AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I gotta go,” Dog said, and thumbed off the phone.
From the look of it, Charley had been crying. Dog met her halfway across the tire shop and pulled her close. “What’s happened, baby?”
She shook her head against his chest. “It’s nothing. I’m okay.”
With his index finger, he tipped her chin up. “If it’s making you cry, it isn’t nothing.”
She shook her head, and Arley called out from behind them. “Dog, your lady’s car is ready.”
Charley pulled from his arms and walked to the counter. Arley gave her a big smile until she stood in front of him. Then his brows crinkled, and he cast a glance Dog’s way.
“Are you okay, miss?”
Charley pulled her wallet from her purse and handed him a credit card. “Yes, I’m fine. Thank you for your quick help with my car.”
Arley took the card. “No problem. Any friend of Dog’s and all that. Give me just a sec with your card.”
After the transaction was finished, Charley and Dog exited the shop. They rounded the Camry to the passenger side, and he opened the door. Before she could get in, he pulled Charley close and kissed her deep. He knew what he had to do, and he wasn’t going to like it at all.
Chapter Nineteen
Dog drove Charley to the cottage in her car, but they didn’t talk. Her head was pounding, not like the night of the TIA, but from a tension headache that had her head in a vise. She’d never had a client fire her before. Breathing felt like sucking in push pins from a cork board.
They cruised down Main Street in Edwards, where she shouldn’t be. She should have had someone come get her once the hospital released her. She could have worked on the deadline and shown diligence to an angry client. Instead, she’d stayed because of Dog, and now she was paying the price.
But a glance his way was all she needed to remember why. She couldn’t regret staying in Edwards, even if it meant she lost some business. In her mind she’d used the excuse of the flat tire to legitimize staying, but the real reason was how alive Dog made her feel. The way he’d cared for her in the hospital, the motorcycle ride in the moonlight, and the incredible night that had come after. She wouldn’t trade those memories and the desire for more of them foranynumber of clients, promise to Daddy or not.
She’d given up so much to fulfill her father’s dream. Heck, it had started long before his death. She hadn’t majored in accounting for herself. Accounting was fine; it made a living, but it didn’t make a life. She’d majored in it to spend time with her father. After her mother’s death, he’d thrown himself into work. He had rarely been home, and she’d missed him. He’d wanted her to join the business, and so she had.
He’d pushed her to excel, to learn all she could, so she could take over when he died. Neither of them had known it would be so soon.
They passed Hazel’s, and she remembered her family’s meals there. If Charley were honest, she’d never wanted to run the firm. She hadn’t thought she’d have to. Her father had been so vibrant, so excited by the work, she hadn’t imagined him ever retiring. She’d figured that, even if he slowed down in old age, he would still do the sales calls and bring in business. She would be behind the scenes doing the work.
But Daddy hadn’t gotten to experience old age. He’d died at sixty-two. Now she missed him again, and there was nothing she could do about it.
She’d tried to put the TIA out of her mind, but she couldn’t. The horror of it—unable to move, unable to speak, aware some of the time of what went on around her, but unable to influence it. The doctor had been blunt. She had to learn to manage her stress better. If she kept going like she was, work would kill her.
A glance at Dog raised the ultimate question. Could she sell the firm? Could she do what she’d always wanted—move to Edwards and open a small practice with just her and a secretary? Could she have a life that was low stress and included Dog?
Her heart racked in her chest. Selling the firm would be like losing her father all over again. She’d kept his office just as he’d left it, still working from her own. Occasionally, when she went in for a file, she’d catch a whiff of his cologne, or even feel his presence, like he was watching over her still. Everything in that room was a living, breathing reminder of her dad.
And the employees. She hadn’t been exaggerating when she’d said they were her family. They remembered Daddy as vividly as she did. Loved him almost as much as she did. Her co-workers and Livvie got her through her days.
The firm was all she had left of her dad and family. She couldn’t…couldn’t let it go.
A huge sigh gusted from her chest. Dog looked over, his face locked in a tight frown, but he said nothing.
That was unusual. He was always so concerned with her moods.
They pulled into her driveway. Dog maneuvered her car around his motorcycle, into the detached garage, and they got out. He opened the garage’s side door and motioned her through, staying silent. His face was tense. They crossed the yard, and she unlocked the back door of the cottage.
Once she entered the living room, she dropped her purse on the sofa and turned to find him standing by the fireplace. “Dog, what’s wrong? You’ve been unusually quiet.”
He dropped his head to his chest and placed his fists on his hips with a noncommittal grunt. His muscles looked tight. Her breath hitched when she took all of it in.
She crossed to him and removed a hand from his hip, unclenching the fist and massaging the palm. “Tell me.”
He jerked his hand away, and she gasped. He stomped toward the kitchen and slammed his hand against the wall.
