Page 62 of Puppy Christmas

Chapter 13

“I don’t understand. I thought you were giving me until Christmas Eve to decide.”

Ford stood at the kitchen window, watching as Lila and Emily worked on leash training with Jeeves. They were ostensibly teaching the puppy where to stand to provide care and balance of his charge while out for a walk, but they seemed to be spending most of their time laughing and chasing snowballs. Well, Emily chased snowballs. Jeeves was far too intent on his training to allow himself to be distracted. Not even the red-and-green-plaid bow tie that Lila had brought to decorate the puppy had done anything to decrease his dignity. There was a job to be done, and nothing would prevent him from doing it.

Although Jeeves seemed to have accepted this state of affairs readily enough, Ford was finding it much more difficult. Lila had a way of making work seem like a pleasure, and pleasure feel like ecstasy. Even a late-night phone call with her had somehow become the most satisfying sexual experience of his adult life.

“Oh, you still have a few weeks. This call is about bribery, plain and simple. And it took some doing, so you’d better be grateful.” Giles spoke with the proud assurance of a man who wasn’t currently besieged with longing for a woman who was literally untouchable. “Three days in, two days out. That’s the best I can offer. And you can set the days yourself to fit around Emma’s schedule.”

Ford had to wrest his attention away from the backyard. As much as he wanted to be out there with them, he was determined to spend the rest of the day chained to his drafting desk. Despite his best intentions, he hadn’t drawn a single damn coffee maker in days. Whip-yielding, Krampus-slaying lizard Lila, however, was taking shape quite nicely.

“I’m sorry. You said three in, two out?” he asked.

“That’s it,” Giles agreed. “You could spend Monday through Wednesday at the office and then make the last two days your home office ones. Or you could switch it up so you’re doing Monday, Wednesday, and Friday here, and then filling in the other two remotely. The boys upstairs don’t love the idea, but they do love me, so they’re willing to relax a little. What do you say?”

“Uh.” Ford blinked, his eyes losing focus as the importance of what Giles was saying finally sank in. “You’re offering me flex hours? If I come to Seattle?”

“It’s what all the competitive firms are doing these days. I asked around. There’s even a government kickback or two come tax time. Apparently, it’s better for the environment if you let your employees do a day or two at home.” Giles laughed. “That’s how I sold it, anyway.”

Ford was more touched by this gesture than he could say. Giles still didn’t know Emily’s name, and he doubted his friend would want much to do with his daughter if they did end up moving across the state, but there was no denying that he was making an effort. There was also no denying that the offer was a tempting one. A full benefits package was no small matter where Emily was concerned, and two days a week at home were better than none.

Or, you know,allof the days at home, which was his only other alternative. He could always fill in the unemployment gaps with freelancing work, but there was no guarantee to that sort of life. No stability. That might fit the devil-may-care character he’d been playing for so long, but that role was starting to pall.

Emily deserved more than that.Hedeserved more.

“That’s really great, Giles. I mean it.”

“Why does it sound like there’s abuthovering in the air?”

A rueful grin lifted Ford’s lips. “Because there is. Not the one you’re thinking of, though. It’s just that I can’t decide on anything without discussing the idea with Emily first.”

“Isn’t she like…a baby?”

He chuckled. Poor Giles. Someday, he’d get married and have kids of his own, and Ford was going to fling every last one of these comments back at him. “Not quite. She’s six, which means she’s old enough to understand what a move like that would entail. She should get to have a say in the matter.H-e-l-l, I should probably run it by Janine, too.”

“Janine?” Giles echoed. “Jesus. I haven’t thought about her in years. How’s she doing these days? Still studying ice cores in the great white north?”

“Oh yeah. You know how she was back in college. She won’t stop until there’s a Nobel Prize under her belt. She has a video chat with Emily coming up for the holidays, so I can run it by her then. I doubt she’ll care one way or the other, but I’d like to keep her in the loop. It’s a big change.”

He hesitated, his gaze flicking to where his daughter and Lila sat tossing snowballs for Jeeves to fetch. Lila made a comment that caused Emily to dissolve into laughter, the pair of them rolling around in the snow in their mirth. It struck him that he’d never seen such a beautiful, more inspiring scene before, and his fingers twitched to pick up his pen and switch to the Lila versus Krampus pages. A sidekick—that was what the lizard queen needed. A scrappy little peasant girl, not very popular with the villagers, perhaps, but with the heart of a warrior. And a valiant pet cockapoo by her side, clad—naturally—in a suit of armor.

Other than that slight waver of his hand, however, he didn’t reach for the pen. That was what stability meant, right? Working when he’d rather be playing? Putting his financial future in front of his present happiness?

It’s what men like Patrick Yarmouth do, anyway.

“Well, tell Janine I said hello, and call me as soon as you have a better idea about your plans, will you?” Giles asked. “And if you’d like me to start looking around at rentals, let me know. I can line up some housing prospects close by to cut down on your commute times.”

“Thanks, Giles. I know I don’t sound very grateful, but I appreciate what you’re doing.”

He hung up the phone with an oddly heavy heart for a man who’d just received a job offer that had the potential to change his life for the better. Giles was going above and beyond for him. He was giving him time and opportunity to make a decision. Unfortunately, Ford had no idea what he wanted to do.

No—he did know, and therein lay the problem. What he wanted was to pull on his boots and join Lila and Emily outside. What he wanted was to consign everyg-o-d-d-a-m-ncoffee-maker illustration he’d ever drawn to flames. What he wanted was to discuss this prospect with a girlfriend, a partner, awife.

I’m just so tired of doing this alone.

And there was the bald truth of it. Hewastired—not because he’d been up all night with Lila, and not because of Jeeves, but because for the first time since his divorce, he could see a different future for himself. One in which laughter, not loneliness, made up the bulk of his days. One in which Lila’s level head and calm good sense balanced his own downfalls.

That was the one thing about single parenthood that no one had told him ahead of time—the deep, dark secret of it all. From the day Emily had become his sole responsibility, he’d stopped seeing women in terms of sexual partners and started seeing them in terms of life partners instead. In fact, he was attracted to Lila’s strength and competence just as much as her beauty. But what kind of a compliment was that?