Double Dog Dare

  “Your…” He damn near tripped off the sidewalk. “Okay, well, I thought it made sense for the two of us to go because there’s strength in numbers, and you know so much about animals. Plus, you like to travel, and…and…what?”

  She bit her lip, and her eyes danced with an unreleased laugh. “I meant my father and Judy. Not anyone else at that table.”

  “Oh.” He chuckled at the mistake. “Sorry.”

  “I mean, if you want to take a pass at that, knock yourself out. Sex or the real deal?”

  Oh man. Slowing his step, he let his gaze slide over her, pausing at every sweet thing along the trip, and there were many. Could it be sex and the real deal? No. Hadn’t he learned that the hard way? “Let’s go back to your dad and his date.”

  She elbowed him. “Chicken.”

  Like you wouldn’t believe. “Not that my opinion matters, and I’ve met your father a total of two times, but I picked up a nice vibe.”

  “A nice vibe? What does that mean?”

  He laughed at the way she posed the question and the sheer fun of hanging out with her. “It means they’re friends with…”

  “Benefits?”

  “Mutual interests,” he supplied.

  “Ahh. Do you think they’ve kissed?”

  “Not yet.”

  “Really?” They crossed the street and headed to the square, and her ought-to-be-illegal heels tapped on the stone with a perfect rhythm that matched his heart just being this close to her. “How can you tell?”

  “Do you spend a ton of time thinking about your dad kissing women? ’Cause, you know, it’s a little weird.”

  “It’s my family’s new obsession,” she told him. “Now that so many Kilcannons are all sewn up and off the market, they all want to get back at him for the matchmaking. In a good way, of course.”

  “But I thought you were morally opposed to setting people up and blind dates and giving nudges instead of letting nature take its course.”

  “For me I am. And I guess I am for my dad, too, since he doesn’t want it. But the truth is, he’s such an incredible guy and still so young and has so much love to give. He’s mourned a long time, and deeply, but…”

  She certainly hadn’t talked much about her mother, but he’d picked up bits and pieces and surmised she’d died unexpectedly and within the last few years. “You think he’s through his grief?” he asked. “It can take a while.”

  “He’ll never be through it completely. They were the happiest couple and a team like you’ve never met.” She studied him for a moment, empathy in her eyes. “You sound like you know a little bit about losing someone.”

  He was quiet for a moment, thinking of his story. “I was eight when my father died. My parents were a good couple, too, at least in my memory and from what my mother said.”

  “Was he sick?”

  “Not a day in his life.” At her curious look, he dredged up the words he’d shared many times and never stopped hating. “He was a semitruck driver and was killed in an accident on the highway.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry for you.”

  “Yeah, it was bad. I…” He struggled to find the right words, wanting her to know what Pops meant to him, but not wanting to get sappy and emotional or bring down the night. He settled for the simple truth. “He was the greatest guy I ever knew.”

  “Oh.” She slid her arm through his, pulling him closer. “I know that feeling. I know that loss. Felt it every day for four years. It’s…devastating.”

  Her sympathy, and the shared experience, touched him, more than he’d expected it to. Not that he wanted to compare, but he’d never talked about his father with Savannah. She’d invariably launched into a tirade about her dad, a gutter drunk, and the mother she never spoke to. She didn’t understand what an awesome parent could mean to a person, but Darcy did.

  “How long until your mom remarried?” she asked.

  “Four years.” He added a smile. “Could be the magic number.”

  But she was focused on him, and again, that attention and concern hit a chord that hummed deep inside. “How’d she meet the new man?”

  “She got a job as the administrative assistant to the president and owner of Bucking Properties. Have you heard of it?”

  “Of course. Real estate development and sales?”

  “Well, Malcolm Bucking liked his assistant. A lot. They’re celebrating their twentieth anniversary this month.”

  “Oh, wow.” She slowed her step, letting that sink in. “So…your mom went from being married to a semitruck driver to a…gazillionaire?”

