Page 16 of Puppy Christmas

“Clearly, you understand children better than I thought. I wanted to apologize for doubting you and to let you know that I’m already lining up several other parents who might be interested in a consultation. I won’t include you on our list of approved providers until this case with Emily is complete, but you’re on the right track.” She paused again, this time with a laugh lurking in the subtext. “Did youreallyput Christmas bows on all the puppies?”

Lila felt an inexplicable need to apologize. “I had some red ribbon left over from our groundbreaking ceremony a few years ago. It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

“Mr. Ford was delighted by it. And byyou, I need hardly add.”

She didn’t want to ask. It was unprofessional. It made her sound desperate.

She asked anyway. “What exactly did he say?”

“That he likes you. That he trusts you. That he couldn’t be happier with the way things are turning out.” Anya let the laugh go, but the soft breathlessness of it was cut short. “Don’t let him down, Lila. He’s counting on you. We all are.”

Lila barely had time for these heavy words to settle before Anya hung up. It was followed by Sophie flouncing forward with a somber black dress Lila had only worn to funerals.

“Since you don’t like any of my other choices, how about this?” she asked. She held it up to her frame and grimaced at the overflow of the hem at her feet. Sophie was a good six inches shorter than her two sisters, something that had always been a source of annoyance to her. “Hmm. Maybe not. What was that about, by the way?”

Lila took the dress and tossed it onto her bed, which was showing signs of becoming the untidy heap so often visible in Dawn’s room. “Anya wanted me to know what a good job I’m doing so far.”

Sophie perked up, her eyes widening in delight. “Oh, Lil—congratulations. That’s fantastic news.”

“No, it’s not.” Lila groaned as she surveyed what remained of her closet. The boxy suits and funereal dresses that would keep Ford at bay were no good. Any princess-like confections were out, too, since she was going to be doing a lot of crawling around with a puppy today.

Judging by Anya’s call—and the implications behind it—she needed something approachable. Something soft. Something so wholly unlike her it was laughable. She had no other choice. People were counting on her. People werealwayscounting on her.

“Why did we ever think it was a good idea to put me in the same room as a child?” she asked. It was a rhetorical question, so she didn’t bother waiting for an answer. “This is your fault, you know. Yours and Dawn’s. If you hadn’t wrangled me into that piece of pink fluff, none of this would have happened. Everyone would know me for what I am and adjust their expectations accordingly.”

Sophie blinked at her, not the least bit intimidated by the criticism. “And what are you?” she asked.

Lila heaved a heavy sigh. That answer was easy.

“I’m the fun sponge.”

* * *

Ford Ford’s house wasn’t at all what Lila had been expecting. Meeting a well-groomed man in a tuxedo—even one with a young daughter—had a way of creating the illusion of secret agents, sleek chrome-filled bachelor pads, and vintage sports cars.

As Lila double-checked the address and pulled up to a tiny brick house, she realized she couldn’t have been further from the truth. All the houses on this street were boxy and small—less than a thousand square feet apiece—and almost every yard had some variation of a snowman built in it, with discarded carrots and scarves littering the scene. Christmas decorations were already up in abundance, many of the SUVs and family cars bearing fuzzy antlers and red-felt noses on their front bumpers—including Ford’s.

“A minivan?” she said as she pulled open her car door and stepped out. “He drives a reindeer minivan?”

“He has to, unfortunately. He’s in charge of car pool one week every month.”

Lila held back a small shriek of surprise.

Ford appeared next to the large snow pile that must have been hiding him. “For a while there, I tried cramming the lot of them in my two-door sedan, but it didn’t work. For some reason, kids get mad when you make them ride in the trunk.” He grinned and drew closer. “Well, that’s not true. The kids loved it. Their mothers, however…”

Lila remembered, almost too late, to breathe. The mortification of having been caught disparaging Ford’s car was paltry compared to the sensation she felt at seeing him in nothing but a pair of red-and-black buffalo-check pajama pants. He had on boots and a coat thrown hastily over the top, not to mention a small puppy clutched to his bare chest, but he had to be freezing. It was all of twenty-five degrees out here, the windows on every parked car frosted over and clouds of her breath coming out in short, panting puffs.

“We don’t have a fenced yard,” he apologized as he curled the puppy more protectively against his chest. “And it takes at least half an hour to get Emily layered up to go outside, so that makes me the king of potty breaks. Come on in. Have you had coffee?”

Lila strove to find her tongue, but it was cleaved to the top of her mouth. She’d known that Ford in a tuxedo was attractive, all those folds of dark cloth molded to a body that knew what it was about. Even yesterday at the kennel, in jeans and a sweater, he’d looked a fine figure of a man, his shoulders broad and his stance powerful.

But this? Bare-chested? In the cold? All those firmly etched lines flexing with his every breath?

“I haven’t had any either,” he said. “Although Ihavefed and watered this little beast, so I figure I’m not doing too bad overall. Oh,h-e-l-l. Quick. Let’s get inside before—”

“Ford! Ford, you’ve got to be kidding. You’re going to catch your death of cold like that.”

Lila turned to find herself being accosted by a pretty brunette in a puffy parka that went down to her knees. She held a steaming mug of coffee in each hand, which she extended toward the pair of them. It took Lila a moment to process that not only was Ford being offered a hot beverage, but she was, too.