L ilah took Toby back to the kennels. Actually, she had no idea what the dog’s name was since he hadn’t come with a collar, but he was an adorable mass of tangled fluff and looked like a Toby to her. He was also in desperate need of a bath, but getting him cleaned up turned out to be tricky since he told her he was deathly afraid of water.
Loudly.
She sweet-talked him into calming down and carefully soaped him up, working around the stitches from his surgery, and ended up wearing more of the soap than he did. Keeping up a steady stream of soft cooing and baby talk seemed to soothe his concerns quite a bit.
“There,” she murmured. “Doesn’t that feel better, to be clean?” Giving him a final rinse, she wrapped him in a towel.
He watched her solemnly from the most adorable, soul-searching eyes she’d ever seen, then very carefully licked her face.
“My second kiss of the day,” she said.
“And the first?” Cruz asked, coming into the back, leading Lulu the lamb to her pen.
“Not telling,” Lilah said.
Lulu stretched her neck and tried to take a nip out of Cruz’s tush, and Lilah burst out laughing.
“That’s okay,” Cruz told the lamb. “All the ladies want to bite my ass. You can’t help yourself.”
Lilah rolled her eyes. “You leaving for your gig?”
“Yes. Unless you want to take a bite out of my ass. No?” he asked, grinning when Lilah just gave him a shove to the door. “Okay, but you’re missing out. I taste better than the jelly filling you have on your right boob.”
Lilah looked down. Strawberry jelly, from her toast. “Balls!”
“Balls?”
She sighed. “I can’t afford to say ‘Goddammit.’ I’m out of cash for the swear jar. And stop looking at my boob!”
He fished a five out of his pocket and slapped it into her hand for her swear jar. “Even though I don’t like to hear a woman talk disparagingly about my second favorite body part,” he said on a laugh as he left.
Alone, Lilah began the afternoon routine of cleaning out cages, changing blankets, changing water bowls, and starting laundry. She fed everyone and administered any medicines required. Then she cleaned and disinfected the entire kennel.
After that, she dealt with all the animal pickups and drop-offs for the day, which they had scheduled for certain hours only to make the running of the place go a little smoother. Then she took their overnight guests-all dogs today, plus Abigail-for one last walk before tucking everyone in for the night.
With that done, she faced her desk. She was behind in the paperwork and needed to type up their monthly news-letter and file, not to mention a little thing called study.
It used to stress her out how much endless work there always seemed to be, but it piled up in the best of times and she’d learned to let some of the little stuff go.
She gave Toby an extra treat, and while he wolfed it down, she went to her computer and pulled up the database of people in town who were willing to foster animals and had already been thoroughly checked out and approved. She ran through the list, calling potential candidates and hitting bingo on the third try. A woman named Shelly who worked at the rec center had lost her dog to a coyote earlier in the year. Lilah didn’t know Shelly personally, just in passing, but she was relieved to find her so ecstatic about Toby. Shelly said she could get him first thing in the morning if Lilah wouldn’t mind meeting her in town since the roads out to the kennels were still bad from the rains and Shelly only had a VW Beetle. They arranged to meet at the bakery, which worked for Lilah. Two birds with one stone and all that.
She’d have to eat a bag of carrots tonight to make up for the donuts she’d consume in the morning but it would be worth it.
With that accomplished, Lilah broke her own rules by taking Toby home with her, letting him sleep on a soft blanket next to her bed.
Sadie hopped up onto the mattress to look disdainfully down at the rumpled, tired dog.
“You were a stray, too,” Lilah reminded her.
Sadie gave her a banal stare.
“Stop. It’s just for the night. And you will not smack him around.”
Sadie lifted her nose in the air, turned in a circle, and daintily sat with her back to Toby, as if to drive the point home that he wasn’t even worth watching.
Sighing, Lilah pulled open her books to study, but she had trouble concentrating. Her mind was on the new strays. Toby, of course, but also the six foot, blue-eyed, badass stray who’d kissed like heaven on earth.
