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Yet there was clearly something else going on, whether he wanted to fess up to it or not.
That didn’t mean he didn’t have a thing going on with his neighbor, who Sophie seriously doubted just came to borrow sugar.
Killing her engine, Sophie shook her head and stepped from the car. After smoothing her green pencil skirt and tucking her hair behind her ears, she straightened her shoulders and made her way to his front door. She refused to feel inferior to a woman she didn’t even know.
So what if Sophie didn’t have silicone to fill out her shirt? So what if there was no way in hell she could ever wear heels like that with her limp? And so what if red lipstick made her look washed out and she always chose a sheer gloss? She was proud of who she was. That didn’t mean she had to like someone so blatant sniffing around Zach.
Sighing, Sophie raised her fist and pounded on his door. She didn’t care if he wasn’t decent. It was the middle of the afternoon and his booty call schedule wasn’t keeping Sophie from working on her ideas for Chelsea’s home.
The door jerked open. Zach’s eyes darted to her, then behind her, then back to her.
“Not who you were expecting?” she asked, quirking a brow.
She had no idea how she expected him to answer the door, but shirtless with a pair of running shorts low on his hips hadn’t crossed her mind. When she’d thought of him not being decent, she hadn’t thought far enough ahead to an actual scenario . . . not that any image in her mind could compare to the real, beautiful vision.
That tattoo she’d seen peeking from his shirt scrolled up and over his taut shoulder. Ink over muscle . . . She’d never thought about it before, but this was a new level of sexy.
“Get in here,” he growled as he turned from the door.
“You look like you’ve had a rough night.”
The lady leaving the scene of the crime might have played a part in that, if Zach’s messed-up hair was any indication. Sophie hated the thought of another woman raking her nails over Zach, but she was also realistic and knew he wasn’t a monk.
By the time she stepped in and closed the door behind her, Zach grunted in response and disappeared down the hall. Sophie followed, assuming that’s what her gracious host had intended.
As soon as she rounded the corner to his laundry area, she stopped short.
“Not one word,” he grumbled. “We’ve been up all night and I’m not in the mood for a snarky comment.”
Big, bearded, burly Zach cradled a puppy in one bulky, muscular arm and tried to wedge the tip of a bottle between the pup’s little lips.
Sophie didn’t know if she wanted to laugh at the image, sigh over the sweetness, or stand back and keep taking in the view. Yet again, the man continued to surprise her, and in the end laughter won out. Maybe he hadn’t been burning up the sheets at all. Yes, this made her happy. No, she didn’t care if that was childish.
Zach muttered a curse when the bottle didn’t ease in. He murmured something sweet to the squirmy puppy. She’d never seen such a caring side of him. Nor had she seen him bottle-feeding anything at all before. Laughter bubbled up.
His eyes cut her way. “Stop laughing. You’ll scare them.”
“I’m sorry,” she said, holding her hand over her mouth as she glanced down at a tired mommy lying on a very cushy pile of blankets while roughly six puppies nestled against her belly. “It’s not you I’m laughing at. Well, it is, but not for the reasons you’re thinking.”
Zach shifted his broad frame, muscles flexed all over the place. “I’m not in the mood for games.”
Sophie shrugged and leaned against the dryer. “On a good day you’re not in the mood, so lack of sleep doesn’t really change you much, does it? I laughed because I thought I’d just witnessed your booty call doing the walk of shame, but I find you in here nursing puppies.”
“My booty call?” Zach finally got the bottle into the puppy’s mouth and the ball of fur stopped moving around. Apparently he was just a hungry little guy. “I’d never sleep with my neighbor, and I sure as hell wouldn’t label it as a booty call.”
“What would you call an afternoon romp, then?” she asked, unable to help herself.
With a sigh, Zach pinned her with his heavy-lidded gaze. “Did you have a reason behind your visit? Because I’m sure you didn’t come here to discuss my bedroom partners or what label I place on it.”
No, no she hadn’t, and she’d gotten so far off track it took her a minute to figure out what she had come here for.
“I’m sorry I dropped in on you last minute and that you were up all night with your mama dog.”
“She’s not mine.” He held the puppy up, stroked its golden fur, and gently placed it back down with the rest of the litter. “I found her in my bushes last night after I came back from your place. I’m looking for a home for her and the pups, but the pups can’t leave the mom for six weeks. There’s got to be someone who will take them all. I sure as hell can’t.”
Yet he had. Sophie didn’t think her heart could swell any more for this man at this exact moment. “Looks like you’re the daddy for the time being.”
He cursed, raked a hand through his mop of messy hair, and propped his hands on his hips. “Then the vet couldn’t get here in time for the delivery because she had an emergency, but a tech helped me over the phone with my questions. The puppies came, that little guy was too small, so I called back and was told to bottle feed it for a few days. I ran out this morning to get everyth
