New Leash on Life (The Dogfather Book 2)

“He loves all pits. Ever since Zeus took a chomp out of him when he was a kid, he’s been on a mission to save every dog and convert the world to the love of pitties.”

  “Zeus?” Had he ever mentioned a dog named Zeus? “Shane’s been bitten?”

  Liam cringed like he wanted to kick himself. “I assumed you’ve seen the scar.”

  No, she hadn’t. And she had a feeling he had more than one scar he hadn’t shared. She didn’t have time to ask more—not that she’d get it from Liam—because he pulled up to the driveway. Chloe scrambled out and ran to Shane who cradled Daisy in his arms.

  “Is she all right?” she asked, automatically reaching for Daisy.

  “By the look of her, she’s been digging more holes than Easterbrook the Undertaker.” He brushed a layer of grime from her paw. “A little scared. Not hurt. Misses you.”

  “Oh, Daisy.” She wrapped her arms around the dog and pulled her close, getting a huge lap of the tongue right over her face and mouth and eyes and, yep, the mouth again.

  “What I wouldn’t give for a camera right now,” Shane said softly.

  She could only imagine that picture. Chloe caked in dirt, hair knotted, cheeks streaked by mud and dog saliva, makeup smeared to a dark shadow under her eyes.

  “Come on, let’s take her in and I’ll bathe her for you,” Shane offered.

  She swallowed, aware of a buzzing in her blood that she didn’t understand or recognize. “Would you mind if I did it myself?”

  He smiled. “She’s really got you now.”

  Someone had. She clung a little tighter to Daisy’s muscular middle, stroking the head that rested on her shoulder as she looked at Shane. He had that expression on his face again, the one she’d seen at the lookout, the one that reached into her chest and threatened to rip her heart out.

  The one that made her think…he really cared. And what would she do? Pack up and move away and live alone and avoid the mess of love, that’s what.

  She needed to think. Needed to clean. Needed to organize all her crazy—no, not crazy!—thoughts and feelings, and if he walked in that house, they’d end up all tangled up in a new kind of mess.

  “Would you mind if I did that alone?” she asked softly.

  For a second, he looked shell-shocked. Then, “Chloe, someone purposely broke the gate to let that dog out. I don’t want you here alone.”

  “I’ll be fine. I’ll lock the doors. I have Daisy and…it’s what I want.”

  She saw the disappointment register. “It’s not what I want.”

  “I know, but…” She looked down at Daisy. “I think I’ve broken enough barriers for today.”

  “You know there’s one thing you can’t control, Chloe.” When she looked up at him, he whispered, “It’s your feelings.”

  She swallowed and nodded. “Hey, I know,” she agreed, taking Daisy from him to hold her in her arms like a baby. “I’ve gone ahead and fallen for a dog.”

  He gave a whisper of a smile. “I’ll leave my truck for you and go with Liam,” he said, pulling out his keys. “It’s good to have it in the driveway. Doesn’t look like you’re alone.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Call me after you get yourself and Daisy all cleaned up. You two can come to my house. Whenever you want. If you want. For as long as you want.”

  As long as she wanted had never been very long. Why would this be different? He’d just have a new woman to be mad at, another reason to be cynical and not hopeful.

  “’Kay,” she murmured. “Thanks.” Still lugging the dog in her arms, she turned toward the house and started walking.

  “Chloe, wait.”

  Closing her eyes, she froze. Torn. Dying for him but absolutely needing to push him away. Why? Why? What made her think that was normal?

  “You forgot your bag,” he said, coming up next to her and sliding it on her shoulder. Then he leaned right into her ear to whisper, “You sure you’re okay?”

  No, damn it. She was not okay. She was a mess, inside and out. Mostly inside. “Yeah, of course. Just a little overwhelmed by the day.”

  “Call me?”

  “I promise.” She slipped away, unlocked the front door, and stepped inside without looking back. Because she might do something stupid like beg him to come back to her and kiss him and shower with him and make love to him and then…what a mess.