  He laughed. “Yup. And consider it my cautionary tale for your family.”

  “How so? I mean, if they’ve been married for twenty years, I assume they’re happy.”

  “I guess they are, but you should know that a wife for your father could change everything. You willing to take that chance?”

  “I doubt he’d marry,” she said.

  “You never know.”

  She was quiet for a moment as a pack of rowdy kids, probably from the local college, came toward them, laughing and taking up most of the path that meandered through the square.

  He took her hand and led them around the group, careful to keep her on pavement with those spiky heels.

  “So that’s what happened to you,” she said. “Your mother brought you into a family you didn’t like?”

  “Yeah, that’s my excuse,” he said with a smile. “And to be honest, ‘didn’t like’ is an understatement.”

  “I know you have an evil stepbrother. Only one?”

  “And a stepsister who isn’t truly evil, but is fully capable of stabbing a back if given a knife and a cause.”

  She lifted the hand still holding his to brush some hair off her face, giving him the unexpected thrill of stroking her hair with her and accidentally grazing her smooth cheek with his knuckles. The tiny move was enough to heighten every sense in him.

  “And your stepfather? Also evil?”

  He took a moment to conjure up Malcolm Bucking and think about how to describe him to Darcy. “He manipulates people to get things to go his way. Is that evil?”

  “Hey, my dad is trying to marry off the free world and we think it’s cute.”

  “At least he’s not out chasing his next hundred million.”

  “No. His next grandchild. How does this man treat your mother?”

  “Like a queen,” he said without hesitation. “But that has changed her. A lot. She was living in a little brick house in a middle-class suburb of Charlotte, stretching every dollar and wham! We move into an estate with staff and silver and drivers and…Gideon.”

  “The evil stepbrother who resents your arrival and hates your mother and makes you miserable?”

  He stopped dead in his tracks. “Yes. Am I that much of a cliché?”

  “Well, I saw Cinderella. Er, Cinderfella. And I know your version ends with a pretty rough betrayal.”

  His heart suddenly felt heavy and warm, as if it was melting right in his chest. It felt good to talk to someone like her. No, not like her. Just her. “Yes. Very rough.” He punctuated the word by squeezing her hand.

  She was quiet for a few more steps. “Well, I appreciate the warning about my father,” she finally said.

  “You know, lightning could strike twice for your dad.” And he hoped it would for her family, but he couldn’t help but be skeptical. “You need to remember this mysterious perfect woman will come with kids and exes and baggage of all sorts, so you better be ready for that, because it changes everything and everyone.”

  They reached the massive tree in the middle of the square, next to a life-sized statue of a soldier. He’d walked by it many times cutting through the large square from his building to the town hall, but never bothered to read the plaque. “Captain Thaddeus Ambrose Bushrod,” he said. “Well, that explains a lot of the names around Bitter Bark.”

  “Which is named after that tree,” she said, pointing to the giant. “Except, it’s a hick
ory, not a bitter bark, and for a while, we were Better Bark, thanks to one of my sisters-in-law.”

  “I’ve heard about that,” he said. “The tourism specialist who opened the town to dogs and changed the name for a year.”

  “That’s the one. My dad was trying to get Liam to that meeting because Andi was there, but Shane had already met Chloe and jumped in.”

  He dropped his head back and laughed.

  “I’m telling you, it’s insane. The person who should be scared is the one coming into my family.” She looked up at him, her eyes shining so much he wondered if that was her natural brightness or the reflection of the lights in the tree. Didn’t matter. He could look at her all night.

  Holy crap, this was not supposed to happen. He was not supposed to be inches from a woman, his heart thumping, his blood pumping, his brain short-circuiting and forgetting every rule he ever made.

  “Josh,” she said softly. “I lied to you.”

  And that is why.

  “My feet really hurt.”

  Or…that. “Want me to carry you?”

