“You look familiar,” he told her, scooping her up. “You’re one of the Moorelands’ puppies.”
The Moorelands raised Labs and were clients of Dell’s. And Adam’s as well, since he’d trained nearly all their dogs.
“She’s going to make a great watchdog,” Dell said.
“Yeah?” Adam cuddled her close. She stuck out her pink tongue and licked his nose. “Looks like maybe she’s more of a lover than a fighter.”
“Well, she has to be trained, of course,” Dell said.
Adam lifted his gaze to his brother, who was, for once, giving nothing away. “You taking on another dog? Gert’s gonna be jealous.”
“Not me.”
Ah. He saw where this was going now. “I’ve already got Milo.”
“Not you, either.” Dell dropped into a chair and slouched back, making himself comfortable. He smiled. His I’ve-been-meddling smile.
“Shit,” Adam said, eyes narrowing. “What are you up to?”
“Nila’s place was broken into last night.”
Their mom lived in an unsecured trailer on acreage that yielded no crops or anything else of value. She had nothing to steal. “Was she hurt?”
“No. Pissed off but not hurt. Probably just some stupid teenagers, bored and looking for trouble.” A touch of a smile crossed Dell’s mouth at that.
They’d both been there.
“So you’re giving her this killer to watch over the property?” Adam asked, laughing softly because the “killer” was already fast asleep, her head on his chest.
“Not me,” Dell said. “I’m booked today.”
Adam’s laughed faded. “No.”
“Why not?”
“For starters, Nila hasn’t spoken to me in months.”
“Yeah, not since she came here and threw your money back in your face. I know. Does it really matter, Adam? This has to be done.” Dell stood up. “Oh, and bring your toolbox. She’s got a lock that needs fixing and a leaky sink.”
“Shit. She’s not going to let me fix anything for her.”
“Yeah, she will, because it doesn’t require you putting out any money.” Dell moved to the door. “I loaded some supplies for the puppy into your truck.”
“I didn’t say yes.”
“You didn’t say no, either.”
“You’re the one who goes out there and provides actual services,” Adam said. “I have nothing to offer her, we have nothing to talk about.”
“You know damn well what you have to offer. You can fix what needs fixing, and she won’t have to pay for it. Bring her the damn dog, Adam. See your mother. Help her out. I’ll give you a Boy Scout badge for it.”
Adam flipped him off. Dell returned the gesture and left.
Adam looked at the sleeping puppy. “Well? You going to be a watchdog or what?”
She opened her eyes and licked his chin again and then set her head back on his chest. Trusting. Sweet. A real badass.
Adam shook his head and walked out to his truck, puppy in tow. Just outside of town, he came upon Holly on the side of the highway, kicking her tire.
Adam spent a moment wrestling with his conscience and then pulled over. “Stay,” he said to the puppy, and got out.
Holly watched him come toward her. She’d stopped kicking her tire and was now leaning against the Jeep as if she was just out for a little sunbathe.
“Problem?” he asked.
“Nope.”
He eyed her very flat tire and, unbelievably, the pair of pliers sticking out of it. “So that’s what, a figment of my imagination?”
“Ran over the stupid thing. I mean, who does that?”
“You, apparently.” Adam crouched down and studied the tire.
“It’s dead.”
“Yes,” he said. “Very dead.” He rose. “Spare?”
She shook her head. “It’s flat, too. I’ve called Red. He’s coming out, but he’s going to be an hour or so.”
Adam nodded. “I’ll give you a ride.”
She looked at him for a long moment. “I can tell you’re on a mission, and it’s not a happy one. I can wait for Red, Adam.”
He met her gaze. How the hell she managed to read him like she did, when no one else could, he hadn’t the foggiest idea. “I’m not leaving you out here on the road like this.”
“But—”
Jesus. “Just get in the damn truck, Holly.”