  Still lugging Daisy, she went to her bathroom, closed and locked the door, then twisted the shower knob. Finally, she set the dog on the floor as she stripped off the mud-covered clothes and shoes, aware of those brown eyes locked on her.

  She didn’t speak, because her voice would crack and tears would flow. Naked, she stepped into the tub and started to close the shower curtain. But before she closed it, Daisy put her paws on the side of the tub and looked up, her desire as clear as if she spoke English.

  Wordlessly, Chloe hoisted her up and set her in the bottom of the tub.

  That was it. She lost it.

  As the tears bubbled up, she slid down the cool tile and landed under the spray, the shower water sluicing over her, making rivulets of brown and gray as the mud washed off. Daisy wedged herself between Chloe and the side of the tub.

  Well, here she was. In a bathtub with a dog, having sent the sexiest man who’d ever wanted her away. The very definition of not normal.

  Stroking the dog’s head, Chloe started to hum a song her mother used to sing and let the shower wash away her sadness.

  Chapter Sixteen

  “What the hell, Shane?” Liam sounded purely disgusted with him. “Blow the damn whistle!”

  Shane peered across the massive training field, barely hearing what his brother said but knowing he’d screwed up the training. Liam had shot a Thunder 100 launcher, Jag was at his perfect balance between still and interested, and when the dog hit the marker, Shane was supposed to blow the whistle to teach Jag to stop on a dime.

  Now the dog was confused, and Liam was rightfully ticked off.

  “Launch the retriever again, and I’ll nail it.”

  “Never mind.” Liam folded to get on Jag’s level, giving the regal German shepherd some love, but not too much, Shane noted as he walked toward them. Couldn’t reward Jag since Shane screwed up.

  “Sorry,” Shane muttered as he got closer, scooping up the marker in the middle of the field as he passed it. “Distracted.”

  “And I thought that was Jag’s problem.” Liam squinted up at him, one hand still on Jag’s head. “I had him right there, on that hairy edge between desire and control, which isn’t easy to achieve.”

  “Really? ’Cause I feel like I’m living there these days,” Shane admitted, dropping down on the grass to get face-to-face with Jag. “Sorry,” he repeated, this time to Jag, rubbing his knuckles over the thick black and tan fur. “You deserve better, Jag. We all do.”

  Liam snorted softly.

  “What?” Shane demanded. “What was that supposed to mean? I don’t speak in grunts, Brother.”

  “You think you deserve better than Chloe?”

  “Who said anything about Chloe?”

  Liam lifted his dark brows like he knew everything. “She’s all you think about.”

  And clearly he knew a lot, if not everything. Shane had always respected his brother for that. “Since when do you know what I’m thinking about?”

  Liam shook his head, his attention back on Jag. “What do you say we take a break, big guy?”

  “You talk to dogs more than people, you know.”

  Liam angled his head. “I like them more.”

  “Even me? Never mind.” Shane started laughing. “I already know the answer to that.”

  “That’s your problem, Shane,” Liam said softly. He always spoke low, when he talked at all, which made whatever he was about to say seem ten times more important than it probably was.

  “What is my problem?”

  “You think you know all the answers.”

  “Well, when it comes to women, I’m pretty sure me and Jag he
re both know more than you.”

  Liam ignored the dig. “Why don’t you tell me what’s eating you? She won’t have sex with you? Isn’t that usually your end game?”

  “Isn’t that everyone’s end game?” he fired back.

  “Not mine.” Liam stroked Jag’s coat, his big hands always a good touch on any dog. In seconds, Jag got the message she was off duty and folded for a rest. “Although if it was, I wouldn’t have come home alone the other night.”

  “Big fail with Andi?”

  “We’re not talking about Andi,” Liam replied, shutting the door firmly in a voice Shane recognized as final.

  Shane whistled out a slow sigh. “So what if it wasn’t my end game?”

  Liam gave him a doubtful side-eye.

  “She’s going to leave, of course. She lives in Miami. She’ll leave. Not that I care, but…”

  “Oh, you care. You care so much you can’t blow a whistle on time.”

  Shane gave his own grunt of disgust. “So what if I do care? It can’t last. Nothing really good can last.”