  She trilled out a laugh. “Sitting for a few minutes will probably do the trick. I’d walk barefoot in the grass, but, you know, there are a lot of dogs around here.”

  “C’mon, there’s a bench.” He walked her to it, knowing he should get her home and end this nondate before he broke all his rules and really started liking her.

  Oh, too late for that.

  She dropped onto the bench with a noisy sigh and instantly lifted her feet, even before he sat. “Just take them off. Please. It’ll feel so good.”

  He stood in front of her, shaking his head as he reached down to her ankles.

  “What?” she asked. “You’re smug because you called it when you saw these shoes.”

  “I’m not smug. I’m…”

  “What?”

  “I don’t think you try to be that seductive, do you?”

  She raised a brow and lifted her ankle another inch so he could glide the strap off. “I am not seductive.”

  “I’ll be the judge of that.” He held the shoe for a minute, lifting it toward the soft light to really appreciate how glittery and high and strappy and feminine it was. Just holding her damn shoe turned him on. “Definitely not regulation footwear.”

  She shrugged. “Guess it depends on the game.” She raised her foot higher, enough that he could get a peek at a shapely calf and toned thigh. “I honestly am not trying to be seductive. I mean, who even says that anymore?”

  “The poor schmuck being seduced.”

  “Poor schmuck?” She pulled her bare feet out of his hands and let them drop to the ground with a thud. “That’s not what I’d call you.”

  “It’s no worse than Hot Landlord or Cinderfella.” He smiled at her, setting both shoes at the end of the bench and sitting down next to her.

  “But why poor schmuck when it comes to…seduction?” she asked as they got close enough to touch.

  “You just said it—the story ends in betrayal.”

  She sat back, eyeing him. “Will you tell me what happened, or is it too personal?”

  “You already know. My former girlfriend cheated with my stepbrother. How much more personal can it get?”

  She ran a finger over his knuckles, annihilating his concentration. “How’d you find out?”

  He stared straight ahead. “I went to her apartment at sunrise to propose on her thirtieth birthday, and he was there, in bed with her.”

  She sucked in a noisy breath. “Her thirtieth…with your…oh man. That blows.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Holy hell.”

  “Yeah.”

  “That’s so wretched.”

  “Yeah.”

  “No wonder you hate women.”

  “Ye—I don’t hate women,” he corrected. “But my ability to trust a woman has been permanently damaged.”

  After a second, she fell back on the bench. “Wow. Proposing on her birthday. You must have really loved her.”

  He snorted. “I know what you’re thinking,” he said. “How could I be that blind?”

  “They say love is blind.”

  “And stupid,” he added on a mirthless laugh. “She changed, Darcy. She changed like…” He snapped his fingers. “That.”

  “What changed her?”

  “Who. And his name is Gideon Bucking.”

  “He can’t be that great. I mean you…well…” She raised her brows. “You’re a snack, honey. Ain’t gonna lie.”

  He laughed softly, the sassy compliment hitting its mark and making him take her hand and bring it to his lips, but then he remembered his rules and silently set her hand back on her lap. “Thanks, but she found a different snack more to her liking.”

  “Maybe she didn’t like the idea of getting engaged. I turned thirty last week, and if some guy popped the question, I’d have popped him.”

  “First of all, I wasn’t some guy,” he told her. “We’d been dating for a year.”

  “Okay, well, I didn’t mean some guy, but anyone is scary if you’re not ready.”

  “Fair enough. And I guess she wasn’t, because she knew I’d forgive almost anything but that. I’ve given it a lot of thought, and I think she wanted to break up but didn’t know how or why. This was an easy way out for her, and it was a surefire relationship ender.”

  They sat quietly for a moment, then he curled her fingers deeper into his, remembering something she’d just said. “You turned thirty last week? Happy birthday.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Did you get anything good?”

  “My independence.”

  “By moving out?” he guessed.

