Flirting with Love(16)

“Oh, it’s not Sweets. Just me. She walked in my blood.” Wes’s jeans were smeared with bloody paw prints, and he’d obviously tried to use his shirtsleeve to stop the bleeding, as it was also soaked with fresh blood.

Ross leaned back against the counter and breathed deeply, thankful that Sweets was not hurt and mildly concerned over Wes’s cut. Wes was always getting cuts and breaking bones, and this one didn’t look like it would need anything more than a few stitches, but why the hell was he in Ross’s office if his dog wasn’t hurt, and why did Sweets look traumatized?

“Then why are you holding her like she’s injured?”

Wes kissed Sweets’s head and spoke just above a whisper. “She got scared when I passed out.”

“Passed out? Wes, you should be in Daisy’s office, not mine.” Daisy was their brother Luke’s fiancée and the Trusty family-practice doctor.

“If I go to Daisy, she’s going to tell Callie, and then I’m up shit’s creek, because…” He held up his bandaged hand, which had been tucked beneath Sweets’s body.

Ross laughed. “Same rock face?”

“Three days ago. I told her I wouldn’t go again, and I wasn’t going to, but—”

Ross held up his hand. “Don’t even tell me. I don’t want to know.” He took Sweets from Wes’s arms and loved her up, then set her on the floor, where she wagged her tail and whined at Wes.

“Get down here and sit on the chair. Jesus, Sweets is like a wife.” Ross nodded toward the chair and Wes did as instructed. Sweets settled her head in his lap. “How do you think you’ll keep this from Callie?”

“I won’t. I won’t lie to her.”

Ross arched a brow.

“It wasn’t a lie. I had no intention of climbing that goddamn rock face. It’s on the north side of the mountain and I was going to scout out a new trail for a hike with next week’s group at the ranch, and…” Wes shrugged, and his mouth lifted into an apologetic smile.

“So, you’re going to tell her.”

“Yes. Of course. You can’t lie to a woman. They have built-in sensors for that.”

Good to know. “Then you should definitely be at Daisy’s.”

Wes sighed heavily. “No way, bro. If Daisy tells Callie before me, I’m dead meat. It’s as good as lying to tell her after someone else does, and I can’t tell her over the phone.” Wes pointed to his eyes, which suddenly looked very apologetic. “She needs to see me.”

“Idiot.” Ross cleaned his wound and waited for the numbing medicine to work.

Wes looked around for a minute. “Where are the boys?”

“On a playdate.” He thought about when Elisabeth had come by to get the dogs earlier that morning. He’d opened the door, and for a hot minute their eyes had connected and the air between them sizzled and popped. It had taken all of Ross’s focus not to greet her with a kiss, and he could tell by the nervous way she smiled and the way her words were breathy and soft that she was having just as hard of a time keeping her distance from him.

“A…Whatever. You gonna tell me about Elisabeth? From what I hear, she’s here for the money, which you have, so be careful.” Wes leaned down and kissed Sweets’s head. Each of the Bradens had hefty trust funds, passed down for generations.

“She’s not here for the money, and we’re not dating.” She’d moved all her stuff, she was talking about renovating the kitchen, and she was trying her best to fit into the community. None of those were signs of a woman interested in taking what she could and leaving town. The hell with waiting. He began suturing, ignoring Wes’s flinching.

“Fuck, Ross.” Wes fisted his hand.

“Man up, and if Callie asks, I tried to get you to call her.”

“Yeah, I know the drill.”

After Ross was done, Wes cleaned up as best he could, which wasn’t very well at all. He leaned against the counter. “Wanna grab a beer?”

“You’ve got a fiancée to come clean to,” Ross reminded him.

On the way to the front door, Wes asked, “How do you know Elisabeth’s not here for the money if you’re not dating her?”

“She’s hiring Emily to renovate Cora’s kitchen.”

“Probably to flip it,” Wes suggested.

“Not to flip it.” Why was he explaining Elisabeth’s plans to Wes? “Next time you want to grab a beer, text the word beer. I could have used one after I dropped her off.”

“Didn’t get any? No wonder you’re pissy.”