  Liam angled his head and scowled at him. “How can you say that? Look at Mom and Dad.”

  “Precisely. Look at Mom and Dad. Dad’s entire world gone in a heartbeat. Literally.”

  “So you think Dad shouldn’t have married Mom because they only had, what, thirty-six years and six kids together? What the hell do you want?”

  He used to be able to answer that question easily: sex. He always wanted only sex from a woman, right? It was a game—one he easily won. And then along came Chloe and all her perfection, and he wanted…more. “I’m mad at her,” he murmured.

  “At Chloe? For sending you off yesterday after you found Daisy? She obviously needed to decompress after that ordeal. I could see that from twenty feet away.”

  Shane swallowed, hating what he was about to say. Hating the sting behind his eyelids even more. “I’m mad at Mom.”

  Liam gawked at him. “I really hope I didn’t hear that right.”

  “She was my rock, Liam. She was so solid. So right there. I don’t care if that makes me sound…foolish. I loved that woman, and I want her to meet the person I fall in…I care about.” He tried to laugh but it came out strangled. “I trust her judgment more than Dad’s.”

  “You trust mine?”

  “On German shepherds.”

  Liam almost smiled. “I don’t know Chloe that well, obviously, but I saw a woman who was genuinely upset about the well-being of a dog yesterday. She was crying over Daisy. I know what Mom would say about that.”

  “What?” Shane asked, a little surprised at how much his whole body tensed waiting for Liam’s answer. “You can trust someone who loves dogs?”

  “She always said, ‘You don’t know what’s really good until you try a little of it.’”

  He frowned. “I think she was talking about, you know, broccoli.”

  “Or relationships.”

  No, Shane didn’t think so at all. Would Mom like Chloe? Or would she think she was a neurotic clean freak who ironed her shorts and ran from dog poop? God, he wished he knew. Which was why, right now, he was mad at her for leaving him. For leaving them all.

  And not just right now. If he was perfectly honest, he’d been pissed off for three years since his cell phone rang and all he could hear was Dad crying on the other end. He didn’t even know how mad he was until recently.

  What the hell?

  “And why haven’t you told Chloe about Zeus?” Liam asked, yanking him back to the conversation. “I thought that was your big move when you talk about your dog attack and show that scar on your hip that conveniently requires you to lower your pants.”

  He hadn’t told her because he’d yet to lower his pants. And because he liked her so much he’d have to tell her the truth. And that would be…a barrier too far, as Chloe would say.

  “How’d you know I haven’t told her?”

  “She was surprised when I mentioned it.”

  “Five minutes alone with her and you tell her about Zeus.” He gave his brother a vile look. “That’s a low blow.”

  He grinned. “Now you’ll have to show her the scar. You can thank me by getting off your ass and paying at least as much attention to training as Jag.”

  “’Kay.” He pushed up and grabbed the launcher. “You going to tell me what happened with Andi the other night?”

  “No.”

  “Or why you went to church?”

  “No.”

  “Why do I even bother with you?” Shane asked.

  Liam gave a rare grin and signaled Shane to go to the marker.

  * * *

  Chloe brushed some crumbs from her fingers, dropped another raspberry on the floor next to Daisy, and picked up her phone when it buzzed with a call, getting the usual reaction when she read the caller ID. Would her heart ever not kick up a notch at the sight or sound or possibility of Shane Kilcannon?

  “Where are you?” he asked without saying hello first, his voice deep and sexy and exactly what she wanted to hear after the long, lonely night.

  “I’m sitting in the Bitter Bark Bakery eating the most delicious buttery croissant. Where are you?”

  “Where’s Daisy?”

  “At my feet. And don’t get mad at me, but did you know she loves raspberries?”

  He laughed softly. “Continuing Daisy Drop-ins without me?”

  “Guilty as charged, Counselor,” she said. “I decided to go back to the places where they loved her the most and start talking to customers, too. We stopped at the bookstore, and Jackie got down on all fours again. Max, the guy who owns the florist, gave us a full daisy chain, which my girl is currently wearing around her neck. And now we are at the bakery, and Linda May gave me a tiny bowl of raspberries, which I’m feeding her one at a time.”

