Chapter Three – Another Door Opens

"He's a beautiful dog."

Olivia snapped to attention and sat up in a shot, disrupting Suvi in the process. A few years off the job and she'd lost a lot of her awareness of her surroundings it seemed. Nobody would have surprised her like that before. Apparently she needed to start paying a little bit more attention.

The man that had spoken was beaming down at her with the type of smile she almost couldn't help returning. It was that exact reason that made her a bit wary. A "normal person" wouldn't think much of it, but with the experience Olivia had she knew that many times the most dangerous predators had the most charming smiles.

"He is," she returned.

It probably wasn't as enthusiastic of a reply as he'd been hoping for, but Olivia had at least tried to hide her wariness. Personally she thought she'd done a decent enough job, but she could see his smile slip momentarily. While Olivia was still a bit uneasy, Suvi saw nothing wrong with this stranger. He glanced at Olivia briefly before turning his attention back to the man that had spoken. Since he wasn't officially working at the moment he didn't see anything wrong with going over and saying hello, especially since it would only be a few steps away from Olivia. Suvi was almost instantly rewarded as the man knelt down and started petting him. Olivia was slightly surprised. Suvi almost never went up to greet someone without verbal approval from her, working or not.

"What's his name?"

Olivia shook off her surprise so she could answer.

"Suvi."

"Suvi, huh? Do you like that, Suvi? Does it feel good?"

The answers to those questions appeared pretty obvious to Olivia. Suvi was leaning into the petting while still gazing up at his new friend with his tongue hanging out and the happiest look on his face. He was going to sit there and milk every ounce of attention he could get. Unfortunately for him there wasn't much more coming. His new friend's attention soon went to Olivia.

He moved toward her and held out his hand.

"I'm Ben."

Not wanting to be rude, Olivia offered her hand and name in return.

"May I join you?"

"Ah…" What was she supposed to say to that? If she wanted to be polite "no" wasn't really an option even though that's what she really wanted to reply. Either she let him stay or she cut the day short and decided to leave. There was another way to at least keep her options open a little bit though. "You can, but I'm probably not staying much longer."

At least this way she wouldn't be committed to any real length of time. If she wanted to get away from him and take off in a few minutes she could.

"Great."

Ben was completely willing to accept that. Olivia's hesitance to let him join her was nearly equaled by the hesitance Ben had had about approaching her. It had taken him days to build up the confidence to come over to her the next time he saw her in the park. He'd seen Olivia and Suvi for the first time a few weeks ago and had barely been able to take his eyes off them. There was just something about this woman. The way she interacted with Suvi and the glowing look on her face when she laughed at her dog had him hooked. This was someone he definitely wanted to get to know better. She had such a bright spark of life in her.

Before he'd even come over to talk to her he'd been worried she would turn him down flat. It wasn't like he had a lot of experience talking to women in a "pre-date" type of way. Even if he did feel fully comfortable doing that, she could easily be out of his league. On top of all that, Central Park wasn't the type of place you would commonly talk to strangers either. The encounter could be awkward on top of awkward. Almost immediately after he'd spoken to her he thought that suspicion of being turned down was going to be confirmed. Now that he actually had the chance he was going to be really careful about what he did and said. The last thing he wanted to do was scare her away.

Ben sat down beside her, keeping an overly safe distance between them.

"I bet this place is paradise to a dog in the city," he said as he kept his eyes on Suvi who was sniffing away at the grass.

"It is. We try to come up as often as possible."

She could have said every day since she and Suvi rarely missed a day at one park or another. That would be giving away far too much for her liking though. The last thing she wanted was for someone she didn't know to find out where she could be found all the time.

"He's gotta love that. Don't you, Suvi?"

Suvi glanced up briefly, snorted at Ben, and dropped his nose back into the grass. Olivia's grin widened and she shook her head. Apparently the fascination with Ben had ended. At least until he started petting Suvi's ears again.

"I guess I'm not important enough to deserve an answer."

"You did get an answer. The grass is more important than you are."

"Even with all of that ear rubbing?"

"Seems that way."

"Dang. Tough competition. I'm losing against grass."

Olivia couldn't help the small smile that tugged at her lips. Was he always like that or was his ridiculous comment made simply for her? She didn't know, but it was amusing none-the-less.

"He makes rather interesting choices sometimes," she explained.

"I'm hoping you at least rate about grass."

"Usually."

There had been a time or two when she'd wondered. Only briefly though. She knew all too well how far he would go for her.

"I'm glad he doesn't shatter your self-esteem like he just did mine."

Olivia snorted and looked at him sidelong.

"If a dog's opinions destroy your self-esteem you could really use to work on it."

