“Heat isnt enough.” She spread her arms, and dozens of candles flared into flame. “Its warmth, my love, my only love, that heals the wounded heart.”
With her arms still open wide, she sat up and welcomed him to her.
* * *
DANA had hardly gotten back in the door—and kept Jordan out—had barely settled down with Othello again and cleared her mind enough to focus on the task at hand, when there was another knock.
Figuring Jordan had come back with some new ploy to wheedle his way in, she ignored it.
She was, by Jesus, going to spend two hours working on this book angle, and then she was going to think about the drive to the Peak, what had been said there. What hadnt been said on the drive home.
If she had to think about Jordan, she sure as hell wasnt going to do it when he was around.
Hed sniff it out of her head like a bloodhound. There was another knock, more insistent this time. She merely bared her teeth and kept scanning the play.
But the barking got her attention.
Realizing that she would get nowhere until the door was answered, she got up and opened it. “What the hell are you doing here? Both of you.” She scowled at Flynn, then leaned down to rub Moes floppy ears and make kissing noises. “Did Malory kick you out? Poor baby.” Her sympathetic tone turned icy as she straightened and peered at her brother. “Youre not sleeping here.”
“Dont plan to.”
“Then whats in the bag?”
“Stuff.” He squeezed inside, around his dog and his sister. “I hear you had a rough one last night.”
“It was an experience, and Im not in the mood to rehash it. Its after ten. Im working, then Im sleeping.”
With, she thought, every light in the apartment burning, just as she had the night before.
“Fine. Heres his stuff.”
“Whose stuff?”
“Moes. Ill haul over the big-ass bag of dog food tomorrow, but theres enough in there for his breakfast.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” She looked in the bag hed shoved into her arms and saw a mangled tennis ball, a tattered rope, a box of dog biscuits on top of about five pounds of dry dog food.
“What the hell is this?”
“His stuff,” Flynn repeated cheerfully, and grunted when Moe leaped up to plant his paws on his shoulders. “Moes your new temporary roommate. Well,gotta go. See you tomorrow.”
“Oh, no, you dont.” She tossed the bag on a chair, beat him to the door by a step, and threw herself against it. “Youre not walking out that door without this dog.”
He gave her a smile that was both mildly quizzical and wholly innocent. “You just said I couldnt sleep here.”
“You cant. Neither can he.” “Now look, youve hurt his feelings.” He looked sorrowfully at Moe, who was trying to nose his way into the bag. “Its all right, big guy. She didnt mean it.”
“Give me a break.”
“You dont know what dogs understand. Scientific tests are inconclusive.” He gave Dana a brotherly pat on the cheek. “So anyway, Moes going to stay for a couple weeks. Play guard dog.”
“Guard dog?” She noted that Moe was now chewing on the bag. “Give me a serious break.”
Obviously not finding the brown paper to his taste, Moe wandered off to sniff for crumbs, and Flynn sat down, stretched out his legs. Hed reconsidered his strategy and decided that this tack was foolproof with Dana. “Okay. Ill stay and be guard dog since you have no faith in Moe. Lets flip a coin for the bed.”
“Im the only one sleeping in my bed, and I have less faith in you than I do in that big mutt, who is currently chasing his own tail. Moe! Cut that out before you wreck my place.”
She considered just tearing out her own hair when Moe bashed against a table in his desperate attempt to latch teeth onto tail, and sent books thudding down on his head.