During the competition, she had scanned the crowd hoping to spot Vronsky and his mother in the stands, but she never located them. Anna knew Geneviève would tell her son they had run into one another, so she forced herself to remain patient and let him find her. Tracking him down herself would give the wrong impression, something she was already worried she had done at the dance club.

Anna left her seat in the main arena and started to make her way back to the bench area when she received a call. It was Alexander. She was about to answer it, but as she stared at the picture of her bf’s face on the screen, she couldn’t make herself accept the call. Instead she ignored it, quickly texting him her second-place news and telling him she’d call him later. He immediately texted back: CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!! with balloons, but she had put her phone back before seeing his message.

When she arrived at Jon Snow’s empty bench, Alexia Vronsky was waiting for her. He was standing there admiring the next dog over, a feisty tri-colored corgi named Scribbles. Vronsky was wearing perfectly fitted jeans, a slim-cut T-shirt, and a navy Thom Browne sports coat expertly tailored to his build. His blond hair looked shorter than it had when she last saw him, but it was still long enough to hang slightly over his eyes. She watched as he brushed his hair out from his face. His baby blues were just as dreamy as she’d remembered them.

Anna stood there and admired him from a slight distance unnoticed. Just before she was about to walk up out of the crowd and say hello, she felt something goose her in the backside. Jon Snow’s favorite greeting, for dogs and humans, was nudging his giant snout into a butt. He had just arrived from the winner’s circle and was amped up from all the excitement. Twin four-inch strands of drool hung from his jowly mouth. Anna turned around and crouched on the floor, wrapping her arms around his big furry neck, and he returned her enthusiasm by knocking her over. This was a common occurrence in their owner-pet relationship as Jon Snow outweighed Anna by sixty pounds. Very much accustomed to such things, Anna laughed and inspected her outfit for the inevitable splotch of drool.

After she untangled herself from Jon Snow’s mane, Anna looked up to see Vronsky gazing down at her, flashing a smile as he offered her a hand to help her to her feet.

“Are you sure you can handle the slobber?”

“I’d love to handle any slobber associated with you,” Vronsky replied in his most charming voice.