Unbelievably, she smiled. “And you think you’re not sweet.” She sashayed toward his truck and hopped up into the shotgun position. He stood where he was for a moment, taking a deep breath. Then he ambled over and got in behind the wheel.
Holly was snuggling the puppy, who was practically beside herself in ecstasy. “She’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen,” Holly said. “Where did you get her?”
“She’s not mine. I’m delivering her.” He put the truck in gear and looked over his shoulder to make a U-turn.
“Oh, please don’t,” Holly said.
“Don’t what?”
“Don’t go out of your way to take me home. I’ll come with you to deliver her.”
“No,” he said.
Holly blinked, and he cursed himself for making the reveal. She was sharp as hell, and the wheels in her brain were whirling so fast there was almost smoke. There was no way he’d get rid of her now. “It’s a forty-five-minute drive,” he said.
“I don’t mind.”
She didn’t mind. Perfect. Jaw tight, he drove. And drove. Out of town. Into the hills. Past the hills to a tiny dirt road to Nowhere, USA.
And stopped at the double-wide trailer that Nila called home.
The puppy was asleep in Holly’s lap. Holly had gifted Adam with silence on the ride, but he could tell it was costing her. He gestured to the trailer. In the open doorway stood a tall, willowy woman in jeans and a long sweater. No shoes. In spite of it being winter, Nila rarely ever wore shoes, even though he’d made sure that she had some. “Nila,” he said. “My mother.”
“I thought she was mad at you.”
“She is.”
“The puppy’s for her? You’re bringing your mother a puppy to make up with her?”
Because that thought clearly had her going all soft in the eyes, he shook his head. “The puppy’s from Dell, not me.” He took the puppy from her hands, wrapped her inside his jacket, and opened the door. “Stay here.”
“But—”
“Holly.” Christ, this was hard enough. He couldn’t do this with her here. “Please.”
She stared at him for a long beat, and then nodded. “I’ll stay,” she said quietly, and reached out and squeezed his arm. Soothing him. “I promise.”
Nodding, he shut the truck door and walked to the back and grabbed his toolbox before heading toward the trailer.
Nila watched his approach with dark eyes that gave nothing away. Like mother, like son.
“Adam,” she said.
“Dell said you need some stuff fixed.” He showed her the toolbox.
She nodded but continued to block him. Great. He met her gaze. “You still mad at me?”
“You going to try to give me money again?” she asked.
“Not today.”
A very small smile curved her mouth, and she moved aside for him but then stopped him with a hand on his arm, gesturing to the wriggling mass beneath his jacket.
Adam pulled out the puppy and handed it to her.
The breath left her lungs in a soft “awww,” and her gaze flew to his face. “Homeless?”
Adam lied without compulsion. “Yes. She needs a good home.”
Nila hugged the thing in close, and Adam knew the puppy would be completely accepted.
In a way he never had been.
Shaking that off, he fixed her lock and sink in five minutes flat and then headed to the door. The puppy supplies had been moved from the back of his truck to the top step.
Holly, of course.
“Here’s everything you’ll need,” he said to Nila. “She’ll have to get her shots in a few weeks. Dell will take care of that. If there are any problems, call one of us. When she’s a little older, I’ll train her for you.”
Nila gestured to the truck. “Who’s that?”
Adam looked through the windshield at Holly, who smiled. His chest had been tight for the past two hours, too f**king tight, but her smile eased it somehow. “A client’s daughter.”
Nila looked at Holly for another moment and then at Adam. “She’s more.”
Adam didn’t bother to ask how she knew. “You have enough supplies for several weeks. I’ll send Dell with more.”
“I’d like you to bring them to me.”
Adam looked at her, seeing a warmth in her eyes that hadn’t been there before. “Okay.”
Nila nodded and turned to go inside. “Bring the woman with you. She makes you smile. You have a good one.”
And then she shut the door.
Adam was still shaking his head when he slid into the truck.
“What?” Holly asked.
