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“I have Henrietta,” Olivia said with a sigh. “She likes her beauty sleep too much to be bothered with alerting me.” She paused and focused into the distance. “You know, I’m not sure what Hen would do if a bad guy showed up at my house. I have a terrible feeling that she might try to lick the guy to death.” Olivia flicked a smile toward Bob, then checked her watch. “Speaking of Hen, I need to run by the house and get her fed, then it’s back to the office. I’ve got some work to do for a grand jury that was just seated.” Olivia stepped forward and bent to give Beowolf a kiss. “I’m so glad to have met you.” When she stood, she handed Nutsbe the terrycloth slobber rag from their greeting. “Thank you for this.”
Shoving the cloth into his pocket, Nutsbe asked, “Do you usually do two high-dollar trials at the same time?”
“This one happened to land in my area of expertise, and I wanted to be involved. I’ll be burning the midnight oil for the next week or so. I have a long night ahead of me, so I better get going.” She extended her hand. “Bob, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your coming to the rescue with Nutsbe and Beowolf. I promise not to make this short-notice thing a habit.”
“Don’t let that stop you if you find yourself in another bind, Olivia. It doesn’t hurt to ask. We’ll step up when we can.”
“Nutsbe, so glad to finally put a name with a jogger. It’s nice to know you’re on the other side of the fence.” She offered a finger wave as she walked to her car and climbed in.
“Nice to know you’re on the other side of the fence?” Olivia muttered to herself after she shut her door. It sounded like she was glad there was a fence between them, and she was not.
She pinched the top of her nose and closed her eyes as she filled her lungs with air.
Okay, today had been a long day, and she had used a lot of words. Right now, she was going to give herself a bit of grace.
Olivia reached forward and pressed the engine on as she reviewed her conversation in the house.
There was something about Nutsbe’s eyes—the way he looked at her—that seemed to tug at her secrets. Well, not secrets per se—just not conversational fodder with a stranger that was so incredibly personal. Only Jaylen and her attorney knew Mickey had left her for someone else. Not even her siblings knew about the tawdry end of her marriage.
And then there was the fact that—even though there was a sobbing woman rolling on the carpet with a dog—this had still been a professional meeting, not a social call.
Okay. No more of that. Move your thoughts elsewhere.
She let her motor idle while Nutsbe and Bob loaded Beowolf into the Iniquus vehicle.
Beowolf was exactly the dog Bob had described over the phone as a gentle giant. Just looking at him had a calming effect.
He was lion-sized, though. And it would be a trick for him to go unnoticed when he went into court with Candace, the way Valor might have done.
With the Iniquus team driving off and her seat belt in place, Olivia put her car in gear. Twisting to look over her shoulder as she backed down the drive, she caught a glance of herself in the rearview mirror—face flushed, eyes bright. The grin painting across her face was too big and toothy. She didn’t remember smiling. Had she been smiling like this the whole time?
Olivia shifted into drive, started down the road, and at the stop sign, looked at herself again. Still smiling, still pink-faced, she put her hand to her forehead to see if she was feverish, but her skin was cool. She tried to drop the smile, but it popped right back into place.
That was how she had looked in there?
That was how Nutsbe had seen her?
The car behind her tapped its horn in a friendly, “Could you move it along?” beep. She raised her hand by way of apology and turned the corner.
To think, Nutsbe had been living behind her, possibly for the entire two years since she’d moved in. Years. Of course, with that fence, it wasn’t like she could have wandered up to his kitchen door and asked to borrow a cup of sugar. But no doubt, had she known he lived there, she would have found some excuse to go over and introduce herself. After all, she had figured out what time he jogged, the mornings when he ran.
Tumbling that through her mind now made Olivia feel uncomfortable. Sure, he was cute and built, and she had thought of him as an innocent bit of eye candy while she drank her coffee. No, not even that. That wasn’t a good characterization. There was something safe about his jogging by. Something comforting about knowing he was in the area.
Stop smiling.
He knew Henrietta from his jogs.
Yeah, Henrietta liked him, too, and always went over to stand in the window or the opened door to watch him. Henrietta was actually the reason Olivia spotted Nutsbe in the first place, and Henrietta was the reason why Olivia knew when Nutsbe was coming up the road.
Yeah, she wasn’t the stalker. Her dog was.
Olivia understood why; Nutsbe just had “good guy” written all over him. And speaking to him didn’t diminish that image in Olivia’s mind.
Although, that look of utter helplessness on his face when Candace started crying, had been comical.
It was endearing to watch a tough guy go all mush.
Other than that, he was as she had seen him on his runs.
