<em>Really?</em>Nikki thought to herself.<br/><br/>This twenty-something hunk of absolute gorgeous was a<em>dog walker</em>and veterinary medicine student?  Her heart melted as quick as that coy little smile broke into something decidedly less flattering but nonetheless cute.<br/><br/><em>"Awwww.  No way,"</em>she gushed with enthusiasm, not thinking about the manner in which her hand crawled out along his collar and lit away long enough to give the back of his arm a squeeze.  The touch had been purely reflexive, but that didn't change the fact that the squeeze lingered, savoring the taut feel of the well-defined muscle behind his steeled bicep.<em>"That's so cool,"</em>she reinforced, letting her touch light back onto his collars as she loosely draped hands around his neck.<br/><br/><em>"I'm in marketing,"</em>she offered with that impish smile.<em>"Nothing nearly as interesting.  Or benevolent,"</em>she joked with a small shrug.<br/><br/><em>"But it pays the bills,"</em>Nikki joked.  It wasn't that she and Chris had come from affluence themselves, but they'd certainly done well over the course of their marriage.  Both of them worked hard -- and were good at what they did.<br/><br/><em>"Two dogs!"</em>She was quick to exclaim with that enthusiasm intact.<em>"A boxer and a jack russell.  They're kinda crazy, but it would be amazing to have someone to come and spend a little time with them mid-day.  Sometimes it's really difficult to get home for twenty minutes, and that doesn't feel like enough."</em>