Page 75 of The Playboy's Playbook

“This is too cute,” I beam as we watch dog after dog walk the stage. For each dog, a picture appears on the slide with their name, breed, and their favorite thing to do.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Matthew agrees.

The slideshow changes to Nola’s picture –she’s in a pink ruffle dress and her head is tilted to the side with her tongue out. I immediately press record to capture the moment my baby walks across the stage in a calm manner.

Well, at least I hope she walks across the stage in a calm manner – I never know when it comes to Nola Wright.

“Next, we have Miss Nola July Wright. Her mommy is Laila Wright. Nola is five years old and her favorite thing to do is run as fast as she can into everything in her way because she may be tiny, but she’s very mighty,” Brooke says into the microphone.

The blue curtain pulls back and Nola trots out and heads directly for Dr. Hyde, who has to squat really low since Nola’s the smallest dog in the group. I guess that’s why they saved her for last.

Nola lifts her paw to shake Dr. Hyde’s hand, turns her head to look at the photographer, grabs her bone, and trots off to her spot on the risers they have set up. I breathe a sigh of relief that catches Matthew’s attention.

“Are you okay?” he asks, concern in his voice.

“Oh, I’m fine. I’m just glad she did what she was supposed to do,” I answer as I continue to snap pictures of Nola, who could care less about what’s going on around her as she’s relegated herself to laying down and gnawing on the bone.

“Nola July? For the month you adopted her in,” Matthew states.

“Yeah. Her original name was Mary, but I renamed her.”

Matthew smiles down at me and is about to say something when Dr. Hyde interrupts him.

“Pet parents and friends, thank you for coming to the kin-dog-garten graduation ceremony! We’ve enjoyed watching your fur babies as they’ve grown from babies to the fun-loving and energetic puppies they are today! Please stay and take pictures and help yourself to the treats in the parents lounge.”

“Well, that was the shortest graduation I think I’ve ever witnessed. When Clay graduated from kindergarten, we had to sit through an entire choir performance on top of the awards portion. That was like a three hour ceremony for a bunch of five and six year olds,” Matthew explains as we stand to go collect Nola before she decides to no longer remain calm.

“Oh if this ceremony was anything longer than thirty minutes, Nola would not be participating. It’s a miracle she behaved for ten minutes,” I chuckle.

Once we’re close to the stage, I squat slightly and call for Nola to come to me and she happily does, making sure not to leave her treat behind. I try to pry to bone away from her, but it’s no use. Her small teeth have a tight grip on it and I’m not going to fight her for it.

“Congratulations, Nola,” Matthew coos. “I have something for you.” He pulls the toy bouquet from behind his back and Nola studies it for a moment before deciding that she’d rather chew on the bone. Matthew’s face deflates with defeat and I can’t help but laugh.

“Oh, that’s a lovely picture! I’ll be sure to send this to you, Laila!” the photographer shouts out as he turns and tries to capture more moments of pets with their owners.

“I didn’t realize he was taking a photo of us,” I whisper looking up at Matthew to find he’s already got his gaze trained on me.

I’m reminded why his eyes are my favorite part of him. They show every emotion that he’s feeling even when he’s not saying a word. His eyes lead directly to his soul and I find myself getting lost in the blue haze the longer I stand here.

“I should get back home. Nola barely slept this morning and I need to do some homework and send a couple of emails out for Senator Mitchell,” I say as I take a step back. Only then do I feel like I can breathe a little bit easier.

“Okay, yeah. I’ll walk you to the car.”

He places his hand on the small of my back and guides Nola and I to the entrance. We say goodbye to a few people and thank Dr. Hyde for the ceremony she put together.

Once we’re at my car, the air doesn’t feel as charged between us. It’s slightly less heavy, but the tension is still there. I don’t think the tension between Matthew and I would ever leave to be completely honest.

“Laila,” Matthew starts and once again, I’m lost in his eyes.

“Yeah?”

He takes a moment, considering his words. He looks down at Nola, who’s managed to fall asleep still holding onto the bone. He smiles ever so softly before bringing his heavy gaze back to me. I can see he’s nervous, but I don’t know what for. Immediately, I begin to think the worse.

He has a girlfriend that he met and they’re madly in love with one another, so this is him letting me down gently. I can hear the conversation now ending with my heart in pieces on the concrete beneath my feet.

“Go out with me.”

Chapter Thirty-Seven

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