The lamb-Lulu, he presumed-stepped forward and tried to shove her face into his crotch, but duly warned by Dell, Brady backed up.
“Don’t be afraid. She’s sweet.”
At Lilah’s words, Lulu appeared to smile, pulling back her lips to show her teeth, which didn’t look sweet to Brady.
“She just wants to catch your scent,” Lilah assured him.
Pushing aside images of dropping to his knees and pressing his face to Lilah’s crotch to catch her scent, he grabbed the dogs’ leashes from Lilah. Given the unstableness of his brain tonight, it was best to get this over with.
Two hours later, he got the last shot of the night, a cat sitting on Jade’s desk daintily washing her face with the computer opened on the schedule behind her.
Lilah gathered up all the animals while Brady slipped his camera back into its case. “Think you have everything you need?”
He knew he didn’t. Not even close. She looked up from wrapping a leash around her wrist, caught his expression, and went still. “Are you going to kiss me again?”
“Yeah,” he said, surprising himself as he moved in. With two dogs, a duck, a lamb, and a cat between them, he cupped her face and kissed her. A brush of his lips to hers, once, twice. Unable to pull away without more, he settled in against her mouth, their lips the only points of their body touching. He’d meant it to be short and sweet, but she made a sound that went straight through him and the kiss deepened, a hot, intense tangle of tongues that ended abruptly when one of the dogs at their feet barked.
She let out a shaky breath and backed to the door. “I don’t know what that means.”
He did. It meant he was fucked. “It means good night.”
She nodded and turned away but not before he caught the quick flash of disappointment and hurt.
“Lilah-”
But she was gone.
For two days Lilah worked and avoided going to Belle Haven, and for two days all she thought about was Brady. She knew from Adam that Brady had started uploading pics for their website and brochures. She knew from Jade that he was also working on the Bell, and apparently upping foot traffic to the center because he was looking good while doing it.
A part of Lilah had wanted to go see but she’d been busy. Busy thinking about her growing restlessness and what she needed. She was pretty sure that what she needed was Brady, but she wasn’t sure he was on board with the program.
“You okay?” Cruz asked after they worked the midday shift together.
“Yeah. Why?”
“We’ve had three customers mention the new guy”-Cruz put air quotes around new guy -“and you’ve gotten a look on your face each and every time.” He gave her an exaggerated look of dazed lust, complete with dopey eyes and tongue hanging out.
“I never look like that,” she said, and shoved him. They were in the back, organizing outside playtime. They had two of the dogs separated from the others because they were elderly and liked sedate, quiet playtime, which they’d just had. They were now lying happily on the floor at Lilah’s feet, cooling down, and she took a moment to hug each of them.
“You do so get that look. When it’s been a while since you got laid.”
“Bite me, Cruz.”
“I’d love to bite you,” he said as they escorted the older dogs back to their area and took out their three other guests; Lulu and two rambunctious dogs. “But been there, done that. And you bit back, remember?”
She laughed and, not for the first time, felt grateful that they’d realized that they were so much better together like this, bicker-buddies. It’d have been awful if they couldn’t make this work because she cared about him so very much and knew the feeling was mutual. “Kissing and telling, Cruz?”
“Biting and telling.”
They took the rest of the animals outside for supervised playtime in the sunshine and fresh air. Later, when they were back inside, Cruz administered meds and Lilah moved to the kitchen to do the dishes and general cleaning. Afterward, she worked on paperwork until it was pickup and drop-off time.
Celia came in for Lulu. Celia Ayala had been Lilah’s grandma Estelle’s frenemy and bridge partner for fifty years-until Estelle had committed the ultimate faux pas and gone to the Big Bridge Game in the sky. Alone.
Lilah accepted Celia’s check and wrote up a receipt.
Celia was the approximate size and shape of an Oompa-Loompa, and thanks to the new tanning salon in town, she had the same skin tone as one, too. “Can you book me for next Thursday, dear? Oh, and also tell me about the new sexy hunk working at Belle Haven. What’s his name?”
“Brady,” Lilah said without thinking, making Celia grin. “What?”
“I hear you’re seeing him.”
“What? No. No. I’m not, I only-” Kiss him every chance I get… “No,” she said again weakly.
“Someone told me you’d been seen in his truck.”
Lilah sighed. “I hit it. I was tired and-”
“You work too hard. Listen, dear. Your grandmother-bless her ornery soul-agreed with me on one thing.”
“Are you sure? Because I never knew you two to agree on anything.”
Celia waggled a finger. “We agreed on this. You only get one life. So you need to find the right man. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
“Do you?”
“Listen to you,” Celia chided. “You have a mouth on you, just like Estelle did.”
Lilah thought about her beloved grandma, who for all intents and purposes had been her mom, her dad, her everything, and smiled even though her chest felt too tight. “You miss her.”
“She drove me crazy.” Celia sighed. “But yes, I miss her. She was my last friend. The rest are all dead. Since I’m planning on living forever, it’s going to be lonely. Now stop changing the subject. I’m old, not stupid. We all know how much you gave up to care for her in the end, but she’s gone, Lilah. It’s your turn to live.”
“I am.”
“Then stop wasting time talking to old ladies. Go back to kissing the hunk.”
Lilah stared at her. “How did you know?”
“Well, honey, if you want to keep a man a secret, you don’t kiss him out in front of the bakery on Main.”
Later, Lilah was in the middle of an online lecture for her animal biology class when she got a call from Dell.
“Got a check for you,” he said. “For last week when you boarded those two beagles for us.”
Belle Haven didn’t keep overnight guests; they paid the kennels to do that for them. “My favorite kind of call,” she said.
“And here I thought just hearing my voice was your favorite kind of call.”
“That, too.”
“Oh no, it’s too late. You’ve given yourself away. You only want the money.”
“Yes, it’s ridiculous how fond of eating I’ve become.”
Dell was silent for a beat. “You were supposed to tell me if you need help.”
And wasn’t that just the problem. She hated needing help. Always had. “I’m fine, I was kidding.”
Mostly.
“I’ll bring the check over with dinner,” he said. “We’ll talk.”
Oh great. A talk. Where he’d try to butt in and she’d dance around her money problems. “No, I’ll come to you. I have some files for you, anyway. And I’m busy for dinner.”
She had a date with a very healthy, very green salad, followed by a little ice cream-or the whole pint, depending on how her studying went.
A few minutes later, Lilah walked to the center, eyeing the dark clouds drifting down from the peaks, turning into shreds of mist that gave substance to the raw wind. She zipped up her sweatshirt and picked up the pace. Either Mother Nature had forgotten it was summer, or she needed some Midol.
At Belle Haven, she went straight to the reception desk. Jade sat behind the counter working the phone and the computer at the same time with her usual calm, implacable efficiency, with a kitten sleeping in her lap. Behind her chair on the floor lay a 150-pound St. Bernard dog, snoring with shocking volume.