The next morning started at the usual crack of dawn. Sadie mewled a protest at the blare of the alarm. Not Toby. He was much perkier than he’d been the night before, even seeming to smile at Lilah as he padded with her into the small bathroom. He lay quietly on the rug while she showered-cherry blossom soap today-and yelped along with her as the hot water gave way to cold.
Lilah dressed and headed outside, the dog so close on her heels that he ran into her when she stopped short.
Early as it was, someone had been up earlier than her because her Jeep was in her yard waiting for her, a note taped to the windshield:
Hey Trouble-Note that the brake is not the skinny one on the right but the fat pedal on the left.
Adam humor. Lilah sighed and looked the Jeep over. The front end was still dented in pretty good, but it’d been hammered out a bit, and best of all, the engine started.
She and Toby turned away from the Jeep and headed inside the kennels, where Lilah made her way through her morning routine: feeding, watering, walking, cleaning… From seven to nine was drop-off/pickup time. This was when clients could drop off their animals for the day or pick up from the night before. They had another two-hour stretch at the end of the day for the same thing. At nine thirty, she put a sign on the door saying she’d be back at ten and told all the animals she’d return. Time to bring Toby to Shelly.
Lilah bribed Toby into the Jeep with his antibiotics wrapped in a piece of cheese, which he took with a sweet lick, and then they took off. Ten minutes later they stood outside the town bakery. “We can’t go in,” she told Toby. “I didn’t eat any carrots last night.”
Toby looked sad. She couldn’t blame him. But she’d promised herself to eat healthier and she meant it. “Of course, we could buy, say, a bran muffin. Or… carrot cake.” Yeah, that was brilliant. Cake and veggies, all in one. “Let’s do it,” she said, and Toby’s ears perked up. Clearly, he agreed wholeheartedly.
“Plus,” Lilah said, “it’s cold, right? It’ll be much warmer inside. And Dee allows dogs-she even has a canister where she has doggie treats. You’ll see.”
Toby nodded. He was on board. So Lilah opened the door. They were immediately blasted by the heated oven air and the scent of fresh sugary goodness and coffee. Her stomach growled. “Let’s get in line,” she said. “For carrot cake.”
The bakery was set up buffet style, meaning customers grabbed a tray for themselves and then had to walk by the open displays of all the goods in order to get to the cash register.
Cruel, cruel setup.
Lilah grabbed a tray, and oh look at that, two old-fashioned chocolate-glazed donuts somehow landed on it. “I don’t know, must be fate,” she told Toby, who followed closely on her heels, the leash slack and unnecessary.
The guy in front of her turned around and smiled. “Thought you didn’t believe in fate.”
Nick McFarlan, who ran the hardware store down the street. Lilah and Nick had gone together on and off through high school and had gone to prom together. He’d been her first kiss, her first boyfriend, her first everything.
Until they’d gone their separate ways for college, breaking up to experience new things. Lilah had done that all right, only it hadn’t exactly been as positive as she’d hoped for. When Nick had returned home after college, he had wanted to pick up right where they’d left off. But Lilah had been too raw and devastated over two unexpected things-her grandma’s death and a bad relationship experience while she’d been away.
So they’d fallen into a sort of friendship zone instead. Nick, buying two dozen donuts for his customers, smiled. “You’re looking good,” he said softly.
She laughed. “I’m wearing Carhartts.”
“I have fantasies about those Carhartts.”
“Really?”
“Okay, I have fantasies about what you might be wearing beneath them.” He leaned in playfully as if to peek for himself.
“Stop it.”
He grinned. “Admit it, one of these days I’m going to wear you down.”
She smiled, but the truth was he probably could. Like Cruz, he was good-looking, kind and familiar.
But she was tired, oh so very tired of familiar.
Dee smiled as she rang him up. “You can look beneath my Carhartts, Nick. Any time.”
Game, he looked her over. She was ten years older than them but still trim and pretty. And wore a man-eater smile. “You’re not wearing Carhartts,” Nick said.
Dee leaned over the counter, eyes sultry and laughing. “For you, I’d buy some.”
