Chapter 14

Edward

"Up, up, boy, come on!" I cheer on Cody who wags his tail but keeps butting out and away from the stairs leading to the apartment. "I`ll let you out again later, but now it`s going to rain and I need to go see Emmett. Come on, get in!"

"Come on, Moody, who`s gonna get in first? Come here, baby. It`s freezing and Momma needs to warm up!" I hear a familiar voice over the fence and smile.

"Cody!" I call again.

"Cody? Edward?" The voice nears the gate and a second later a mane of strawberry blond locks framing a pretty face pops over.

"Tanya, hi!" I relax seeing my neighbour and walk closer to let her into the back garden.

We live in an old building converted into five apartments and I`m the lucky tenant with access to the garden as my living room glass door leads to a nice green , fenced space perfect for my four legged buddy. Recently, after discovering that my new neighbor also had a dog, I gave her a spare key to the gate so she could let Moody outside without having to walk him. Cody adopted his new furry pal very quickly.

"Thank you," Tanya says closing the gate behind her. "How are you? How`s your Dad feeling?"

"Great, thanks. He`s glad to be back at the clinic and I`m relieved that we can take in more patients. Thank you so much again for looking after my furry monster last week."

"Oh, it`s nothing, Edward, really," Tanya smiles and waves it off. "I`m always happy to help. Besides you weren`t away, just working longer hours. Moody wasn`t so moody having Cody around more often," she adds with a singing laugh.

"I`ve never seen Moody moody," I admit when we round the dogs.

"He isn`t," the woman shakes her soft locks. "It`s just that when I got him as a pup he had this grumpy expression on his face all the time. So I called him Moody, although he`s a cheerful and playful creature."

"Just like his Momma," I blurt out.

"Aw, thank you," Tanya answers with a slightest blush.

"You`re welcome. Actually I`m glad that we`ve met. I would like to invite you over to dinner one night, as a thank you for babysitting Cody," I suggest.

Uh-oh, is that hesitation I saw for a split second?

"Um…"

"Please, don`t feel obligated, Tanya, I honestly just want to do a nice thing for you as a gesture of gratitude, nothing else."

"No, no, it`s not that. I don`t want you to feel obligated either, Cody is great fun and I enjoyed helping you out," she explains caring about sincere intonation of her voice. Then she pauses for a moment and says, "And I would love to have dinner with you."

"Great!"