Bending to rub the wagging dog’s ears with both hands, Dan grinned. “So, what breed do you think he is?”
“Logan guesses part Rottweiler, part Lab and a few mystery genes that I think include imp and demon.”
>
Laughing, Dan gave the dog one last rub and straightened, absently brushing his hands on his pants. “He seems like a nice enough fellow to me.”
“That might be true if he would stay where he’s supposed to be. Popping up unexpectedly to unnerve the guests is hardly good for business, even though we try to remember to inform everyone checking in that my brother has a dog who poses no threat to them. To be honest, I’ve attempted to talk Logan into finding another home for Ninja. Logan says he tried at the beginning, but no one else wanted him, and now I think they’ve bonded. I am going to insist now that he should reinforce the fence, both for the safety of the dog and for the comfort of our guests.”
“Sounds reasonable.”
They resumed their walk back to the inn with Ninja plodding companionably beside them. Kinley hoped the wandering dog would join the list of things Dan would not feel compelled to mention in his article.
Very little about her interactions with him thus far had gone exactly as she’d planned. He wasn’t at all what she had expected, and she certainly couldn’t have predicted—or controlled—the other minor glitches since he’d arrived. She could only hope the next few days while he was here would go as smoothly as possible. And that she would manage to resist his seemingly habitual flirtation. She knew better than to take him seriously. Even if he found her attractive, which seemed to be true, it didn’t mean he had any intention of doing anything about it. A few laughs, a few exchanged smiles—at the most a few days of a lighthearted fling—and then he would move on to the next assignment, the next willing woman. At least, that was what she surmised about him, based on painful past experience.
That wasn’t the way she rolled, she assured herself. She would stay firmly in command of herself while he was here.
The new post lay on the drive next to the jack and two-by-four rig that currently supported the portico. Logan, Curtis and Zach sat in rockers on the porch eating sandwiches and drinking iced tea that Bonnie had most likely provided for them. Seeing the trio approaching him, Logan grimaced, set his empty tea glass aside and stood. “Where did you find him?”
“He found us,” Kinley replied. “Halfway down the road to the cafe. I take it you didn’t know he was out?”
“Obviously. I wouldn’t let him wander down the road,” Logan muttered with a scowl. He reached down to loop two fingers beneath the dog’s leather collar. “I’ll take him back to my yard. Curtis, Zach, y’all finish up your lunches and then we’ll get that post in place. We’ll get it caulked and primed this afternoon and paint it in the morning.”
Kinley liked the sound of that. Barring any unforeseen complications, the front of the inn should be fully restored by the time the Sossaman-Thompson wedding party arrived for rehearsal, which should mollify Eva. She would probably find something else to criticize or complain about, but that was one issue out of the way.
“I hope you can figure out how he escaped this time,” she said to her brother. “We really can’t risk having him disrupt a wedding rehearsal or even scare guests who are just trying to take a walk through the garden.”
He’d heard that speech probably a dozen times since he’d taken in the stray dog, but she felt compelled to remind him again what was at stake. She didn’t even want to think how Eva would react if this hulk of a dog interrupted the rehearsal—or even worse, she thought with a slight shudder, the wedding.
Logan gave her a look over his shoulder and started to speak, then stopped himself with a visible effort, probably because he remembered that Dan was within hearing. She would probably get a lecture later about her habitually bossy tendencies. Maybe after he’d gotten that off his chest, she would suggest again that he should try to find a more suitable home for the dog. Surely someone wanted a Rottweiler-Lab-imp-demon mix.
Dan glanced at Kinley when Logan led the dog out of sight. “Your brother is limping. Do you think he hurt himself this morning?”
“No, he’s had the limp for several years.” She motioned toward the porch without elaborating. “Shall we go in?”
“I’m sure you have things to do this afternoon,” Dan said when they entered the dining room through the side door. “Don’t let me keep you from them.”
“I should get back to my to-do list,” she agreed. “What will you do?”
“I think I’ll drive around the area. Check out some of the local flavor. Maybe visit one or two of those museums, myself.”
“We’d love to have you for dinner this evening, Dan,” Bonnie said from the doorway into the foyer. “Logan, Kinley and I will be dining in my apartment downstairs at six. Nothing fancy, but there will be plenty of food, if you’d like to join us.”
“That’s sounds great, if you don’t think your brother will mind.”
“Of course Logan won’t mind,” Bonnie assured him with a smile.
Dan grinned back at her. “Then I’ll be there. Thank you, Miss Bonnie.”
Bonnie giggled. Kinley tried not to scowl. “If you two will excuse me, I have some calls to make.”
It was a very good thing, she told herself as she headed rapidly toward the office, that she hadn’t taken Dan’s flirting seriously. If she had, she just might be feeling a bit envious of the smile he’d just given her sister. Which, of course, she wasn’t. Not at all, she assured herself.
She closed the office door behind her with a bit more of a sharp snap than she had intended.
Chapter Four
That evening, Dan tapped on the door of Bonnie’s basement apartment. She welcomed him in with a warm smile, informing him that her siblings were on their way. Her living quarters included an airy, open kitchen-dining-living area, and she told him there were two bedrooms with en suite baths. Her decorating skills were obvious here, too, with pale colors and light woods making the limited space feel bigger and very comfortable. Windows brought in light on two sides of the apartment and lamps had been used judiciously to brighten dark corners.