While Lilah waited for them to stop flirting, a jelly-filled donut fell onto her tray, all by itself, joining the two old-fashioned glazes. “Oh, look at that,” she murmured to Toby. “Fruit.” She started in on that one first and moaned in sheer bliss. “God, so much better than carrots.”
“You’re going to start a riot.”
At the low, familiar voice in her ear, she went still, then slowly turned to face Brady.
He was halfway through his own donut-a chocolate-frosted by the looks of it. And good Lord, talk about starting a riot. He was wearing army flight cargoes today and a soft-washed long-sleeved polo that was form-fitted to his toned body.
“Hey,” she said.
“Hey back, Crash.”
“Okay,” she said. “I object to that-” But she was talking to air because he’d crouched in front of Toby, elbows braced on his thighs as he offered a hand for the dog to sniff. “How’s he doing today?”
“Good.” She kneeled down as well. “But he’s really skittish, so you need to-”
Toby licked Brady’s hand, then arched up to lick his chin as well.
“Go slow,” Lilah finished on a sigh.
Toby was rewarded by Brady with a behind-the-ear scratching that had the little guy sliding to the floor in a boneless heap of pleasure.
“Ah, good boy,” Brady praised, giving him an all over body rub that left Lilah yearning for the same.
Brady rose fluidly on his feet, and for a beat, she found herself eye to eye with his flat, zero-fat stomach. That he could even have a flat, zero-fat stomach with the way he ate really irritated the hell out of her.
And/or turned her on. She couldn’t decide which. It was early yet.
A small smile curved his sexy mouth as he offered her a hand, telling her that he knew of her battle, and hell if that didn’t settle it. Irritation.
He gestured to the choice on her tray. “Nice.”
She winced, then realized he wasn’t judging her but truly complimenting her choice of breakfast. “I almost got one of those,” she admitted, gesturing to his chocolate-frosted. “But I didn’t eat carrots last night.”
Nodding as if this made perfect sense, he sank strong white teeth into his donut, licking chocolate frosting off his upper lip. “Mmm… ”
Her mouth watered. “I’ll give you a piece of mine for a piece of yours.”
His eyes darkened and he immediately broke off a large part of his donut and offered it to her. She did the same and felt his warm breath brush over her fingers before he sank his teeth into her jelly-filled.
Eyes on hers, he smiled as he chewed and swallowed. “Yeah, that’s good, too. Hey!” He pulled his tray back and looked at the second chunk she’d quickly snagged from his donut.
“Sorry,” she said with an easy grin. She wasn’t sorry. At all. And she might have laughed at the look on his face as he studied what was left, but she was up next at the cash register. She gently nudged Toby forward, as just ahead, Nick picked up his bag and turned to her.
“Hey, I saw your Jeep. I meant to ask what happened.”
“A little fender bender,” she said, extremely aware of Brady behind her.
Brady coughed and said, “Bullshit,” softly in her ear at the same time.
Lilah gave him a little nudge with her hip, knocking him out of her personal space bubble. He might kiss like heaven, and maybe he had great taste in food, but he was far too cocky.
Nick divided a look between them, then settled on Lilah. “I’m sensing a story here.”
“No. No stories, good or otherwise, and it wasn’t my fault.” She paused and sighed. “Okay, it was totally my fault.”
“She has a parking problem,” Brady said.
Nick laughed. “She has a lot of ‘parking’ problems.”
Great. Lilah loved Nick, but he had a big mouth. “My foot slipped,” she said. “No big deal.”
“Uh-huh. Remember our senior year when your foot ‘slipped’ and you drove off the bridge in your granny’s SUV?” Nick asked.
Both men were smiling now, and Lilah took a moment for a deep breath. “We’re not discussing this.” Digging through her purse for her wallet, she turned to Dee.
From over her shoulder a ten appeared. “For both of us,” Brady said.
Dee shot Lilah a brows-up look.
Lilah ignored the unspoken question. “Thanks,” she said to Brady. “I’ll owe you.”
“Donuts,” he clarified. “Not carrots.”
Dee smiled. “So, who’s the cutie?”
