Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 61953 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 310(@200wpm)___ 248(@250wpm)___ 207(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 61953 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 310(@200wpm)___ 248(@250wpm)___ 207(@300wpm)
“Oh my goodness,” I gasped, dropping onto my heels. “Hello there, buddy.”
Bowie jumped up, putting both paws on my shoulders. I laughed, nearly toppling over from his enthusiasm.
“Bowie, down.”
“He’s fine,” I insisted.
But Bowie leaped back, running zoomies around the living room before colliding with Chase’s legs and nearly taking him out. Chase laughed and ruffled his ears.
“You mangy thing.”
Bowie responded by jumping to his feet and licking Chase from jaw to temple.
“God, Bowie, we need to teach you about consent.” He’d removed his suit jacket, and he used the sleeve of his white button-up to wipe off the slobber.
“Do dogs understand the concept of consent?”
Chase gestured to Bowie, who raced across the room and into my arms. “Not this dog.”
“Well, it’s fine,” I said, scratching his ears. “You’re such a good boy, aren’t you? The goodest boy.”
His tongue lolled out, and he leaned his head into my hand. I was already in love. I’d always wanted a dog, but Mom was a cat person, and we’d grown up with a tabby that hated me. It was a mutual feeling. Mom had sworn that since I wanted to exist in a Halloween movie, I should like cats, but alas, it was not to be.
“How long have you had him?”
“Just a year. That’s why he still has puppy energy. My sister’s friend had a litter, and she convinced me to take one.”
“Good choice.”
“Yeah,” he said with a head shake at his dog, who had just rolled over and given me his belly to scratch. “He’s fun, and he loves the water, so that’s a bonus. But he never took much to all the training he had. He’ll do it, but on his own terms.”
“That seems fair,” I said as I came to my feet. “I don’t take orders well either.”
Chase laughed. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
My face flushed as our eyes met across the room. Well, I hadn’t meant it like that.
Chase just grinned at the color on my cheeks and patted his leg twice. “Okay, bud, let’s go outside.”
Bowie bounded toward him, and they headed toward the back door. I returned my attention to the records and tried to get my face to return to normal. I didn’t know how he flustered me so easily. I wasn’t the kind of girl who got like this about a guy, and yet Chase did it for me.
A few minutes later, he appeared at my side and held out a glass with amber liquid in it. “Hope whiskey is okay. My wine collection isn’t anywhere as good as my records.”
I took the drink from his hand. “Whiskey is fine.” I sipped the drink as I rummaged more through the collection. “I have intense jealousy over this.”
“Yeah? Which one should we listen to?”
“You pick. I listen to literally all of this.” My hand hovered over a copy of the Eagles’ Hotel California. My dad’s favorite. I shivered and pushed past it. “What are you feeling?”
“All right. Might as well go for the classic.”
He pulled Ziggy Stardust off of its place of honor and removed the vinyl from the sleeve. He set the vinyl on the track and started the player. I watched the needle rise and lower itself, a soft scratching noise the only sound as Chase flipped on the Bose speaker system.
“Battery at sixty percent. Connected to Chase’s iPhone and ATVT,” the speaker proclaimed.
The David Bowie album was spinning on the turntable, but what came out of the speaker was anything but the lyrical genius. Instead, blasting at full volume was none other than ABBA’s “Dancing Queen.”
“What the fuck?” Chase said.
I couldn’t stop myself; I burst into laughter. He was pawing frantically at the speaker, but the dance pop lyrics just continued to serenade us from the speakers. Finally, he glanced over at me and also burst into laughter.
“You like ABBA?”
“What?” he asked, losing all his bravado. “Don’t you? This song is a bop.”
I snorted. “Did you just call ‘Dancing Queen’ a bop?”
He shrugged and ran with it, grabbing my hands and forcing me to dance dramatically around his living room. The laughter was entirely contagious, and as we bounced and twirled on the hardwood floor, we couldn’t keep the giant smiles off our faces. When the chorus hit, I gave in to his antics and began to sing along with the tune.
“I knew you liked it,” he said.
“It’s not my go-to, but it’s a classic.”
I did a little shimmy as I sang about dancing and royalty and the joy of being seventeen and free. It felt a little more realistic here, with him, like this. How young and reckless I was being and how, in the blink of an eye, it all slipped away. And it was just us enjoying this song and each other without inhibitions.
At the final round of the chorus, Chase lifted me up into the air. I giggled as I raised my hands and let him spin me in a circle. Whatever had come over us, I was living for it. Letting the night take us wherever it might.