Ben started laughing and shook his head lightly. He'd been teasing, but he suspected Olivia knew that despite what she'd said in return. Before he could come up with a good reply Suvi darted over to them and scurried around behind Olivia. His head peeked out warily from behind her and he eyed the path in front of them. Ben likely had no idea what that was all about, but Olivia did. A moment listening confirmed it. Hoof beats on the pavement. Before long the mounted police officer came into view. Suvi hunkered down closer to her side and near glared at the horse.

"What's got him all..?" He didn't get to finish before Olivia pointed at the horse and rider. "Oh."

"He's never been a big fan," Olivia explained.

She wouldn't describe Suvi's response as a completely fearful one exactly. Sometimes he seemed more angry than afraid. No matter what emotion it was, every time he heard the sound of hooves he would tuck himself behind her and watch intently. He would stay there until he was absolutely sure the horse was gone. Thankfully it wasn't all that common to run into a mounted rider in the park, and they never stuck around very long when they were nearby.

"Apparently not."

When the rider went by and the hoof beats were no longer audible Suvi slipped out from behind Olivia and huffed. It was very clearly a "good riddance."

"You really need to get over that," Olivia told him.

She really couldn't complain though. He'd never taken off in response to something that scared or angered him. Whenever he was feeling either emotion she knew, but his behavior never changed very much. He would still be there for her, looking after her. She suspected that if she needed him and a horse was around he would still focus and get the job done. That was simply the way Suvi was. He was just as dedicated to her as she had been to the victims and cases on the job.

"Guess he doesn't make a very good protector."

"No, he's a really good protector." He protected her independence and happiness better than anyone else could. "I'll admit that he doesn't do it as well when horses or small dogs are around though."

"That's a big size range of things to be afraid of," Ben laughed.

"Yeah, but it's all that bothers him."

Over the course of the year she hadn't found anything besides the dogs and horses that upset him. She'd realized a few months ago that he wasn't a big fan of thunder, but his love of rain tended to counteract that enough that he spent the entire time shifting between watching out the window and twitching away to run to her side or hide under the end table.

"My brother has a boxer mix. Big guard dog type, you know? Only there's one minor problem. He hears the doorbell or apartment buzzer ring and he's gone."

"Gone as in?"

"Gone in the other direction."

Olivia choked back a quiet laugh. She could see it happening almost the same way Suvi had just run from the horse. The only difference was Suvi didn't have as far to run to escape.

"Some guard dog."

Ben grinned, glad he'd gotten a bit of a laugh out of her. At least if she was laughing she was relaxing a bit around him. One step at a time. With the way she'd been acting when they first met he was incredibly pleased they'd already seemed to have taken that first step. Slow was apparently going to be the name of the game if he wanted things to work out, but that was okay. He could do that.

"Hey, be nice. He's not so bad. What burglar rings the doorbell before he comes in?"

Olivia glanced toward him with an amused smile on her face and shook her head. There was this glitter in her eyes that Ben really wanted to see more of. He initially wanted to talk to her because of how beautiful she was, but now that he'd actually gotten to interact with her he realized there was a lot more hidden under the surface. The little hints and teases he was getting so far were intriguing. There was definitely something special about this woman.

"That's true," she returned.

Olivia had only seen Suvi try to protect her once, but that one growl made her believe that if there were a need, he would happily transition from service dog to guard dog. Hopefully she would never have need to test that theory. If there ever was, with any luck it would be at home. That way, shaky hands or not, she would have her gun. (And if she couldn't get to it she'd certainly used other make-shift weapons over the years.)

Ben seemed to have been reading her thoughts.

"I'm sure your boy would do the same for you. And not run away from doorbells, I mean."

Olivia smiled softly down at Suvi and ran a hand through his fur. He glanced back over at her for a second before returning his attention to the ongoings of the park.

"Yeah. I'm sure he would."

Silence reigned between them for a while as Olivia watched Suvi and Ben watched Olivia. Eventually Ben broke the silence.

"I know you have to get out of here, and I don't want you to be late because you felt bad telling me to leave. So, I'm going to take off so you don't have to worry about that."

Olivia blinked up at him in mild surprise but then quickly hid it. About the last thing she'd suspected was him leaving before she felt the need to chase him away. That was fine though. At least she wouldn't need to come up with a good way to send him packing later.

"Maybe I'll see you around again," Ben added once he'd gotten to his feet.

"Maybe."

"It was nice talking to you, Olivia."

"You too."

And it had been generally. There definitely hadn't been anything she could have complained about in the conversation. If they happened to run into each other again she wouldn't need to create an excuse to leave early.

Author's Note: All of you are already so amazing in your enthusiasm. I hope I live up to your expectations! You'll get one more chapter tomorrow before I take me writing break.