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“You’re such a good mama, Copper.” Pepper rubbed her head. The dog looked at her like she was uncertain what Pepper was doing. “You and your babies are going to be fine now.”
Woof.
I jerked my head toward Miss Adeline who held an even larger, yet equally thin, dog on a leash.
“Another one?” I asked incredulously. They’d nearly doubled the number of dogs they had in a single night.
“We think this is the papa,” Miss Adeline said. “In all my years, I’ve never seen a dog so protective of his family.”
He pulled her toward Copper and the puppies.
“What happens now?” I dropped to my knees next to them.
The male jumped away, though he kept between me and the others.
Cal stepped between me and them. Teague, Pepper, and Miss Adeline all looked at him curiously. He said nothing, just watched the dog carefully.
Ihad an up-close view of his ass.
“We bathe them, find a place where they can be together, and nurse them back to health.” There was no hesitation in Pepper’s plan of action. She was confident these dogs would be all right.
I admired her positivity. She made me believe that they would make a full recovery and the puppies would grow to have an amazing life.
“You better put those puppies close to where you bathe that one or it ain’t happening.” Cal pointed at the male.
“I hate to ask you for anything else,” Pepper said apologetically. “But would you mind helping us do that? We could use another set of strong hands.”
“Whatever you need,” he said, voice gruff.
Teague punched him in the arm. “You may regret those words.”
Copper circled the basket, sniffing. Her nose worked its way over to Cal. She smelled his shoe, then his shin, then his knee. And then she sat, leaning against his leg.
She poked her head through them, staring at me.
“Hi, Copper,” I said gently.
She blinked.
“I bet you’ll feel better after a bath. Or are you hungry?”
Sadie sat up from a dead sleep and barked.
“Um, Beau. There are certain words we have to use sparingly around here.” Teague pointed his head toward the dog.
I guessed hungry was one of them.
Pepper tossed Sadie a treat. She gobbled it up and passed out again.
Copper watched the whole thing as if she’d never seen anything like it before.
“We’ve walked them, so you can take the leash off her,” Pepper said as she moved toward the kitchen area.
I reached through Cal’s legs at the same time he moved to remove Copper’s leash. Our fingers brushed, and it was like a jolt of electricity. I’d deluded myself into thinking he only affected me because it was straight up physical.
And not that there was ever a time I wasn’t attracted to him, but now wasn’t sexual. We were here to help people we cared about. I wasn’t thinking about himthatway.
And I hated how potent his touch was.
