Free Forever In Love by Bella Andre, Lucy Kevin

seconds, there was water everywhere. It spilled over the edge of the tub and splashed the walls.
    It wasn’t that he didn’t like the water. The problem seemed to be that he thought it was a game. A really fun game in which he would splash in the water, shaking himself out in a way that only served to get Emily and Michael as wet as he was. He barked at the soap bubbles, creating a huge splash every time he tried to bite one.
    In a matter of minutes, Michael, Gus, and Emily were all more or less equally soaked. Michael’s clothes were plastered to him, and it was impossible not to notice the way that Emily’s clung to her.
    They were pressed so close together on the side of the tub, trying to wrestle the dog into something approaching cleanliness, that Michael was aware of Emily’s every movement. The small brush of her hand against his as she tried to comb out one of the tangles in Gus’ fur. The way she was breathing faster thanks to the effort of fighting Gus at every turn. How she was mere inches from him as Michael held Gus in place. And how sweetly she was taking care of the dog who had come so unexpectedly into her life.
    It took them a half hour to get the dog clean and dry. Thirty minutes in which they were tangled together next to the tub, trying to get Gus to stay still long enough to get him cleaned properly. A half hour in which the chemistry between them started to simmer in a serious way. One that Michael could tell even Emily was hard-pressed to try to ignore.
    It would have been so easy to reach out and touch her just then, and Michael was almost, almost , certain that touch would spark into more. But he’d promised himself that he would wait until the time was right—that he wouldn’t risk letting her push him away again—so he forced himself to hold back.
    Finally, they were done, and Gus looked like a completely different dog. “Thank you for helping me with him,” Emily said, water clinging to her face and arms. “I didn’t think we’d get this wet.”
    “I needed to clean up after working in the garden anyway,” he joked.
    “Could I make you dinner as a thank-you?”
    “You don’t need to do anything to thank me, Emily. I was happy to help.” He grinned. “But you know I’m always up for dinner.”
    She was laughing as she headed to her bedroom to change into something dry after giving him one of her father’s shirts to put on while she put his into the washing machine. By the time Michael got both himself and the bathroom cleaned up, Emily was almost done making dinner. She’d made salmon and pasta for the two of them, and Gus got a dish of dog food on the floor close to the kitchen table.
    “Gus was really nice about the bath,” she said as she looked fondly at the dog wolfing down his dinner. “It went better than I thought it would.”
    “Fortunately, some things work out better than you think they will,” Michael agreed. “I’m starting to think that sometimes you just have to take a leap of faith and go for what you want.”
    She stared at him for a long moment—long enough that he wondered if she was finally thinking about taking a leap of faith with him. But when the dog came over to let her scratch him on the head, giving a sigh of extreme pleasure at her touch, all she ended up saying was, “Gus was a very good boy. Do you want to take him for a walk with me now?”
    Michael got up to take their plates to the sink. “Sure, I’ll go get his leash.”
    With his new collar and leash and freshly cleaned fur, Gus looked really cute as they headed into town. He occasionally darted off to investigate an interesting smell, but he always came back to be as close to Emily as possible.
    Michael knew exactly how Gus felt.
    This moment was so nearly everything Michael had ever dreamed of. A simple life for the two of them, with their own dog, their own house. But he didn’t want to be just Emily’s friend who dreamed of something more with her. He wanted to actually have