Belle and Allie stayed at the beach till almost 5:00. After sitting in 30 minutes of traffic and stopping by IN-N-OUT to grab a burger, Belle had enough time to drop Allie off at home, run home herself, get Killen and rush to the dog park. She still had the smell of suntan lotion on her skin and her hair had the sexy beach waves vibe thanks to the salt water.

Chris had said he and Jack would find her, so she found a bench and started tossing the tennis ball for Killen to chase. It was after 6:30 and Belle anxiously looked at her watch.

"Told you I'm always late." She heard a voice call out behind her. Quickly spinning around her face broke out in a huge smile. Chris and Jack were walking up behind her. And Chris looked amazing. In a baseball cap, gray t-shirt and jeans that were tight in just the right places (the butt) she had to stop herself from tackling him for a kiss.

"Killen sit." She instructed. Killen tilted his head but did as he was told.

Jack and Chris made their way to the bench where Belle was seated, and Chris knelt to be level with her and Jack.

"Jack this is my good friend Belle."

"Hi Jack!" Belle said enthusiastically.

"Hi." He murmured shyly not making eye contact with her while shoving his little hands in his pockets.

Belle looked at Chris with an unsure smile.

Chris nodded assuredly.

"Is this your dog?" Jack peered at Killen with interest.

"It is! This is Killen. Killen meet Jack, and Chris." She looked up at Chris with an adoring smile. "He loves to play fetch. Do you want to throw him his ball?"

Jack paused for a minute before timidly nodding and accepting the ball from Belle's outreached hand.

Jack played fetch with Killen for over half an hour. It didn't take long until Jack warmed up and kept yelling "Daddy!! Ms. Belle LOOK!" and he would toss the ball to Killen who would happily chase after it and bring it back for another throw.

"He's the cutest thing in the world." Belle said to Chris as they sat on the bench watching the 2 go back and forth with the tennis ball.

"He gets it from his dad." Chris nudged her playfully, his touch sending electricity through her.

"Yes, he does." Belle agreed. She nudged him back but kept her arm close enough to his that they were touching.

"That's probably not a good idea." Chris said biting his lip looking around the park.

"What?"

"Being so close to me. I want nothing more than to kiss you right now and not stop there." He smiled and waved at Jack who was jumping up and down excitedly because Killen had caught the ball in his mouth.

Belle chewed her lip devilishly and scooted closer to Chris, now her leg touching his, sending a scorching fire throughout his legs.

Chis snickered, "You think you're cute. But payback is hell."

Feeling bold Belle crossed her arms and with her right hand covered by her left arm she began to rub Chris's arm with her fingers.

He glanced at her out of the corner of his eyes a smile tugging at his lips.

"I'm so going to get you back Harper."

Belle laughed as her phone started buzzing in her pocket. Pulling it out she answered on speaker, "Hey Allie."

"Hunter posted heart emoji eyes on the picture of you I posted!" Her voice boomed loudly.

"You're on speaker." Belle informed her. Chris's eyes shifted up towards Belle's and he frowned.

"Why would you do that? Answer me on speaker?"

"I'm at the dog park."

"Ok."

"No I'm AT THE DOG PARK."

"OK." Allie repeated.

"Hi Allie." Chris said.

"Oh! The Dog Park! I totally forgot you were accidentally bumping into lover boy. In that case Hunter is nobody – ignore what I previously said. Enjoy the dog park. Do not get arrested for indecent exposure."

"His son is here!" Belle said with a shocked laugh. But Allie had hung up.

"So that probably means Hunter is somebody." Chris started fidgeting with his keys.

"I guess we have to have this conversation at some point..." She sighed.

"You're secretly married?" Chris looked up with a grin.

"No. Gosh No." Belle shook the image out of her head.  "Hunter's my ex. We dated for a little while a couple years back."

"Where's he at now?" Chris wanted to know.

"He plays for the Dodgers." Belle winced as she said it.

"Your EX plays for the team your dad owns. Wow...small world?"

"No, that's how we met of course. And it didn't work out."

"Hunter.....Hunter Jackson. Plays center. Wow. THAT's your ex?" Chris gave her an incredulous look.

"Yes....why that look?"

"Aren't I kind of a down grade?"

Belle laughed. "You have no idea how much of an upgrade you are." She leaned over and squeezed his shoulder. "Wait. Did you just imply that we're dating?"

"Yeah...at least I hope we are."

"Ok." Belle pressed her lips together into a pleased smile.

"We don't have to go public yet or anything." He assured her quickly.

"Ok. Guess I'm still at dirty little secret status." She ran her tongue over her lips in a taunting manner.

"Damn you. I'm not going to be able to stand up." Chris slid away from her on the bench but then gave her a sexy grin as he reached out, put one arm around her shoulder and slid her next to him. "Let's see this picture that Hunter enjoyed so much."

"Oh come on. Don't make me pull it up." Belle tried to stuff her phone back into the pocket of her hoodie.

"Come on Harper. Only fair if the ex got to see it....I could just look Allie up myself on Instagram." He reached for his phone, but Belle caved and pulled her phone out and showed him the picture.

"That's what you go to the beach in?" He gave a low whistle. "I have to keep pinching myself to see if this is real." He paused then gently pinched Belle's arm.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"Making sure you're real to."

"I'm real." She said softly. Looking back to her phone she navigated through Instagram until she found Chris's page and hit the 'FOLLOW' button.

"I'm gonna need to get this guy home and probably feed him." Chris stretched his legs out.

"I'm gonna have to get my guy home and probably feed him to." Belle laughed.

"Jack goes back to Anna on Friday. I'll be home for a week and then I leave for press tour for Avengers."

"For how long?" Belle chewed on the inside of her lip.

"3 weeks."

"Oh. Well that's a bummer." She looked down with a frown.

"Absence makes the heart grow fonder."

"I still wish you didn't have to leave. I mean we just started seeing each other."

"I know......Want to come over for dinner Friday night?"

"Why don't you come to my house? I want to cook for you."

Chris pinched her again.

"Again?" She asked rubbing her arm a pained look across her face.

"Just checking." He smiled.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

                        Likes 1,002,051

                       prattprattpratt: Just spent an hour at the dog park playing with other peoples dogs.                        Jack says Thank you. Photo Credit goes to one of those dogs owners. 

                       View all 6,229 comments