, and I didn’t think I could wait one more minute. Not one more.”
“Oh,” she said wistfully. Her heart began to melt in her chest. He couldn’t wait.
“That is so sweet,” a woman somewhere said. “You have to say yes.”
“No, she doesn’t have to,” Jonah said, glancing over his shoulder. “It’s totally up to—”
The woman had walked on.
“Yeah, okay,” Jonah said, and turned back to Harper. “It’s totally up to you. I want to marry you because I love you. Not because I want you to run the Lucky Star. That came out all wrong. Because I want a life with you, and the Lucky Star is all about family, and anyway, it got twisted, but I want you to be my family, and I . . . God, Harper, I can’t do this without you. I don’t want to do anything without you. And it’s selfish, but I want you to wait for me, I want you to be here, I want to plan a life with you. So will you marry me?”
He looked so tortured, the poor thing.
“Dude.”
Harper hadn’t noticed Amy, Allen and Andy, Naomi and the baby, and Jonah’s aunt and uncle until that moment.
“This is not what we talked about,” Andy said.
“Oh my God,” Amy said. “This is, like, the worst place to do it, Jonah! What were you thinking?”
“Yes, thank you all, I am getting lots of great feedback here! And there is something digging into my knee, so I’m probably crippled, too, but Harper hasn’t answered.”
Harper laughed. “Oh my God, of course I will marry you, Jonah!”
He looked as if he didn’t believe her. “Really? Even when it’s this bad?”
“Especially when it’s this bad. You obviously need me.”
“Oh my God, she said yes!” Jonah shouted, and leapt to his feet. Truck lunged at his master with excitement, and Bob began to bark and Lulu whimpered, and people around them began to applaud when Jonah grabbed Harper up and kissed her hard . . . until they got tangled in the leashes and fell onto the bench.
Epilogue
Seven months later
The flight home from Madrid was the worst. The couple seated behind Jonah spent the full ten hours fighting in rounds of sobbing and bitter sparring. His seat’s power outlet didn’t work, so he spent most of the flight playing his own special game of Befriend, Bury, Eat in case they crashed and he was forced to make some hard decisions.
Mostly, he just counted the minutes until he was home again.
He missed it. He missed them all. He mostly missed Harper. He hadn’t thought he could miss her more, but then she’d come to visit him in Madrid, and when she left to go home, he discovered he could miss her even more.
Harper was not picking him up. “We’re a little shorthanded,” she said. “Can you take a cab or a Lyft?”
He was a little disappointed that she wouldn’t be there to pick him up, wouldn’t be the first face he saw when he came down the elevator. But he understood.
He walked outside to torrential rain. He saw the Lyft sign on the dash of a van and, after shoving his things in back, hopped into the back seat.
The driver said, “South Congress, right? We’ll be there in twenty minutes.”
“Seems optimistic,” Jonah said, looking out the window.
“Oh no. If my app says twenty minutes, I will be there in twenty minutes. I have a five-star rating.”
Jonah’s head came up. “Amal?”
The driver looked at him in the rearview mirror. “Yes! Have I driven you before? I work the airport a lot. People are very happy to be in Austin.”
Unbelievable. He couldn’t wait to tell Harper.
Amal kept a running commentary of how happy visitors were to arrive in Austin all the way to the Lucky Star. Jonah was surprised to see the building had been painted. It was now white, the windows and doors trimmed in green. Where had the money for that come from? No one had told him they were going to do this. Harper had expressly told him he was not to worry about anything, that she and his dad had it under control. If he asked, she reported receipts and staff news, but mostly, he kept his head in his work and trusted that she and Dad were doing whatever needed to be done.
Including painting, apparently. It looked good.
He got out, pulled out his bags, and walked to the front doors. They’d been replaced, too. They were iron now. Where were they getting this money?
He pulled one open and stepped inside—and came to a dead stop. The stage was still where he and Marty had built it—more of a riser, really—and a band was setting up. But that wasn’t what surprised him. What surprised him was that the dining room was packed. Standing room only. And not one familiar face. No Mom or Dad, no Harper, no Amy. He could see the top of Burt’s bandanna’d head through the kitchen window, which gave him some measure of confidence he wasn’t dreaming. There seemed to be another bandanna’d head running around back there, too.
“Hello! Welcome to Saturday Nights at the Star,” a young woman said.
She looked familiar, but he couldn’t place her. He happened to glance down and noticed the cupcake tattoo on her chest. “Hey, ACC, right?”
“Yes! I’m Cinder. Did you . . . ?”
“I walked a couple of dogs there. I’m Jonah, Harper Thompson’s fiancé.”
“Oh, of course! Harper talks about you all the time. She’s not here . . . did you have a reservation for tonight?”
“A reservation?” He nearly choked on the word.
“Only on Saturdays at the Star,” Cinder said.
He was amazed by this. They had so much demand now that customers needed a reservation? “I don’t, but my family owns this place.”
“Oh!” She pressed her fingertips to her forehead. “Of course. Your family is over at Deja Brew. Didn’t you get the message?”
“Deja Brew? What message?”
But a group of four had come in, and Cinder turned away from him.
Jonah shoved his two bags in behind the coatrack, then stepped outside. He looked across the street to Deja Brew. It looked closed. Was Cinder confused?
He jogged across the street and up to the entrance. He could see a few people through the window as he pushed open the door.
“Surprise!”
The shout startled Jonah. His family was all here—all of them, and Amy, too, of course. And Harper . . . and Kendal and Olivia?
They all watched him expectantly, as if they expected him to speak. “Why are you all here?”
“Because the Star is packed, duh,” Amy said. She was wearing a pink prom dress, red cowboy boots, and thick red glasses. “Didn’t you see them all? And Kendal said we could have it here. We’re all friends now. It’s a long story.”
“It’s not a long story,” Kendal said. “We began to work more closely, and the people of the Lucky Star recognized my genius, and that was that.”
“Wasn’t quite like that,” Amy said. “Plus he’s dating her best friend.”
Still, Jonah was confused. “But I thought—” He was hit with a force from the side and stumbled into the doorjamb. He knew instantly what had happened and threw one arm around his dog’s huge body and buried his face in Truck’s fur. Until Truck could stand it no more and started to try and lick him. Dodging Truck’s dancing feet was little Lulu with her helicopter tail. Even Bob had come forward to greet him, and just behind Bob, another dog, white and furry, who was bouncing with excitement until it bounced headfirst into the wall.
