Page 29 of Puppy Kisses

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I shouldn’t have been listening.”

The tug of her arm indicated that she’d shrugged. “I don’t mind. I never say anything I don’t mean, so it’s not like it matters if anyone overhears. I’m not in love with Zeke. Iamsleeping with you. And to be perfectly honest, whiskey with a Clint Eastwood type sounds like heaven right about now.”

Adam could have easily filled in the gap with a comment of his own, but he had the feeling there was more she wanted to say.

Dawn hesitated. He wasn’t wrong.

“Whiskey with a Clint Eastwood type would also make my sister feel a lot better. She honestly doesn’t mind taking care of the puppies for the night if she thinks I’m getting mindless sex out of the bargain.”

“But she does mind doing it if you’re helping me with the cows?”

The shrug-tug was gentler this time but still evident. Dawn also began using her free finger to trace the veins along the back of his hand. The light whisper of her fingertips awakened something sharp inside him.

“She doesn’t mind so much as worry. A Dawn who shirks her duty in pursuit of the flesh is what she’s used to. A Dawn who’s spending time at a bovine maternity wing because she genuinely wants to is grounds for a family intervention. We are not a rustic people.”

“Okay,” he said.

She dropped his hand but the sharp feeling lingered. “Okay, what?”

“Okay, let’s have drinks and mindless sex.” The offer was out before he could stop it. If he’d been thinking rationally, he could have phrased it a little better, but between her touch and that bit about her genuinely wanting to be with the cows, he was barely holding on over here. People so rarely wanted to stick around. Zeke had been grumbling about being late for swim practice for the past twenty minutes, and Phoebe had slipped out as soon as the afterbirth had been cleared away. Andtheyowned this place.

“Really?” Dawn asked. “You want to go out?”

“Well, no,” he was forced to admit. “I don’t want to leave the puppies home alone, and I doubt Methuselah is ready for a night on the town just yet, so it’ll have to be a bottle of butterscotch schnapps and the local country radio station.”

“Gross. That’s your drink of choice?”

“I can’t help if it’s delicious.” He hesitated. “I know it’s hardly the height of entertainment, but I can at least promise to pour with a heavy hand. You in?”

He held his breath, trying not to wince as he waited for Dawn’s response. The date, if it could be called as much, was no more and no less than anything else he’d given her before. It was also no more and no less than what their banter had been leading up to.

Still. It felt different somehow. Probably becausehefelt different somehow. He’d never spent this much time with Dawn before while their clothes were on, and he wasn’t sure whether or not that was a good thing. For the first time, she was seeing him in his real element—how tied he was to this ranch, how routine were his days. For the first time, he wasn’t just a convenient and fun way to spend a few hours.

“To be honest, I’m a little wary,” she said.

Adam’s heart gave an odd thump. This was it. The end of the road, the day of reckoning. Dawn had taken a good, hard look at the real Adam Dearborn and realized she had better things to do with her life.

“I can’t help thinking about all that time you spent in the shower this morning.” Her voice dropped, her hand coming to rest lightly against his chest. “All that rubbing and cleaning. All that intense self-care. Are you sure you’re…up for an evening with me?”

Adam’s heart stopped altogether. It was accompanied by a stop to all his other bodily functions—breathing and blinking and moving his lips to form human words. As Dawn’s fingers trailed down his chest to the waistband of his jeans, the only thing he seemed to be capable of was excessive and healthy blood flow.

“Never mind. I see that everything seems to be working just fine. But I still want to meet that baby cow first, so don’t think you can get off that easy.” She lifted her hand away and laughed. It was a delicious, tormenting sound. “Well, you’re going to get off incredibly easy, if I have anything to say about it. But you know what I mean.”

He did. He also knew that as much as he’d have loved to forget everything but this woman and the promise of a few hours alone with her, there was work to do first.

In a life like his, there wasalwayswork to do first. And whether he liked it or not, Dawn was finally starting to see that for herself.

* * *

“Oh, don’t worry about me.” Dawn waved Zeke away at the front door. His swim bag was slung over one shoulder, a bright-blue towel peeking out over the side. In his haste to get out the door after the calf had been born, it was a wonder he’d remembered to grab the bag at all. “I’m going to get Uncle and Gigi settled for the night and then I’m heading home. It’s been quite a day.”

“It always is around here,” Zeke replied as he began heading toward his car. “Welcome to life on the wild side.”

Although there was no way No-Pants Shotgun would associate Zeke’s beat-up Volvo covered in bumper stickers with her Jetta, Dawn felt a twinge of conscience at letting him head off into the great unknown without a warning.

“Uh, just so you know, I had bit of a run-in with our pants-less friend last week.”

Zeke stopped to turn and stare, the car door hanging open to reveal piles of sporting equipment inside. “Are you kidding me?”