Kate took a second, huge bite of food so that she couldn’t talk.
Holly thunked her head to her desk. “Kate.”
“Look, he’s not even home or planning to be home anytime soon. And I’m doing the online dating thing. A guy’s going to turn up. Hopefully in the same country as me. One who’s not my best friend’s brother. No worries, okay?”
“It’s not about him being my brother. It’s about you. I love Grif, very much, but you need a one-woman type of guy.”
“No,” Kate said. “I’ve decided I’m not going to limit my options to one guy. I bought a wide selection of sexy lingerie, not just this one bra. And I intend to find a wide selection of men to go with.” She looked at her watch. “Can I keep the sweater for now? I’ve gotta go. Oh, and book club tonight, don’t forget.”
“I’ll be late. Thing One and Thing Two have training class first.”
“Since when do you take your dad’s heathen puppies to obedience training?”
“Since he paid for the classes but can’t go. Like you said, they’re heathens. They can’t miss a lesson.”
“Uh-huh.” Kate tucked her tongue into her cheek. “And does your willingness to suddenly do this have anything to do at all with the obedience class teacher?”
Holly busied herself with cleaning up. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Yes, you do. And so do I. We teachers are hot.”
“Aren’t you late?” Holly asked desperately.
“Yes.” But Kate didn’t move. “Adam’s the instructor, right? The guy you’re apparently going to give another shot at breaking your heart?”
“I’m not going to let him do that. It’s not like that this time.”
“What is it like?”
Holly hadn’t the foggiest…
“Holly,” Kate said very gently, reaching for her hand. “Why go back to Hurt City? You’ve already been there.”
“I’m just living in the moment,” Holly said. “That’s all.”
“And the moment is telling you to go for the hottest man in town?” Kate asked. “Well, I guess that makes sense. Gotta aim high.”
“And I’m not going to give him the power to hurt me,” Holly said. Probably. “I’m not going to give anyone the power to hurt me, not ever again. I’m just trying to enjoy life.”
Kate smiled at that. “Well, he certainly has a look about him that says he knows how to make a woman enjoy herself.”
Holly couldn’t stop the satisfied sigh that left her lips, making Kate laugh.
“I’m jealous,” she said, standing, gathering the two lunch boxes. “It’s been too long since I had that look on my face. Just be careful, okay? Promise me.”
“Scout’s honor,” Holly said. “I’ll be the Queen of Careful. Tonight’s just about helping my dad.”
Kate shook her head. “You’re the worst liar on the planet, you know that? Every time you lie, you suck your lower lip in between your teeth. You need to work on that.”
When Kate left, Holly brought up the camera function on her phone and looked at herself. “You are not falling for him again,” she said, and caught herself sucking her bottom lip in between her teeth. “Dammit!”
Much later, Holly went in search of Thing One and Thing Two for their class. She found the dogs were with her dad, who was hitting golf balls into a tin can in his office.
The six-month-old puppies were sleeping, but when Holly walked in, they bounced up, ready for action. Seventy-plus pounds of action each barreled straight at her, tongues lolling, eyes bright with excitement, ears flopping without restraint.
She held up a hand. “Stop!”
To be fair, they did try. But the wood floors didn’t provide any traction, and they slid, barreling straight into her, taking her out at the knees. She hit the floor, which apparently was an open invitation to play. She tried to get up twice and was knocked back down by sheer exuberance. Giving up, she lay on the floor. “Help.”
Her dad laughed. “You volunteered for this…”
She rolled to her knees and got herself up. She was covered in dog hair and also some doggy drool. Eau-de-dog. “I could be in New York, working at some fancy bigwig corporation, you know, putting my pretty education to good use. I don’t have to be back here being kissed to death by wayward puppies.”
“True. But you made a choice. Sorry already?”
She let out a breath. “No.” Not even a little bit. She’d discovered something about herself coming back here. She hadn’t been cast in a plaster mold at birth—she was whomever she chose to be.
And right now, she liked the person she’d chosen. She liked being that person here in Sunshine. And after her two-day foray into the wilderness with the sexy, enigmatic blast from her past, she could even imagine herself sticking here for a long time.
She pictured what Adam’s expression might be if he could hear her thoughts, and it made her smile. The big, bad, tough, edgy, dangerous-as-hell Adam Connelly didn’t show much on the outside, but on the inside he’d be panicking big-time.
She’d like to see that, but it would have to wait.
Because she might be ready for Adam and whatever came with him, but he was most definitely not ready for her.
