“Let me make myself presentable,” he says, then strides across the room. My eyes follow him as he heads to the bathroom.
Then I leave and go straight for the front door.
I swing it open.
Nisha’s cousin looks nothing like her. Nisha takes after her mom’s side of the family, her Indian heritage strongly represented in her striking features. Tobey’s the spitting image of the actor who played the best Spiderman.
The one he shares the first name with. He has the same youthful vibe too, which tracks, since Nisha’s told me he’s some kind of whiz kid, and finished college and vet school early.
He gestures dramatically to the green van. “Your Friendsgiving chariot awaits,” he says.
“Thanks for the save. By the way, I’m Owen,” I say, extending a hand for him to shake.
“Tobey,” he says.
“Why don’t you come in for a few? River is just getting ready. And I should straighten up the kitchen.”
Nisha’s cousin steps inside, and I shut the door.
The spell of last night is officially broken.
19
Owen
As I dry the hot cocoa pan with a dish towel, Tobey surveys the digs.
“Not gonna lie. I felt a little bit like a Navy Seal coming to rescue you,” he says, sighing happily.
“The Navy Seal Friendsgiving Cabin Retrieval Operation? Codename: Fetch the City Guys?”
“Exactly. I was all covert ops when I was driving up the hill, braving the elements,” he says.
“Don’t Navy Seals save people from water and foreign dictators?”
Tobey waves an arm airily. “Melting snow. Bad road conditions. It’s all the same.” He swats my arm. Friendly dude, this guy. “C’mon, work with me. This is like my one and only opportunity to come through and be badass.”
Smiling, I tuck the pot away in the cupboard. “You save animals’ lives. That’s already badass.”
He raises a make-a-point finger. “That is true. I’m going to start calling myself the Badass Vet.” Tobey lifts his wrist, checks the time on his watch. “Is your friend taking the world’s longest shower?”
I flash back to yesterday, to the way I ribbed River about his time spent getting ready, then to last night. The two minutes we spent in the shower cleaning up after sex. Will it be the last shower I take with him? Or the first of many?
I wish I knew.
“Some guys like long showers. But he’ll be out any second, I’m sure,” I say, using my best diplomatic-PR-guy voice, sliding into my I-can-smooth-over-any-situation tone. “Why don’t we load up?”
“Like a Navy Seal would do. I like it,” Tobey says, and we grab the cooler with the veggies, River’s with the pie, then my backpack.
Trudging outside, I head down the steps through the thin blanket of snow. It’s hardly a blanket now though. More like a sheet.
That’s good, technically. We can get to Nisha’s. See all my friends. Have a good time. That’s the point of this.
We load up the van, then return to the house, where River waits in the kitchen.
With damp hair, and question marks in his eyes, he says to Tobey, “If my dog collects my socks and brings them to her dog bed, does that mean she’s building a nest, giving me gifts, or has a foot fetish?”
Tobey laughs. “Gifter. You have a gifter. Means she loves you,” he says, then holds out a hand for River to shake. “I’m Tobey.”
“I’m River. Nice to meet you, and thanks for the rescue. There is no way my hot little tamale of a Honda would have made it out today, even though the roads look a lot better.”
“Tomorrow, I’ll drive you back here to get your car,” Tobey says, and that timing sounds great. I can run the laundry, make the bed, and do any final straightening in the cabin. Our driver taps his watch. “But my cousin is demanding. She wants what she wants. And she wants the two of you.”
He pats my shoulder and River’s, then tips his forehead to the van. Time to vamoose.
River grabs his bag, heads to the door and tosses one last look behind him. Maybe it’s just me being stupidly hopeful, but that sure seems like a lingering look.
Ten minutes later, I’m in the middle seat of the vet-mobile, wedged next to a few dog crates, with an exam table behind me. River’s in the front, and Nisha’s cousin is scrolling through podcasts. He points to one. “Check this. An unsolved murder right here in the Tahoe region. You want to listen to that? It’s bone-chilling.”
“Ooh, is it the Templeton case?” River asks, dripping with curiosity, then he course-corrects. “Wait, wait. I hate murder podcasts. Can’t do it.”
Tobey arches a brow as we roll through town. “Are you sure? It sounded like you liked them.”
“I forgot how much I hate them,” River says with a can-you-believe-it shrug.
Tobey chuckles. “You forgot you hate them? How does that happen?”
River taps his temple. “My brain is seriously sluggish in the morning. Happens to the best of us.”