Author: Bella Andre

Heather’s laughter warmed him in places he hadn’t realized had been cold.

“How could I resist the Huge & Tiny show?”

She ran her fingers over the red dog bone box he’d sent and he wished she were touching him like that. Soon, damn it, she would be. He wouldn’t rest until he figured out how to get her to come around.

“Besides, no one has ever sent Atlas a gift before.”

“So it was the bone that threw you over the edge?” he said, letting himself savor the victory of a great idea perfectly executed.

She shrugged. “Plus the fact that all of my other trainers were busy tonight.”

Her timing with the slam was so perfect that he had to laugh, even though it was at his expense.

She motioned for Atlas to follow them out back to the training area. Of course, Cuddles followed right beside her big friend. She was all business as they began with the come command again then began to work on sit.

As if he knew he had to make up for his earlier outburst of excitement, Atlas was the perfect example of a well-trained dog. No matter how Cuddles tried to distract him, he kept his eyes on Heather.

Zach couldn’t pull his eyes from her, either. She was shockingly beautiful, even in a sweatshirt and faded jeans, her braid trailing down her back with wisps of hair framing her face.

He wished he had an excuse to touch her, to feel the warmth of her skin beneath his fingertips, her softness against his lips.

She directed him to begin using the sit command, but for the first time, Cuddles didn’t immediately pick up on what they were trying to learn.

After a few failed attempts, Heather said, “You’ve got to focus on your dog to let her know how important it is to you that she does what you’re asking her to do. She can tell if you’re distracted by something else.”

“You’re right,” he admitted. “I am distracted.” In all seriousness, if he didn’t get that kiss from her soon, he was going to lose his mind.

“All she needs is fifteen minutes of your focused attention. Surely,” she challenged him, “you can pull that off.”

“Do you know what Cuddles did all day long?” Without waiting for her to reply, he told her, “She pined for your mutt, hoping he’d be here tonight. I’m pretty sure a training session is the last thing on her mind when all she wants to do is play with her friend.”

“I told you, Atlas is not a mutt,” she said automatically, and then, “And you’re exaggerating about the pining.”

“Swear to God,” he said, “I showed her a picture of a Great Dane on my phone and she went wild.”

He could see her fighting a grin as she worked to keep to just business. “Our time is almost up and I’d hate for you to leave tonight making negative headway with Cuddles.”

“How about this,” he negotiated, “I’ll get both of us on track for the rest of the session if you’ll agree to let them play while we eat dinner afterward?”

Her mouth tightened. “After breakfast at your house and what happened at the park—” Another flush told him she hadn’t forgotten how perfectly their bodies had fit together when he’d saved her from the skateboarder. “—I know it seems like the lines have gotten blurred, but I haven’t changed my mind about things. About us. I’m happy to support your training with Cuddles to make things better for the both of you while you’re taking care of her, but I’m not interested in anything else.”

“Are you seeing anyone?”

She blinked at him. “Did you hear what I just said?”

He grinned. “So that’s a no.”

Her lips lifted from her teeth in that snarl he found so sexy. “I’ve never met anyone like you before.”

“Thank you.” He couldn’t stop grinning.

“It isn’t a compliment,” she snapped.

“One date.”

She began to pack up her training bag. “No dates. I think we’re officially done here. And I can’t work with you on Thursday or Friday.”

“We don’t want to work with another trainer.”

“It’s nothing personal,” she said. “I just can’t do it.”

Zach hated the fact that it actually didn’t sound personal. But why? Women loved him. Why didn’t this one? And, more to the point, why couldn’t he just let it go and move on to the next easy—boring—conquest?

“What could possibly be more important than Cuddles?” And me?

“Bark in the Park.”

It took his brain a beat too long to figure out what she was talking about. Finally, it hit him. “The dog day at the ballpark?”

“I chaired the committee and I have a lot of loose ends to tie up before the game starts Friday night.”

“Sounds like a lot of work.”

“It is,” she agreed, and he finally noticed how tired she looked.

“I can help.”

“No!” She flushed again. “What I mean is that I’ve got a great team of people who have been working with me and we’re in the home stretch now. But thanks for the offer.” She looked at her watch. “We should call it a night.”

Like hell he was giving up that easily.

“If Cuddles sits, have dinner with me.”

She looked like she was going to refuse, but then she glanced over at Cuddles, who was on her back, working on a good deep back scratch in the grass.

“Okay, but when she doesn’t, you have to agree not to ask me out again.”

He couldn’t believe the whole thing was up to the puppy. “Deal.”

“Cuddles!” The puppy looked at him from where she was sprawled out on the grass and he gave the hand command a split second before saying, “Come!”

She immediately hopped up and sped over to him.

“That one doesn’t count,” Heather told him.