Eighteen
Adam stood in the yard watching as his human and canine students began arriving for his dog obedience class. The group comprised mostly new dog owners and wayward puppies, so he was expecting the usual mayhem. Normally he prided himself on being the calm in the storm, but tonight Holly pulled up and his calm suddenly vanished.
She got out of her Jeep wearing her work clothes, which was a business suit that meant all business. Problem was she had legs longer than the legal limit and a body that fueled his every fantasy.
She stood with the rest of the class, a leash in each hand, doing her best to corral her father’s dogs, and he had no idea what the hell she was doing here. He met her gaze.
She gave him a little smile.
“Your dad okay?” he asked.
“Yep.” She nibbled on her lower lip. “Just giving him a break.”
She was lying, and he had no idea why. But he didn’t have much time to dwell on it. Liza Molan was at the front of the class with Babe, her golden retriever. Liza worked at the diner in town, and they’d gone out once about a year ago. He hadn’t pursued more with her. He never pursued more. He’d made that clear up front, and she’d seemed good with it. But then she’d left that crazy “mastering” message with Jade, and now she was giving him the hungry eyes, assessing his level of interest.
It was zero.
Adam’s gaze then shifted to Holly, who was still attempting to wrangle Thing One and Thing Two. Liza moved in front of him, blocking his view. “Hey there.” She flashed another smile. “I so need your help here. Babe’s always picking something up and chewing on it, and I can’t seem to make her drop it for me.”
Adam looked down at Babe. “Show me,” he said.
“Well, sure,” Liza said. “Right now for instance, she’s chewing on a rock—”
But Babe had spit out the rock at Adam’s quiet “show me.”
Liza stared at Babe. Then at Adam. She laughed, pushing her hair out of her face. “Oh, right. You meant drop. You said show me, and she dropped it to show you what she has. Why won’t she do that for me?”
“She’s a retriever, a working breed,” Adam said. “She needs to feel like she’s busy. That takes a lot of time and attention.”
Liza smiled and fluttered her lashes. “Most women need a lot of time and attention…I guess this is where the mastering comes in, right?” she asked hopefully.
There was a soft choking sound from Holly’s direction, but when Adam looked over at her, she was bent over tying her boot, hair in her face.
Adam turned back to Liza, who leaned in close and put a hand on his arm, pressing her breasts into him. “So, about the mastering thing…”
Another snort sounded, but before Adam could respond to either f
emale, two dogs on the other side of the lineup went at each other. Never so happy for a dogfight in his life, he stepped in between the two fighters, grabbing their leashes, getting the situation under control far too quickly. Afterward, Holly was staring at him wide-eyed, looking like maybe she was impressed that he’d broken up the fight without bloodshed. He appreciated her admiration, but this was his job.
The good news was that Dell had come outside with Gertie, and Liza appeared to forget all about Adam.
Thank God for fickle women.
Adam got everyone started on practicing sit and stay, then moved to stand next to Dell.
They both eyed Gertie. The St. Bernard was lying down, too lazy to sit up. “You really going to try this again?” Adam asked. Gertie had dropped out of two previous obedience classes.
“Maybe the third time is the charm,” Dell said.
Maybe, but doubtful. Because the problem wasn’t Gertie. It was Dell, who loved Gertie just the way she was—lazy and slightly naughty. Shaking his head, Adam moved on, going over all the basics. Just as in Gertie’s case, it wasn’t about training the dogs. It was about training the dogs’ handlers. It was about commitment and trust, both of which were crucial to success. Adam had ten weeks to get that through to people, to demonstrate to each owner exactly how to communicate with their dog to get them to respond.
“Training is a series of choices,” he said. “You need to make the good choices really good and the bad choices completely undesirable.” He eyed everyone struggling to control their dog. “As we stand here, your dogs should be sitting calm at your side.”
“Sit. Sit.” This from Gayle Little, who was yelling at her year-old black Lab, jerking on his leash. “I’ll give you a doggy biscuit to sit. I’ll give you the whole bag. Just sit!”
Adam moved to the pair. “Remember when we talked about making sure you’re giving the right command?”
Gayle, fortyish, a businesswoman and mother of teenagers, blew out a frustrated breath. “I knew if I caved to the ‘Oh please, can we have a puppy, Mom!’ that I’d be the one to end up here,” she said. “I’m not good at this. I’ve told him to sit a million times.”
“It’s not the words you use,” Adam told her. “It’s the tone. He can’t hear the message you intend when you’re yelling at him.”
“He’s not listening, no matter what my tone.”
“Kids don’t listen, either,” Adam said, “but you have consequences for that, right? Like taking away privileges, using time-outs.”
