Winning the Right Brother(43)

Alex frowned. “I don’t have an investment portfolio.”

“Not yet, you don’t. That’s all about to change.”

Alex shook his head at her and she grinned at him, delighted that things seemed to be back to normal. See? She didn’t need Will around to keep her from making a pass at Alex. She could rely on her maturity and good judgment.

She held on to that thought all day at work, and later during dinner at her desk with a paperback for company, and still later as she drove home. By the time she pulled into Alex’s driveway, she was actually starting to believe it.

Holly turned off her engine and sat in the warmth of her car for a few minutes, listening to the rain drum against the windows. It sure was coming down. She hoped that Will and Tom and David were warm and dry in their tent.

Of course she’d left too quickly this morning to stop and think about grabbing a raincoat or umbrella. It had been all right earlier, when it was just starting to drizzle, but now it was pouring, Alex’s driveway wasn’t all that close to his front door, and she was going to get drenched.

She sighed. At least if she came into the house wet and cold, she’d have an excuse to go straight up to her room if Alex happened to be downstairs.

Holly took a breath, ducked her head and opened the door. A blast of rain hit her and she ran for the house. She’d almost made it when something tripped her up and she went down, sprawling, in the flower bed beside the front walkway.

“Great,” she muttered, preparing to get muddily to her feet, when a soft, sad bark halted her movement.

Her own woebegone state forgotten, Holly peered around to see where the sound had come from.

A pair of big, sad dog eyes looked at her from underneath the porch.

“Come on out of there, sweetheart,” she coaxed, kneeling down despite the pelting rain and the further damage to her beige wool pantsuit.

Another soft bark. It was a young dog, maybe a puppy.

“Come on out, baby. We’ve got raccoons under there who’d eat a little pup like you for breakfast. Come out and we’ll—”

“Who are you talking to? And why are you crawling around in the mud?”

It was Alex, standing on the front porch.

“I heard a dog barking,” she said defensively, raising her voice to be heard over the wind and the rain. “He’s under the porch. I’m just trying to get him out so we can take him inside.”

“And we want to take him inside because…?”

“He’ll be the first animal we take on board when we build our ark,” she said, glaring at him. “Why do you think? It’s storming out here, in case you hadn’t noticed. No one should be out on a night like this, especially not a puppy. He’s lost and he sounds scared. Show some compassion.”

Alex sighed in resignation. “Food will probably lure him out. I’ll go get something.”

While Alex was gone Holly spoke softly to the dog, getting him used to the sound of her voice. Then Alex was there, crouching down beside her in the rain, holding out some leftover chicken and talking almost as gently as she was.

“It’s okay, buddy. You lucked out. This woman is a sucker for a sob story. We’ll fill your tummy with leftovers if you come on inside with us.”

Slowly, the owner of the eyes emerged, revealing what appeared to be a Labrador puppy, all black, shivering with the cold and wet and eyeing Alex hopefully.

“Food inside,” he said, standing up and backing away toward the house. When the puppy came forward, tail wagging, Holly gathered him into her arms and followed Alex up the stairs.

“There,” she said triumphantly as Alex closed the door behind them. “See how easy that was?”

“Sure,” he said as he dripped on the hall floor. He shook his head, but he was smiling at her and the dog she held tightly against her chest. “I’ll go get some towels. Try to keep our new friend in this general area, will you? And check to see if he’s wearing a collar.”

He was.

“It says Johnny Peterson, 43 Linden Rd,” Holly told him a few minutes later as they were toweling off the puppy and themselves. Johnny seemed to appreciate the attention, as well as the big bowl of chicken scraps Alex put down in front of him. “That’s the lady next door, right? The nice one who lent me the jeans.”

“Yep. Her name’s Anna. I’ll give her a call.” He looked at her. “Why are you always in my house looking like a disaster victim? Maybe you should go change into something a little less muddy.”

Holly made a face at him but followed his suggestion, running upstairs to put on jeans and a sweatshirt and a pair of sneakers. When she came back down Alex was wrestling with Johnny in the hall.