  “And starting my own business. It was my thirtieth-birthday present to myself. The thing I wanted most in the world—a chance to prove to myself and my family that I’m not the baby anymore, that I can stand on my own two feet, and that I can be a successful, adult woman with no help from brother, sister, father, or man.”

  “Hear me roar,” he teased.

  She narrowed her eyes. “Don’t make me. My roar is a thing to be feared.”

  He laughed. “I don’t doubt that. But you did take help moving in.”

  “Because I pity them,” she said with a playful wave of her hand. “They’d have all rolled up in balls and cried if I hadn’t let them.”

  “And you’re taking help on Stella from your dad.”

  “Of course, for Stella. Even you’re willing to break a few rules for that dog.”

  He couldn’t argue with that.

  “That makes us people who love dogs and want to help a blind one see again,” she said. “That’s not dependence. That’s intelligence.”

  “You’re right. You’re…” Smart and beautiful and witty and good-hearted and…and… “Great, Darcy. You’re a great girl. Er, woman. A strong, independent woman.” At her raised eyebrows, he added, “You’re also a hot tenant.”

  She laughed at that, leaning into him. “Is that why you gave my father the impression you really like me? I thought you were helping the cause.”

  “No.” If only it were that simple. “I do like you.”

  Her eyes flickered, but he couldn’t decide if that was interest or fear or a combination of both.

  “And since I do,” he continued, “I’m happy to be your cover or whatever you need to get him off your case. It’s not a lie.”

  She nodded slowly, watching him with an intense blue gaze. “Okay, good.”

  He dipped his head to look deeper into those eyes. “You don’t sound like it’s good.”

  She took a slow breath, letting it out before she spoke. “I like you, and I’d like to…”

  He swallowed and waited for her to finish, hoping for one thing, dreading something else.

  “You look like you’re in more pain than my feet,” she said softly. “I’m sorry.”

  “I know I need to trust someone again, Darcy. A woman, a friend.”

  “I can be both those. One without try
ing, the other with a slew of people who will vouch that I’m a damn good friend when you need one.” She put her hand on his cheek and pressed gently. “And you, Cinderfella, need one.”

  He smiled. “I kind of like Hot Landlord.”

  “So do I.” She inched closer, the scent and warmth killing him, making him ache for that kiss. “But I’m getting the impression that’s a problem.”

  He put his hand over hers, loving the sensation of having her skin pressed against his. “Only for me.”

  “Well, you’re half of the equation.”

  He held her gaze, the need for a kiss so strong, he couldn’t possibly ignore it. “Darcy…”

  “Don’t worry,” she said. “I’m not a threat to take down your Woman Walls.”

  “My Woman Walls? Why does that sound like something I should see a doctor about?”

  “A shrink, maybe.”

  He knew exactly what she meant, and she was a threat to those walls. A big threat.

  “Listen.” She sidled a little closer to make her point. “I don’t want anything or anyone in my life that can take away that independence I recently gifted myself. And I firmly believe that serious relationships do exactly that. I’m not serious; ask anyone who knows me. So let’s do something else, and neither one of us has to worry.”

  “Something else?” That could go so many ways…some of them very, very nice. “What are you suggesting, Miss Kilcannon?”

  She held his gaze long enough to stir his blood and make him hope that something else would be exactly what he needed. Tonight. Now.

  “We can be friends,” she finally said.

  “Friends with…” Oh God, please say benefits.

  “Dogs,” she finished. “Friends with dogs, especially one that’s in desperate need of our help.”

  “Friends with dogs,” he repeated. “That’s a new one on me.”

  She stood slowly, pulling him up with her. “Me, too. But let’s try it. Friends with dogs. That can work for us, can’t it?”

  He looked down at her, much farther down now that her heels were off, reaching to brush a lock of blond hair back from her face, threading the silken strands through his fingers. “What exactly are the guidelines and restrictions for friends with dogs?”