Lilah very carefully didn’t look at Brady “Brady Miller. He’s come to visit Adam and Dell.”
Dee cackled. In fact she laughed so hard, she ended up doubled over. “Honey, I meant the dog.”
“Oh.” Lilah grimaced as her face heated and tried to pretend that Brady wasn’t right behind her, looking far too amused.
“You’re right, though,” Dee said, sizing up Brady. “He’s a real cutie, too.”
Lilah sighed. “The dog,” she said firmly, “is a rescue. He’s going to a good home.” And finally, as she said this, she saw Shelly pull up out front. Which made her realize she had only a few minutes left with Toby.
She was well aware that the whole point to running the humane society was to place animals in loving homes. She knew this, but her gut didn’t always get it, and both it and her heart squeezed hard as she looked down at Toby waiting patiently at her feet, so quiet and accepting of whatever fate came his way. Dammit. Every one. She mourned every single one. “I have to go.”
Dee cocked her head, then looked to the door as Shelly entered the bakery. “Aw, honey,” she murmured, covering Lilah’s hand with her own, her voice holding so much sympathy that Lilah’s throat closed. “Never gets easier for you, does it?”
“What?” Brady asked, looking into Lilah’s eyes with a frown. “What doesn’t get easier? You stay up all night studying again?”
“Studying?” Dee asked in surprise. “Studying what?”
Lilah sighed. Her studies weren’t classified information, but neither had she told anyone other than Dell and Adam. And Brady-by accident. Literally. It was just that she’d quit college and come home with her tail between her legs. This time if something happened, she’d rather be a two-time failure in private. “Nothing,” she said, grabbing a bottle of water to offset the donut calories. She fumbled through the bottom of her purse for loose change.
“Oh, don’t worry about it.” Dee patted her hand. “It’s on the house since I know you’re about to get your heart broken.” She smiled sweetly over Lilah’s head at Brady. “I adopted my own sweet Lexie from her last year. She cried for a week. Lilah, not Lexie.”
“I did not,” Lilah said. She’d cried for two weeks. She knew exactly how ridiculous that was, just as she knew how silly she was being over dreading handing Toby off. She’d only had him one night, and he was going to a woman who really wanted him.
“She still comes and visits,” Dee told Brady.
Lilah felt the weight of Brady’s gaze as he studied her thoughtfully, but she couldn’t concentrate on that with Shelly waving at her. She was midforties, with wavy brown hair piled on top of her head and a friendly, kind face. She wore jeans and a rec center sweatshirt, perfect for a day with kids at the rec center and for being a new doggy mama.
Lilah grabbed the donuts Dee had bagged, murmured “let’s go” to Toby, and walked blindly toward Shelly. The two of them moved outside for some privacy. Lilah gave Shelly both her bag of donuts-she’d lost her appetite-and an introduction to Toby. In five minutes Shelly and Toby were fast friends, walking off together into the sunset.
Okay, it was morning, and the sun was nowhere close to setting, but to Lilah it felt like an ending nevertheless. She swiped at her eyes. “Suck it up,” she whispered fiercely to herself. “It’s all good, no matter how hard it is.”
“I’m going to refrain from saying ‘That’s what she said’ since you seem to be having a moment.”
Whirling around, she glared at Brady, who was leaning against the front wall of the building. “Why do you keep sneaking up on me?”
Instead of answering, he handed her a bag.
Opening it, she found two additional old-fashioned chocolate glazes. “Since you handed yours off. Thought you could use them,” he said with a shrug.
“I gave them away so I wouldn’t eat all three. I was saving myself.”
“Okay.” He tried to take the bag back, but she slapped his hand and hugged the bag to her chest.
He appeared to fight a smile, but his voice was serious. “Are you okay?”
“Yes. Though I’d be a hell of a lot better if you hadn’t told the whole world that I have a parking problem.”
“I didn’t tell the whole world. Just what’s his name. Your friendly ex.”
She blew out a sigh. “Nick. And how do you know he’s an ex?”
“It’s either that, or he’s a prospect. Which would explain the hungry look on his face.”
