Page 79 of Puppy Kisses

She held herself stiff, waiting for him to add himself to the list of her victims, but he didn’t.

“You think nothing of facing down half-ton cows. You think even less of facing down the men who wrangle them. In fact, I can’t think of a single thing that scares you. People chasing you with guns mean as little to you as the laws governing human society. In your twenty-nine years on this planet, you’ve managed to live the kind of life most people only dream of, and you have decades more of it to look forward to.”

At this, his jaw tightened and he paused, almost as though he was wrestling with some unseen ghost. “Youwillhave decades more of it to look forward to,” he repeated, more forcefully this time. “And you’ll have hundreds more lives to change. That’s the one thing—the only thing—I can promise.”

Even though Dawn knew that Adam couldn’t see her—not literally, anyway—she’d never felt more exposed. He had to know about the hot tears building up in her eyes, how fierce her grip on the poker table had become. The things he was saying about her were hard and stark and one hundred percent honest. They were also deeply, painfully kind.

“You turn every room you walk into upside down,” he said, his voice as raw as her emotions. “But you also turn them into somewhere everyone wants to be. You make the entire fucking world a better place just by being in it. You’ve mademyworld something I never thought it could be.”

Dawn’s breath caught and her heart took flight.I knew it.There was no way Adam would let her walk out of his life without a word, no way he’d reduce their time together to a meaningless fling. This thing of theirs meant something, even if he wanted to fight it with every ounce of strength he had.

“Adam—” she began.

He flung his hand up to stop her, that firm set of his jaw even more apparent this time. “Which is why I’m calling your bluff. You and I both know that you don’t really want Bea’s house. You don’t really want to live out here in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by nothing but cattle and hard work.” His voice dropped so much that Dawn could practically feel the entire room leaning close to hear the rest. “You don’t really want to live out here with me. And even if I’m wrong, even if it costs me everything—Gigi, the extra acreage,you—I won’t ask you to do it.”

Dawn reared back, her entire body suddenly grown cold. Even with all the windows in Bea’s house open and a few fans blowing in the background, it was well over eighty degrees in here, the summer night refusing to cool. It could have been over a hundred degrees, and Dawn would still have broken out in goose bumps.

He’s calling my real bluff. He’s saying no.

She had no idea where she found the strength to keep standing, let alone reach out and flip her cards. This wasn’t even close to how poker games were supposed to go, and a stickler for the rules would point out that there was still a round of cards to pass out before the game was over, but she didn’t care. Like Adam had pointed out, she never had much use for the rules.

“Well, you’re wrong,” she said. “It’s a straight flush, sparkling diamonds and all. Sorry, Adam. Sorry, Charlie. It looks like you’re both out a prime piece of real estate. Bea’s property is mine.”

Adam grew as white as she felt. “No.”

Even though it was the last thing Dawn felt like doing, she smiled. “I guess you don’t know me nearly as well as you think,” she said and snapped her fingers to bring Gigi to attention. It didn’t work, of course. The puppy lifted one lazy ear and decided to pretend she hadn’t heard. “Come on, Gigi,” she said anyway. “Our work here is done. The winner is taking all.”

Chapter 18

“Goddammit, not again!” Adam heard the jangle of dog tags in time to stop his ax midswing. He lifted the blade well out of puppy range and wiped the sweat dripping down his brow. “Would it kill that woman to invest in a decent fence?”

His answer came as a twenty-pound puppy running into his legs with full force. It was a good thing he’d anticipated Gigi’s exuberance ahead of time, because she knocked him to the ground. Only by turning the ax head down was he able to save them both from a Lizzie Borden incident.

Sensing a reunion, Uncle bounded over to join the fun. He’d have happily and obediently sat there in shade for hours while Adam made dents in the woodpile, but the presence of Gigi was a cause for celebration.

Considering she’d managed to find her way over to this house every day for the past month, Adam felt Uncle’s excitement was a little misplaced, but what he could he do? He was covered in dogs.

“I’m not the one who needs a better fence” came a cool, detached voice from somewhere above his head. Dawn gave a low whistle, but Gigi failed to heel or come or do any of those things a puppy was supposed to do when called. “I come bearing gifts. Or gift, rather.”

Adam released a soft curse. “Don’t tell me.”

“I managed to round her up before she ateallthe flowers I just planted, but you owe me fifty bucks for the rosebushes. I was going to use them to start my essential-oil scented-candle business.”

He ignored the first half of this remark, since there was no need for elaboration. Just as Gigi managed to find her way over to his house every day, so too did Dawn the cow visit Dawn the human with regularity.

“You’re starting an essential-oil scented-candle business now?” he asked instead.

“I make very nice scented candles, thank you. It’s something of a hobby of mine. The only problem is that they have a tendency to rub off on my hands, which means I no longer walk around with a nonsmell.” She paused. “That must be why you didn’t know I was coming.”

Oh, he knew she was coming. She wasalwayscoming. Bea Benson had lived alone in that house for all thirty-three years of his life, and he’d seen her maybe once a month. Dawn had moved in four weeks ago, and he’d already lost track of how many times they’d run into each other. She’d even volunteered to help organize the annual town-hall fund-raiser this year—a thing he always took part in and now had to pretend he was too busy for.

“It must be tough, finding things to fill your time out here,” he said, aiming for the right balance of sympathy and bland disinterest. From the way Gigi licked mournfully at his hand, he must have sounded a lot closer to pathetic. “I guess roses are one way to do it.”

“Oh, I’m finding plenty to do. Don’t you worry about me. I could find ways to—how did you put it?—wreak havoc even if I lived all by myself on the moon. It’s a gift, really.”

Adam bit back a short laugh. He wouldn’t call that particular talent agift. It was his curse, plain and simple.

Her first week out here had been a given, since Dawn had been busy with moving trucks and trying to get Bea to throw out enough stuff to carve out her own space in the house they now shared. The second week hadn’t been too hard to swallow, either, since she’d been fueled by her perverse determination to prove to Adam wrong.