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“Susie probably disappeared the minute she heard us coming.” Dana glanced both ways down the aisle. “A family mistreated her before she came here, and she’s really afraid of children and strangers. Mostly she keeps to herself.”
Katie’s eyes filled with worry. “What about the puppies?”
“Don’t worry, honey. They’re weaned already. Some of them have already gone to new homes and Susie will, too. All the commotion here makes her nervous, and a widowed client of mine wants her for a companion.”
“Can I play with the puppies?”
“Sure, if it’s okay with your dad. But they’ll probably knock you over.”
Dad. Since leaving Dallas, he’d presented himself as the child’s single dad, figuring the fewer questions, the better, especially if anyone was trying to track him. A twinge of regret hit him as he lifted Katie into the pen.
He’d allowed Dana to make that assumption, too. Remembering her sense of honor and abhorrence of lies as a teenager, he wondered what she’d say when he told her the truth.
Katie’s excited giggles filled the air as the puppies crowded around her, begging to play. “They’re funny!” she squealed, trying to hug two at once.
Standing next to Dana, watching Katie become a carefree child for the first time since he’d met her, Zach’s heart suddenly seemed too large for his chest. Not trusting his voice, he reached over and caught Dana by the waist. Snuggled her next to his hip.
This time, she didn’t resist. “I can almost imagine Molly and Alex in there at that age. They were already five and eight when I married their dad, and I missed so much.” She sighed, closing her eyes. “Kids and puppies. Don’t you wish they’d always stay small?”
“There are a lot of things I wish for,” he said slowly. He looked down at her gleaming hair, the smoky crescents of her lashes lying against her cheeks. She seemed smaller, more fragile than she had a moment ago, and he couldn’t stop himself from running a finger lightly along her high cheekbone, the firm line of her jaw.
Her eyes fluttered open and widened as he stared down into the darkening blue depths.
“I—”
He didn’t give her the chance to finish. When he dropped a feather-light kiss on her forehead, she stilled. When he brushed a kiss against the curve of her cheek, she swayed into him and reached out to steady herself with a hand against his chest.
The sounds of childish laughter and exuberant puppies faded when he lowered his mouth to the sweet warmth of hers.
“Which puppy is Katie?”
Dana stumbled back and blinked, clearly disoriented.
“You said one puppy is named Katie,” the child repeated, her eyes shining. “Which one?”
“I—uh—don’t remember. See if you can pick one out.” Dana’s hand flew to her lips as Katie turned back to the mass of eager puppies at her feet. “We shouldn’t have done that,” she whispered. “I swore I wasn’t going to.”
She’d been thinking about him, then. A sense of hope filled his chest.
From outside came the sound of approaching footsteps. “Look,” she said, “we both know this can’t go anywhere. So no more.”
“Maybe...”
“Whatever you’re going to say doesn’t matter, because I won’t take that risk.” She reached out and laid a hand on his arm. “You and Katie are welcome here anytime. We’re neighbors, and perhaps we can be friends. Let’s leave it at that.”
“Have dinner with me this weekend?”
“I don’t think—”
“Please.” He gave her a rueful smile. “Just dinner, some grown-up conversation.”
“I’ll...think about it.” She took a deep breath. “But you’re wasting your time if you’re hoping for anything more. You broke my heart once before. I’ll never let it happen again.”
* * * *
“I NEVER, EVER SHOULD have said yes,” Dana muttered as she finished laying out her surgical instruments. Stretched out before her, in a state of blissful unconsciousness, lay the Hendersons’ beagle, its shaved belly illuminated by the bright surgical lamps overhead and an endotracheal tube already in place. “I stood there and told him I wouldn’t...yet before he and Katie left, I’d agreed to dinner.”
“Maybe you buckled because he was so nice about letting her have that puppy.”