“Ex,” she admitted. “And he looked hungry because he was. For donuts.”
“And for you as well.” Stepping into her personal space bubble as he had a habit of doing, Brady cupped her face and tilted it up to his, running his thumb under her eye, catching a tear she’d missed. “You don’t look like you’re okay,” he said quietly.
She sent him another glare just for the heck of it and tried to turn away, but he held her still.
And close.
And Lord, he was deadly up close. “What?” she asked, sounding testy. Because she was.
He backed her closer to the building, under the eaves and away from the window, giving them a little bit of privacy. “You look like you need… ” His eyes darkened a little and his thumb brushed over her bottom lip now, making it tingle and tremble open.
“What? I need what?”
“This.” Holding her gaze for as long as possible, he leaned in and lightly brushed her mouth with his warm, firm one.
She heard a sound, a whimper really, and realized it was her. He was right. She needed this. Bad. Fisting his shirt to hold him close, she heard the sound again, horrifyingly, embarrassingly needy.
“Shh,” he whispered soothingly, and then kissed her once more, not lightly this time.
She promptly forgot everything, including the fact that they were standing on the sidewalk in broad daylight, with cars going by and people moving in and out of the bakery. It all faded away behind the wild pounding of her heart.
With a hand on the nape of her neck, Brady deepened the kiss, his other hand gliding down to the small of her back to hold her against him.
On board with that, she loosened her hands from his shirt and slid them up his chest and around his neck, pressing as close as she could to his hard, warm body.
When they were both breathless, he pressed his lips to her throat and murmured something she couldn’t quite catch because her blood was still roaring through her veins. “What?” she murmured.
He rocked her against him. “No idea what I’m going to do with you.”
She didn’t know what he was going to do with her either, but she hoped it was good. She might have asked him to speak slowly and in great detail but she became aware that her hands had migrated and were now perched precariously low on what felt like perfect eight-pack abs.
Two inches south and she’d have hit the jackpot.
She glanced down and revised. One inch. He hadn’t moved so she tipped her head back up and found his eyes on hers, dark and scorching. “We seem to have a little chemistry,” she whispered.
His lips curved slightly in acknowledgment.
“I should go,” she said slowly, but her mind wasn’t on the words. Instead it was thinking, One more inch! “Really. You’re going to need to back off a little, because I need to-”
He lifted his hands, indicating that he wasn’t holding her in any way and she felt the blush on her face. Gathering her dignity, she forced herself to back away and turned to the Jeep.
“Lilah.”
She kept her back to him and closed her eyes. “Yeah?”
When he didn’t say anything, she glanced back.
“Why do you give the animals away if you want to keep them?”
“Because that’s what I do,” she said, surprised. “It’s my job.”
He came up behind her, putting his hand on hers on the Jeep handle, preventing her from opening the door. “And what’s up with the studying all night and not telling anyone?”
“That’s… private.”
“A secret?”
“Sort of.” She paused. “Okay, yes, I told you a secret. I was frazzled and had just hit your truck, and you were holding the babies in the box for me, and… ”
And she’d been thinking he looked so cute holding them, too, looking all helpful and tough at the same time.
Oh, and that he had a nice ass, and that she hadn’t been with a man in a long time. Too long.
And that he wasn’t a fixture in this town, which made him both dangerous and safe… “I was momentarily distracted,” she admitted. “And it slipped out. But now that you’ve reminded me of it, you do owe me a secret in return. Make it a good one. I could use a distraction.”
“I don’t do secrets.”
Okay, then. Good to know. Drawing a deep breath, she pushed his hand out of her way and he let her. She opened the Jeep’s driver door and climbed in, taking just one more last quick glance. But only one because more than that with him tended to render her incapable of reason. “Thanks for the donuts,” she said. “Twice.”
He nodded but didn’t otherwise move. She blew out a sigh and eyed the truck parked in front of her. “You should probably go first. I’m even more distracted today than yesterday. And as you know, I tend to do stupid things when distracted.”
“Something to remember,” he said lightly.