He shot her a look that said he already knew that. He paused, sent up a silent prayer, then said, “Cuddles, sit!”

The puppy blinked up at him for several seconds and he thought it was all over...until her little ears went back and she plopped her rear down on the grass as if she’d been waiting her whole short life for him to tell her to sit.

He reached into the treat bag on Heather’s belt—taking any excuse to touch her—and handed one to the puppy while telling her what a good girl she was.

“How was that?” he asked Heather.

She shot him a suspicious glance. “You played me.” She looked at Cuddles’s innocent face and then his less innocent one. “You were practicing before tonight, weren’t you?”

“We wanted to impress you.” Which was true. “Still, you’ve got to admit it was pretty close there for a while.”

She sighed and said, “I know a great Indian place with a patio that allows dogs.”

Chapter Ten

They settled into their seats with the dogs contentedly chewing on the plastic bones she’d brought for them. Heather took a sip of her cold beer and couldn’t repress a sigh of pleasure. She and Zach hadn’t talked much as they’d walked the three blocks from her business to the restaurant, apart from her trying to convince him that Cuddles could manage the trip on her little paws, while he made one excuse after another for why he “needed” to carry her.

She’d never seen anyone get attached to a dog so fast, and frankly, she was worried about how he was going to deal with giving the puppy back to his brother. She’d actually taken a few minutes that afternoon to scan her list of Yorkie breeders to see if any of them had a new litter coming soon, but she was very much afraid Cuddles was irreplaceable.

The mischievous but loving puppy fit perfectly with the mischievous but loving man who was holding her in his arms.

Loving?

Ugh. She took another gulp from her glass, while sternly reminding herself that even though this was practically a script of her vision of a perfect night out, it wasn’t a date. And she had no business thinking of Zach as loving...not even if he was currently looking at her with more affection than desire.

His eyes darkened as she stared into them and she amended that thought to slightly more.

Just as the waiter came to their table, Zach’s phone went off. “Sorry, it’s my brother.” He gestured to the menu. “Go nuts with the meal. I trust you.” He stood up to take the call away from the other diners.

Even after she’d ordered, the buzz was still going through her from his last casually tossed-off words. I trust you.

What would it be like to be able to say that to someone without pause, to give her trust to someone she’d met less than a week ago?

She tried not to stare at Zach where he was standing on the sidewalk talking with his brother, but when he laughed and his gorgeous face lit up, she realized she wasn’t the only one who couldn’t take her eyes off him. Every other woman on the patio was staring, too.

Amazingly, he didn’t seem to notice or care that he was the center of attention. Instead of soaking up the public’s adoration like the vain man she’d once thought he was, he was utterly focused on what his brother was saying.

“Is everything okay?” she asked when he’d sat back down.

“Chase’s wife, Chloe, is a couple of days past her due date. I left him a message earlier to make sure everything was okay. She’s fine, but antsy.”

Yet again she was amazed by how close he was to his family, especially given his outwardly footloose-and-fancy-free personality. Amazingly, the fact that he clearly wasn’t looking for a wife of his own didn’t stop him from appreciating—and worrying about—his siblings’ wives.

She couldn’t put the puzzle of Zach Sullivan together...and it only added to her worries where he was concerned. If only he were black and white, then she would know exactly where to shelve him in her head, rather than having the very real concern that he was creeping into her heart by bits and pieces every time they were together.

“How many nephews and nieces do you have?”

His excited smile made her go warm all over. “This will be the first.”

A man who loved puppies and babies was hard to resist. Almost impossible, actually.

But she needed to keep doing just that, darn it....

“Do they know if they’re having a boy or a girl?”

“If they do, they haven’t told any of us.” He grinned at her. “We’ve actually got a betting pool going.”

“Your family is betting over the sex of your brother’s child?”

He refilled her glass as he said, “It was my mother’s idea.”

She laughed out loud at that, the feel of that spontaneous joy bubbling up from her chest surprising her the same way it always did when she was with Zach.

“She really does sound like a remarkable woman. Stunning, raised eight kids, and now has her first grandchild on the way.” She shook her head. “A gambler, too, from the sounds of it.” She thought about the gorgeous man in the black and white photo who looked so much like Zach. “I’m assuming your father encourages all the Sullivan family madness?”

The laughter left his eyes. “He died when I was seven. Just a couple of weeks before my eighth birthday.”

She gripped the stem of her glass tighter. He hadn’t said anything during breakfast at his house when they’d been looking at the black and white photo.

“I’m sorry, I just assumed—” She tried to clamp her mouth shut, but still the words, “That must have been so hard on you,” slipped out. He’d said before how much like his father he was, that he got his love of cars from him. A young boy who clearly worshipped his father had to have been devastated by his death.

He shrugged, but she could almost see the weight on his shoulders as she forced the movement. “We pulled together, all looked out for each other.”