Ross opened the door. “Out.”





ELISABETH HAD BAKED all morning for tomorrow’s deliveries; then she’d calculated her current income and went back to check it against her aunt’s records. Orders were slowing down a little. Not much, and she might not have noticed had she not compared the figures, but seeing a downturn of even a handful of pies in the three weeks since she’d moved to Trusty and taken over the business wasn’t exactly uplifting. She’d have to make more of an effort to sell and maintain that business along with her pet business.

She had a great afternoon at the dog park with Ranger, Knight, and Sarge, doing more playing than marketing of her business. It had been a few weeks since she’d had any real doggy time, and she missed having dogs and cats in her life on a daily basis. Farm animals were wonderful, but give her a pup or kitty and she was in heaven. She’d handed out flyers about her business and talked to every dog owner, but most changed the subject the minute it came to grooming or dog care, giving her no time to really try to explain or to market her business.

She’d then gone to Missy’s Dog Grooming in Allure to introduce herself and see if she’d be interested in a reciprocal referral relationship, but Missy had done her best to dissuade Elisabeth from trying to build a grooming business. She obviously didn’t want competition, which told Elisabeth that maybe there wasn’t much of a market for dog grooming in Trusty after all. By the time Elisabeth drove back to Trusty, she was barely holding on to a thread of hope. She needed a better plan.

A better plan. Was she fooling herself? Had she wanted to be in Trusty so badly that she tricked herself into believing it was as wholesome and as welcoming as Aunt Cora? Was the wholesomeness she’d felt nothing more than the love of her dear aunt? Did her mind fabricate the rest? Tears welled in her eyes as she neared Ross’s house.

No. No, no, no. Do not cry.

Knight, who had refused to sit in the back of her car with the other dogs, huffed a breath and rested his big black head on her lap, like he knew she needed company. She stroked his fur. Of course he knew. Dogs understood her so well.

“I’m not giving up. No way. I’ve wanted to be here too long to fold under pressure.” Her words were stronger than her conviction at the moment.

She drove down Ross’s driveway, passing a guy in a truck who waved and smiled on his way out. Just when she was at her wit’s end about how unfriendly the people here were, one guy in a truck gave her a reason to smile. She waved and almost managed a smile, until she drove closer to the house and saw Ross standing on the porch with a serious look on his face. She hoped she hadn’t kept his dogs too long.

She parked the car and stroked Knight’s head. It was worth Ross being a little upset. All three dogs had already wound their way into her heart and filled her lonely spots with love. When she looked up again, Ross was opening her door, and when he smiled, it softened the tension she’d seen only moments earlier. Elisabeth breathed a little easier, though for some reason she felt on the verge of tears again.

Elisabeth was strong-willed, but she had a sensitive soul. It had always been a bone of contention with her mother, who was one of those steel-willed women who could shrug anything off.

Ross leaned down. “Hey there, Lis. Did the boys behave?”

Lis. God, she loved that. I shouldn’t love it. He’s just being nice. He probably knew her business would fail. Then what? She’d sold her place in LA, and she didn’t want to go back there anyway. She wanted to be here. Forever. Only here. Despite the unfriendly people and the trouble she was having getting her business off the ground. This is where she’d always wanted to be. She couldn’t have been that wrong. Aunt Cora couldn’t have been that wrong in leaving the business and property to her.

Knight lifted his eyes to Ross but kept his head in her lap. Elisabeth was thankful for the weight of him. It kept her securely in the car instead of jumping into Ross’s arms for a hug on the worst day of the last few weeks.

It was all she could do to form an answer. “They were perfect.” She swallowed the urge to unload her heartache on him and stepped from the car, moving swiftly to open the hatchback for Sarge and Ranger.

“I somehow doubt that. Ranger can be a little rascally.”

Knight followed them around to the hatchback, where Sarge and Ranger were lavishing Elisabeth’s face with kisses. She stood with a hand buried in each of their fluffy necks, soaking up their unconditional love.

“Come on, guys, give her a little breathing room,” Ross said.

“No, it’s okay, really.” She sat between the dogs, one arm over each, her legs hanging out of the hatchback.