“I guess I didn’t clue in to all of that. But come on. I’m with you. Surely another woman wouldn’t do that.”

She let out a short laugh. “You don’t know women. We can be very competitive when it comes to men. And then she got you to give her your phone number.”

“That was for the agility class.”

“No.”

“No?”

“No. For someone of your advanced dating age, I would’ve thought you’d be able to read all the obvious signs. I’m kind of disappointed in you.”

She walked away, but he caught up in a hurry and grabbed her hand.

“Hey, I’m not clueless.”

“If you say so. But I’ll bet you ten bucks Victoria calls you by tomorrow night. And not about the agility class.”

He turned to face her, determination set on his features. “I’ll take that bet.”

Chelsea shook her head. “It’ll be the easiest ten bucks I ever make.”

He cocked his head to the side. “You’re just so damn sure of yourself, aren’t you?”

“About everything? No. About this? Absolutely.”

“You’ll be sorry when you’re wrong.”

Before she could say anything else, he kissed her. Just a light, easy kiss, and not too passionate, since they definitely weren’t alone in the dog park. She supposed she was getting used to these public displays from Bash, because when he pulled back and took her hand to wander around and watch the dogs, she didn’t try to disengage.

Screw the gossips. They could think what they wanted. For today, at least, she enjoyed being with him.

After about thirty minutes, Lou came over, her tongue hanging sideways out of her mouth. They went and got her a drink, then Bash tethered her and they left the dog park.

Lou was much more subdued as they made their way along the path toward the lake.

Bash had been right. It was a beautiful day today, and while she sure wouldn’t have minded spending it in bed with him, the weather was too nice to spend the day inside.

He stopped at the truck and pulled out a blanket, then walked them over to a shady spot on a hill overlooking the lake. He spread out the blanket and they sat. Lou settled in and promptly curled up next to her and went to sleep.

Chelsea looked out over the water. A flock of geese flew in and landed on the lake, creating waves along the surface. She watched the geese for a while, a little surprised when a couple of them ventured out of the water and toward them.

“People feed them, so they’re not afraid of humans,” Bash said. “Once they realize you don’t have any food, they’ll go away.”

She was fascinated, having never been that close to geese before. They were so beautiful, with their long necks and shiny feathers. It made her wish she had some sort of geese food so she could entice them to linger, but, true to what Bash had said, they only ventured a couple of feet closer, then wandered off.

“Do you come here a lot on your days off?” she asked.

“Sometimes, when the weather’s decent, I’ll take a run around the park. Now that I have Lou it’s more of a walking thing. If I want to run I have to leave her at home.”

She looked down at Lou, snoozing peacefully by her side. She smoothed her hand over the dog. “I’ve always wanted a dog. Or even a cat. I mean, I had a dog when I was a kid, but not since then.”

“You could buy a house, then you could have whatever animal you wanted.”

“True. I just didn’t want to make that kind of commitment. I figured I’d wait until I got married, or at least was in a long-term relationship. So far that hasn’t happened. The longest relationship I had was a year, and we never got to the moving-in-together part before we broke up.”

“That was Elliott, right?”

She was surprised he remembered, it was so long ago. “Yes.”

“He was an asshole for letting you go.”

She laughed. “In the beginning it was good. He just loved his career more than me. And I need someone who’ll put me first.”

“That’s not on your list.”

“True, but I think that’s a given in any relationship.”

“I guess so.”

“What about your marriage? What went wrong there?”

He looked out over the water. “I don’t know. We wanted different things, I guess. She wanted a different person than the person I was. I don’t think I could ever fit into the mold of the kind of man she envisioned.” He looked over at her. “Maybe she needed a list like yours.”

For some reason that stung, but she didn’t know why. “I don’t think the list thing is for everyone. Some relationships don’t work out for a multitude of reasons.”

“You’re right about that.”

He went quiet, and Chelsea felt bad for bringing up his marriage. She’d always known it was a sore spot for Bash, but she’d never known why. It had been a lot of years since his marriage had ended, yet he never talked about it.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

He looked over at her. “For what?”

“For bringing up your marriage. It’s obviously still painful for you.”

“Actually, it’s not. I just can’t ever seem to give anyone a good explanation for why it ended. It wasn’t her fault and it wasn’t my fault. We just didn’t … fit. You know?”

“I do know. But you shouldn’t give up on the idea of being with someone just because it didn’t work the first time.”