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“Interesting.” He continued to watch the dog as it left the teddy bear on the rug as it began to explore the room.
“I’ll get her,” Pepper said.
“Leave her. She isn’t hurting anything.” And then under his breath he said, “At least not yet.” He cleared his throat. “Tell me more about this puppy.”
And then Pepper went back to the beginning and told him everything, about the puppy, from its tragic past to the Greta woman accusing Daisy of being a vicious dog.
“I take it you don’t like this Greta?”
“Like her? I can’t stand her. Neither can anyone else at the shelter. My friend Stephanie could run the shelter if given a chance. Instead she’s Greta’s assistant, aka the person who does all of the grunt work but gets none of the credit.”
He recalled how the pushy woman had hit him up for a donation. His gut told him the animals wouldn’t benefit from the money. His investigators still hadn’t come up with any concrete evidence against her. Perhaps it was time for him to contact Greta about a five-figure donation.
The more he thought about it, the more he liked the idea. All he had to do was provide the bait and he was certain Greta’s greed would do the rest.
He made a mental note of this. He may not want a pet, but that didn’t mean he didn’t care. And whatever upset Pepper upset him—
Hold it.
When had that happened?
“Simon, what’s wrong?” Pepper looked at him with concern in her eyes. “If it’s Daisy, I’ll go stay at the apartment.”
“You can’t.”
Her fine brows drew together. “How do you know?”
“Because I stopped by at lunchtime. The apartment still isn’t ready for anyone to live there. But don’t worry, I put more men on the job. They’ll be working round the clock.”
“But how? I don’t even have the insurance straightened out.”
He shrugged. “It doesn’t matter.”
“It does matter. How am I ever going to pay you back?”
“Pepper, stop worrying. If I didn’t want to do it, I wouldn’t have. Everything is fine.”
She opened her mouth and then closed it. For a moment, they both watched as Daisy nosed her way around the room. And then Pepper turned back to him. “I’ll get my stuff. Daisy and I will find a motel.”
“No.” He couldn’t believe he was saying this. “You and Daisy will stay here.”
“But you don’t want her here.”
“Are you trying to talk me out of it?”
She shook her head. “I’ll try to keep her out of sight.”
Just then Daisy meandered over to him and sat on his foot. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”
Pepper rushed over, scooped up the puppy and grabbed the teddy bear. She started toward her room. She paused and turned back to him. “Thank you. I just couldn’t let anything bad happen to Daisy. She’s already gone through so much as a puppy.”
And then both Pepper and the puppy were gone. He sat there for a few minutes, thinking Pepper would return so they could finish their talk. But as the seconds turned to minutes, he realized the puppy was going to change things between him and Pepper—similar to the way the baby would change everything.
Maybe he should rethink things. Maybe Daisy could be a trial run for them—learning to share responsibilities. The more he thought of it, the more he realized he needed all the practice he could get—even if it was with a puppy.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
IT WAS GETTING LATE.
