“She’ll curse me out and say something snarky. Probably accuse me of spying on her.”
“Aren’t you?”
I turned to look at him. “No.”
His brows lifted. “Really?”
“I’ve known Ari since we were little. It’s just better if we don’t see each other. All we do is fight with each other.”
Ralph nodded. “Don’t like her much?”
“Oh, I like her enough.”
“Then, boy, what in the hell you doing up here creepin’ on her?”
Laughing, I sat back and rested on my hands. “It’s complicated. Ari is my little sister’s best friend. I’m pretty sure I fell for the little squirt the moment she rode up to our front yard on her flashy pink bike. It was a crush for a lot of years, something I could handle because she was younger—boys didn’t look twice at her. Then one summer she grew more beautiful, got a body, and guys started staring at her. It drove me nuts.”
“Why didn’t you just ask the girl out?”
“I don’t think she feels the same; at least, she never really acted like she did. I was always like her big brother. If I told her how I really felt and she didn’t feel the same or if something happened and we broke up, it would ruin our friendship.”
For nearly three minutes, the old man stared at me. Ralph had been coming to the shelter for ten years, ever since his wife passed away. Every single day he came up here and sat for a bit, then went in and played with the cats before making his way to every single dog in the shelter to say hello.
He finally spoke. “You mean the friendship where y’all call each other names and fight?”
“I didn’t say we called each other names,” I said with a grin.
“I’m assumin’, boy. Don’t sass your elders.”
Nodding, I replied, “Yes, sir.”
“Jeff, you been coming here for months now watching that girl. Why do you stay and help with the dogs after she leaves?”
Glancing back down to Ari, I saw she was now sitting cross-legged, with both dogs’ heads in her lap as she talked to them both.
“Because it means something to her, so it means something to me. I do it for her.”
“Yet she don’t know.”
I nodded.
“This generation don’t make a lick of sense. Neither do your damn T-shirts. What does that mean, you get paid by the hour?”
I glanced down to my shirt. “It’s a joke, Ralph.”
“It’s stupid. Go talk to the girl before I call you out.”
Not moving, I replied, “You wouldn’t.”
He laughed and looked at me like he was fixin’ to call my bluff. “Why do you think I wouldn’t?”
With a half shrug, I replied, “Because I have a feeling, once upon a time, you felt the same way about a girl. You cared so much about her that you’d rather sit on the sidelines and watch her be happy than make her smile disappear. If I walk down there, she won’t be happy. So I sit up here. And watch.”
“Shit! Flag football is tonight! Come on, Milo, Lucy Lou. Let’s get you a treat and some water!” Ari cried out.
I watched Ari walk off with the two dogs. Under my breath I mumbled, “I watch and fall more for her each time.”
An hour later I was walking back in with two dogs, Beef and Hank. I purposely picked those two dogs because they had badass names. Every time I was stopped on the trail and asked their names, I got laughs and smiles.