  “Out of your hand?”

  “Shane. Be real.”

  He laughed softly. “So no damage from yesterday?”

  “None to Daisy’s reputation, but…”

  “But what?” He sounded genuinely concerned, and she bit back a smile before making the admission, not entirely sure how he’d take it.

  “I, um, I slept with a dog on my bed.”

  Dead silence, then, “Don’t move,” he said. “And get me one of Linda May’s blueberry muffins. I gotta hear about this.”

  Less than fifteen minutes later, the Bitter Bark Bakery door chime rang as Shane came in, wearing a Waterford Farm T-shirt and jeans. He might have a little dog dirt on him, but he looked good to Chloe.

  It had been a long night of emotional battle, but the sun came up on a new day, and Chloe wasn’t ready to give up on Better Bark or the wonderful man she’d met here.

  When he came to her table by the window, Daisy stood and barked, earning a quick look from a couple at another table, but they smiled as if they’d already been charmed by her.

  “You should have told me you were going out,” he said, pulling out the wrought-iron chair next to her. He reached down to scratch Daisy, lifting the chain of knotted flowers. “You weren’t kidding. Why didn’t you call me or come over?”

  “I knew you were busy at work.” She handed him a muffin wrapped in wax paper, a cup of steaming coffee, and a tiny bottle of hand sanitizer. “And I really decided I couldn’t stay imprisoned for one more minute.”

  “Imprisoned?” He squeezed the sani into his palm, probably just to make her happy.

  “Don’t you think that was the point of someone letting Daisy out? To make sure I stay in the house with her?”

  He considered that as he took his first bite and a few crumbs of that sugary coating rained down all over his T-shirt, making her itch to wipe it off.

  “Possibly,” he said after he chewed. “Or someone wanted Daisy to scare people. Who knows, but I’m certain it was a deliberate act to sabotage your plans for the town and get the vote against you.”

  “I know that,” she said. “Which is why I’m here and ready to tackle all the places we haven’t been with
her yet and return to some we have.”

  “Alone?” He seemed genuinely hurt.

  She looked down for a moment, gathering her thoughts, then back at him. “I know, but…”

  “You got scared.”

  So, so scared. “Shane, I’m not going to stay here. You know that. I know that. So, whatever we do together, that’s always going to be in the background.”

  He reached over the table and put his hand over hers. “Listen to me. I want to be with you while you’re here. That’s it. No strings, no ties, no expectations, no discussions of anything that makes you uncomfortable. We’ll be together as often and as long as you like.”

  “It never works like that,” she whispered, wishing it could. Just this once. Just this man.

  “You know,” he said, blowing out a breath. “A wise woman once said, ‘You don’t know what’s really good until you try a little of it.’”

  She lifted one eyebrow, surprised to think she hadn’t tried before. “What are you suggesting we try?”

  “Um…I think they call it a relationship, but I could be wrong.”

  She leaned forward to whisper, “I think they call it sex.”

  “If that’s what you want to call it, but take the relations out and you have a…ship.”

  “Ships sail, you know.”

  “I won’t drown when you do,” he said.

  For a long moment, neither spoke, and it felt like somehow they’d silently sealed a deal. One step, one day, one barrier at a time.

  “Ooh, who do we have here?” A woman’s voice behind them made him turn to see Andi Rivers coming across the bakery toward them. “A little four-legged PR professional?”

  Andi greeted them both with quick hugs and slipped into the empty seat at the next table, giving some love to Daisy. “I heard she caused quite a stir yesterday.”

  “You heard?” Chloe asked. “Is it all over town?”

  “Somebody posted on that Nextdoor site—you know that local social media site that forces you to read e-mails from the very neighbors you try to ignore by wearing earbuds when you walk?”

  “I’m not on it, but I’ll sign up,” Chloe said. “What are they saying?”

  “That you have a pit bull and can’t control it. And that could be a real problem if we turn Bitter Bark into Better Bark. Someone called it Biter Bark.”