“Yes, of course, but I don’t want to be mean to a dog.”
“In the animal world, dogs correct each other without hesitation,” Adam told her. “You’ve seen this: they’ll snap in one instant and then play in the next. They don’t punish one another; they correct. That’s how you train effectively.”
“So how do I correct?” Gayle asked.
“Don’t scream your command. Say it and mean it. Your success will depend on how motivating you sound.” He turned to the black Lab. “Sit,” he said with calm authority.
The dog sat.
Gayle blew out a breath. “So, in other words, it’s not him, it’s me. Is that it?”
“You can do this,” he said.
She smiled and shook her head. “Hell, Adam. I just realized, it’s not my tone, it’s yours. You speak, and I’d do anything you asked of me.”
“Me too,” Liza said quickly, nodding like a bobblehead. “Anything.”
Adam felt Dell roll his eyes. He was also pretty sure Holly snorted again, but when he looked at her, she was concentrating on Donald’s dogs.
He got the class back to work. He had them walk in a large circle, and each time they stopped, the dogs were to sit.
Holly was having trouble with this. Her dad’s dogs kept getting tangled up in her legs.
“They’re distracted,” she said breathlessly, arms straining to hold the dogs.
This was because Thing One was staring at the cute little white springer spaniel next to him. “Distracted by tail,” Holly said with some disgust. “Just like a man.”
Hard to argue the truth. Adam stepped between Thing One and the spaniel.
Thing One’s gaze rolled up Adam’s legs to his face, and then he sat. Adam looked at Holly. “It’s your job to keep his mind on the task.”
“Uh-huh,” she said dryly. “Is this where the…mastering comes into play?”
He slid her a look that she met evenly, with a daring quirk of her brow.
Under the guise of shifting the leashes back into her hands, he leaned in. “Are you asking for a private lesson?”
“If I get to be the master.”
He gave her his best wicked smile. “Only the teacher gets to master.”
She bit into her lower lip and slid a look to the building, specifically the loft where he slept at night. Playing with fire, he told himself, with only one possible outcome—someone was going to get burned.
Somehow he got through the rest of the class. When it was over and his pupils had all headed to their cars, Brady stepped outside. He intercepted Holly on the way to her Jeep.
“Worried?” Dell asked Adam, the two of them watching Brady and Holly from across the lot.
“Why would I be worried?” Adam asked.
“Because your woman is talking to your nosy brother, who’s maybe spilling all your secrets.”
“She’s not my woman.” Although ever since their trek, she’d been starring in all his late-night fantasies…“And I don’t have any secrets.”
“Uh-huh.”
Okay, so he had plenty of secrets, and he was uneasy. He’d been so since they’d gotten back. Adam was a realist and always faced the facts head-on. The facts here were simple. He’d had some problems when he’d come home from his last tour. He’d also had enough counseling to know that his reactions to what he’d faced over there weren’t unexpected. And he was better. But he still wasn’t back in the game. He was still being a benchwarmer in his own life. From the outside looking in, it might appear that he was an active participant, but he wasn’t. Not fully. He wasn’t letting people in. If he could let anyone in, it would be Holly, but he honestly wasn’t sure if he could.
The cave incident was a perfect example. He’d failed there, big-time. With an audience of one, no less. It was more than a little humiliating that after all this time he was still so fucked-up.
And now Holly knew it, too.
He had no idea if she was going to keep his little—big—secret, and that was more than a little unsettling. He headed toward her, complete with his shadow. “I don’t need an escort,” he said to Dell.
Dell kept walking with him.
Adam slid him a look. “Thought you said Brady was the nosy brother.”
“It runs in the family.”
Holly had put the dogs in the Jeep, and Brady was showing her something on his phone. A picture, it turned out, of Brady and her dad on horseback. Brady looked up as Adam approached. “Hey. Holly was just about to tell me why it took you three days to find Donald.”
“Two days,” Holly said, meeting Adam’s gaze. “It only took two days.”
“I could have gotten from here to Timbuktu and back in two days,” Brady said. “Next time, you should take me. I’ll fly you in the chopper.”
“We had a lot of ground to explore,” Holly said.
“Explore.” Brady went brows up at this. “Is that the line he gave you? Did he take advantage of you? Because if he did, I could beat him up for you if you’d like.”
“No!” She laughed, then took in Adam, who was doing his best to appear utterly uninterested. “You could really beat him up?” she asked Brady. “He’s pretty tough.”
Brady laughed.
Adam slid him a long look but Brady wasn’t cowed. “I could