Page 23 of Puppy Christmas

“Try me.”

He stole a peek behind him, probably to ensure that Emily wasn’t anywhere near, and dropped his voice. “You heard most of it already,” he said. Lila had to step closer to hear him, even though proximity to this man was the last thing she needed. There was something about him that was so…easy. Easy to like, easy to trust.

Easy to fall for.

“Emily has never been great at making friends.” He sighed. “I don’t know why. I used to think it was because of the implants and the speech classes she has to go to, but there’s more to it than that. She’s… Quiet. Reserved.”

Lila nodded. Quiet and reserved were two qualities she was intimately acquainted with.

“So much of her life has been spent being poked and stared at by strangers, dragged from one specialist to the next. She’s taken every bit of it in stride, but that’s a lot to ask of such a little kid. Add a parent who has no idea what he’s doing most of the time, and this is what you get. A six-year-old with the weight of the world on her shoulders.”

That was another thing Lila could readily understand. Take an already level-headed child and throw her into a routine of doctors and adult responsibilities, and the results were understandably quiet. Reserved.Cold.

“I owe Helen so much,” he added candidly. “Helen and Maddie and Danica and pretty much every other parent within a five-block radius. Some days, they’re the only way I’m able to get from start to finish. Other days, well…”

“Well?” Lila prompted.

He shrugged his shoulder and offered her a rueful grin. “There’s just so many of them.” With a laugh, he added, “It was wrong of me to use you like that, and I really am sorry about putting you in that position, but you saw how quick she was to give us some time alone, how easily she dropped her plans for this weekend. She almost never does that. As strange as it sounds, this is the first time in years that I’ve been able tobreathe.”

If Lila had thought that being physically close to this man was a bad idea, it was nothing compared to the effect his confession was having on her. His flirtation startled her, his playfulness unsettled her, his charm knocked the air from her chest. Honesty, however, was turning out to be the worst of the lot. In that moment, his handsome face so earnest—sopleading—he could have asked her for anything, and she’d have given it to him.

Partially to preclude this catastrophe from taking place and partially because he seemed to expect a response, she nodded once. “Okay.”

He shifted, his posture again resuming its strong, wide stance. “Okay, what?”

“Okay, I understand. Okay, I forgive you.”

“That’s it?” His voice dropped into a note of suspicion. “What’s the catch?”

“You are, obviously.”

He tilted his head in a question, one brow raised. The arch of that brow was so cool, so debonair, it forced a laugh out of her. This man had no idea what kind of effect he had on women. He probably had no idea how dangerous it was for him to saunter around in the cold without a shirt on, either. Or evenwithone on. He wouldn’t be standing there in a skintight thermal and faded jeans, his feet in fuzzy red socks, if he did.

“You don’t think it’s a little bit weird that every unattached mom in your life is on the prowl?” she asked.

For the first time since she’d met Ford, he looked more flustered than she felt, the tips of his ears glowing adorably pink. He glanced away. “They’re not on the prowl. It’s just a game we play. It’s not easy, meeting people when you have children.”

She almost snorted. “Helen’s cute. She could swipe right and have plenty of men lining up to introduce themselves.”

“It’s not like that. Our kids go to the same school.”

“Oh, is that what people find attractive? Proximity and shared bake-sale duties? No wonder I’m still single. I’ve been going about this all wrong.” She shook her head, amazed that such a seemingly intelligent man could be so dense. “Ford, you’re a single dad. You’re gainfully employed. You have the face of a Skarsgård and the body of a Hemsworth. And from everything I’ve been able to glean, you’ll flirt with anything that has a pulse.”

The pink had yet to die down from his ears, but he regained some of his composure. It was accompanied by a mischievous smile she didn’t trust. “I didn’t quite catch that bit about the Hemsworths,” he said.

Lila opted for the high road. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Or the bit with the Skarsgårds.”

“You’re missing the point.” She leveled him with a careful stare, her breathing only slightly hitched. The look he was giving her was so eager, sohungrythat it was no wonder he had all of the women in this neighborhood at his feet. “Most men go through life without sending every female they meet into a flutter.”

“But every woman doesn’t go into a flutter,” he pointed out. “You didn’t.”

She opened her mouth and closed it again, unwilling to make the error of speaking her thoughts aloud. She could have enlightened him on a number of things, including her indifferent feelings toward him, but she didn’t. Mostly because her feelings were anything but indifferent. Like Helen and Maddie and Danica and Lord knew who else, she’d taken one look at him in that tuxedo and counted herself a goner.

Unfortunately—or fortunately, as was more likely the case—she had a job to do. And she’d do it, too, no matter how much his blue eyes twinkled.

“Helen will figure the truth out eventually,” she said.