“She likes you.”
“How about her son?”
“He likes you, too.”
She smiled and then let him drive back in peace. When they got back to her Jeep, the tire was repaired. Holly leaned in and gave Adam a kiss. “Thanks,” she said.
“For?”
“For letting me in. Did it hurt?”
He stared into her smiling eyes. “Only a little.”
She laughed. “I’m growing on you.”
“You’re absolutely not.”
“I so am.” And then she was gone.
He watched her drive off into the sunset and had to shake his head. Because she was right. She was growing on him.
Big-time.
That night Holly sank into a hot bath. With a sigh, she set her head back and relaxed. She was supposed to be reading next month’s book club book. Lilah had picked it, and she’d chosen a romance. Damn newlyweds. Lilah had told them all that she expected a full book report on the characterization of the hero, but she’d been looking at Holly when she’d said it.
Holly knew that Lilah was wondering, hoping, that she wasn’t going to hurt Adam.
She wasn’t.
She planned on being the best thing that had ever happened to him.
And he her…
God, she could still, if she closed her eyes, feel his hands on her body. Just the memory of the way he’d touched her was enough to arouse. She could still hear his low erotic whisper in her ear, feel the delicious roughness of his day-old beard when he’d scraped it over her inner thigh, see the look of pleasure on his face as he’d taken control and moved over her.
She wanted him again.
Still…
She drifted on that thought for a while, until from the tub’s edge, her phone buzzed an incoming text from Derek.
I’m appealing the divorce. Need to see you.
Holly nearly dropped the phone into the tub. He was appealing the divorce? Since when? And what the hell was he talking about? He’d had his chance already, back when she’d filed and he’d ignored it. She’d had to petition the court for an uncontested divorce, and again he’d ignored it. Holly had met with the judge, who’d finally granted the divorce. So what was to appeal now? Grinding her teeth, she pounded out Derek’s number.
He answered with, “Hey, wife.”
“No,” she said. “No, no, no, no. Not your wife.”
“Technicality.”
“We’re divorced,” she said. “You didn’t show up for the hearing, but I did. I heard the judge decree it done. There’s nothing to appeal. We’re free of each other. You promised.”
“Ah, but I never promised any such thing.”
This was true. He hadn’t. He hadn’t said a damn word in all this time, just radio silence.
“I’m thinking we rushed this thing through,” Derek said.
Holly was holding the phone so tight she was surprised it didn’t shatter. “How is years of separation being hasty?”
“I don’t know, Holly. It just is.”
“I was gone for weeks before you even noticed.”
“I’m noticing now. I miss you.”
Bullshit, he missed her. “Call one of your students,” she said.
“Yeah, that’s just the thing,” he said. “Single professors don’t really have any business calling their students.”
She almost drowned herself by accident trying to stand up in the slippery tub because she liked to stand up when she was yelling at someone. “Are you kidding me? That’s why you’re going to appeal? Because being married gave you an edge with the silly, floozy college coeds?” She stepped out of the tub and stood na**d, trembling in fury as she dripped water all over her bathroom. “You are slime, Derek. Scum. The scourge of the earth—”
“Listen, sorry to interrupt this fascinating tirade on my character, but you do remember that you were once one of those silly, floozy coeds, right?”
She disconnected. And then, because she was out of control, she tossed her phone to the counter, where it slid across the granite and hit the tile floor. Think, she told herself. An appeal isn’t the end of the world. No judge would grant him an appeal.
Probably.
Steaming, she yanked a towel off the rack and dried herself. She stormed into her closet and stared at the slim pickings. She needed to do laundry. Dammit. She grabbed the first thing she came to, a little black cocktail dress. Whatever. She shimmied into it and grabbed her keys. Maybe she’d once, very briefly, been a silly coed, back when she’d been desperate to belong, desperate to be loved, but no longer. She was a woman who’d gotten herself a life, one she actually liked.