Page 51 of Untouchable
He frowned, but such a small secret felt too petty to pursue. “I’m taking Ralph to the park. Do you want to come?”
Closing her sketch pad, she stood up with a smile.
“Yes. I’d love to. I was wondering why?—”
“You were wondering why what?”
She gave a pretty little shrug. “Do you take him there a lot? I’ve been wondering why you took him to the park in the first place since your place here is so big and there’s plenty of space to run.”
“We usually go every Saturday, although I’ve missed the past couple of weeks. I’ll show you why.” He jangled the lead he held in his hand and called out, “Park!”
A couple of seconds later, Ralph was bounding toward them at full speed. Kelly laughed as the dog skidded to a stop, nearly plowing into Caleb’s legs.
“I have no idea why, but playing around here doesn’t come close to going to the park for him. It’s his favorite thing in the world. You should hear him crying as we get close to it in the car.” He felt a strange sort of pleased pride as Kelly laughed again and leaned down to pet the dog, obviously very fond of the animal.
When she straightened up, she said, “I’m going to bring my sketch pad. Maybe I’ll work on a drawing of him.”
“Sounds good to me.” He slanted her a teasing look. “It’s about time you started working for your keep around here.”
She gave him a little push against the arm, clearly not offended. He was sure she’d been serious about not living off him indefinitely, but it was nice that she wasn’t too uptight about it.
They drove to the park with Ralph whimpering louder and louder as they approached, until Kelly hushed him and told the dog he should be more like his owner and act cool and collected about things he was excited about.
When they arrived, Ralph ran ahead with his Frisbee to the corner near the woods where Caleb always took him. He and Kelly walked more slowly in a pleasant kind of silence.
He had never brought a woman to the park with him before. It had been a weekly ritual for a long time, and part of the pleasure for him was that he went alone with only his dog. But he didn’t regret bringing Kelly.
She was walking beside him, looking around, smiling at Ralph whenever she focused on the dog, who was now running circles in purejoie de vivre.
Another woman would have moved closer to him, tried to deepen the connection between them, taken his hand as some sort of claim to their closeness.
Kelly didn’t though. She did nothing to get nearer to him even in a casual way.
For some reason, he kept noticing it.
When he edged toward her as they walked, she edged the other way to keep the same distance. It didn’t seem to be purposeful. It was completely unconscious—like her instinct was to pull away rather than move close.
As an experiment, he reached over to take her hand in his as they walked.
She gave him a quick, startled glance but then smiled and didn’t pull her hand out of his grasp.
After a minute though, when they had to move around a family sitting on a blanket in the grass, she slipped her hand away. She was so elusive. It was puzzling and tantalizing both. All his life, women had done anything they could to get closer to him, use any opportunity to evoke soft feelings. Kelly was obviously attracted to him. She obviously liked him and wanted to be around him. But there was part of her that kept holding him at a distance.
Maybe he was hopelessly contrary, but it made him want to tighten his grip.
“Let’s stop here,” she said when they started getting closer to the edge of the woods. “This is good, isn’t it?”
“We always go farther.” Caleb gestured toward Ralph, who had planted himself in their normal location.
She took a strange little breath and smiled as they moved toward the dog, closer to the woods.
While Caleb threw the Frisbee for Ralph, Kelly found a large rock and settled herself on the grass, leaning back against it as she sketched the dog.
It was like any other Saturday morning in the park, except it was a little better because Kelly was there to meet his smile or laugh or call out a teasing comment.
He enjoyed himself so much that it startled him.
After a while, he walked over to where Kelly was sitting. She gazed up at him as he approached, her fair face radiant in the morning light. She looked fresh and golden, like a blossom in the sun.
