At Last (39 page)
Authors: Jill Shalvis
Tags: #Romance, #General, #Contemporary, #Fiction / Romance - Contemporary, #Fiction
“Hey,” she called. “Slow down.”
But it didn’t, and wow, those stumpy legs could really churn. It snorted with sheer delight as it made its mad getaway, and Grace was forced to rethink the pig theory. Also, the sex mystery was solved.
From behind, she’d caught a glimpse of dangly bits.
It—
he
—ran circles around the couch, barking with merry enthusiasm. She gave chase, wondering how it was that she had multiple advanced degrees and yet she hadn’t thought to ask the name of the damn dog. “Hey,” she said. “Hey, you. We’re going outside to walk.”
The puppy dashed past her like lightning.
Dammit. Breathless, she changed direction and followed him back into the kitchen, where he was chasing some imaginary threat around the gorgeous dark wood kitchen table that indeed had two twenty dollar bills lying on the smooth surface.
She was beginning to see why the job paid so much.
She retraced her steps to the laundry room and found a leash and collar hanging on the doorknob above the gate. Perfect. The collar was a manly blue and the tag said
TANK
.
Grace laughed out loud, then searched out “Tank.” Turned out, Tank had worn off the excess energy and was up against the front door, panting.
“Good boy,” Grace cooed, and came at him with his collar. “What a good boy.”
He smiled at her.
Aw.
See?
She told herself.
Compared to account analysis and posing nude, this job was going to be a piece of cake.
She was still mentally patting herself on the back for accepting this job when right there on the foyer floor, Tank squatted, hunched, and—
“No!” she cried. “Oh, no, not inside!” She fumbled with the front door, which scared Tank into stopping mid-poo. He ran a few feet away from the front door and hunched again. He was quicker this time. Grace
was still standing there, mouth open in shock and horror, little Tank took a dainty step away from his
second
masterpiece, pawed his short back legs on the wood like a matador, and then, with his oversized head held up high, trotted right out the front door like royalty.
Grace staggered after him, eyes watering from the unholy smell. “Tank! Tank, wait!”
Tank didn’t wait. Apparently feeling ten pounds lighter, he raced across the front yard and street. He hit the beach, his little legs pumping with the speed of a gazelle as he practically flew across the sand, heading straight for the water.
“Oh, God,” she cried. “No, Tank,
no
!”
But Tank dove into the first wave and vanished.
Grace dropped the purse still dangling off her shoulder to the sand. “
Tank!
”
A wave hit her at hip level, knocking her back. She stepped out again, frantically searching for a bobbing head.
Nothing. The little guy had completely vanished, having committed suicide right before her eyes.
The next wave hit her at chest height. Again she staggered back, gasping at the shock of the water as she searched frantically for a little black head. Because she was concentrating, wave number three washed right over the top of her. When she came up sputtering, she shook her head and then dove beneath the surface to search there.
Nothing.
Finally, she was forced to crawl out of the water and admit defeat. She pulled her phone from her purse and swore because it was off. Probably because she kept dropping it.
Or tossing it to the rocky beach to look for drowning puppies.
She powered the phone on, gnawed on her lower lip, then called the man who’d trusted her to “be on time, responsible, and not a flake.” Heart pounding, throat tight, she waited until he picked up.
“Dr. Scott,” came the low, deep male voice.
Dr. Scott.
Dr. Scott?
“Hello?” he said, his voice that same calm as before, but there was an underlying impatience now. “Anyone there?”
Oh, God. This was bad. Very bad. Because she knew him.
Well, okay, not really. She’d seen him at the diner a few times; he was good friends with Mallory’s and Amy’s boyfriends. Dr. Joshua Scott, II, was thirty-four—which she knew because Mallory had given him thirty-four chocolate cupcakes on his birthday last month, a joke because he was a health nut. He was a big guy, built for football more than the ER, but he’d chosen the latter. Even in his wrinkled scrubs after a long day at work, with a stethoscope hanging around his neck, his dark hair tousled and his darker eyes lined with exhaustion, he was drop-dead sexy. The few times that their gazes had locked, the air had snapped, crackled, and popped with a tension she hadn’t felt with a man in far too long.
And she’d just killed his puppy.
“Um, hi,” she said. “This is Grace Brooks. Your… dog walker.” She choked down a horrified sob and forced herself to continue, to give him the rest. “I might have just lost your puppy.”
There was a single beat of stunned silence.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered.
More silence.
She dropped to her wobbly knees in the sand and shoved her wet hair out of her face with shaking fingers. “Dr. Scott? Did you hear me?”
“Yes.”
She waited for the rest of his response, desperately gripping the phone.
“You
might
have lost Tank.”
“Yes,” she said softly, hating herself.
“If that’s true, I owe you a big, fat kiss.”
Grace pulled her phone from her ear and stared at it, then brought it back. “No,” she said, shaking her head as if he could see her. “I don’t think you understand, I
lost
Tank. In the water.”
He muttered something that she’d have sworn sounded like “I should be so lucky,” but that couldn’t have been right.
“I’m two minutes away,” he said. “I got a break in the ER and was coming home to make sure you showed.”
“Well, of course I showed—”
But he’d disconnected. “Why wouldn’t I show?” With a huff, she put her phone back in her purse and got up. Two minutes. She had two minutes to find Tank.
Simply Irresistible
The Sweetest Thing
Heating Up the Kitchen
(cookbook)
Christmas in Lucky Harbor
(omnibus)
Small Town Christmas
(anthology)
Head Over Heels
Lucky In Love
“Jill Shalvis is a total original! It doesn’t get any better.”
—Suzanne Forster,
New York Times
bestselling author
Jill Shalvis
and
Her Novels
“[A] winning roller-coaster ride… [a] touching, character-rich, laughter-laced, knockout sizzler.”
—
Library Journal
(starred review)
“Healthy doses of humor, lust, and love work their magic as Shalvis tells Chloe’s story… Wit, smoking-hot passion, and endearing tenderness… a big winner.”
—
Publishers Weekly
“The Lucky Harbor series has become one of my favorite contemporary series, and
Head Over Heels
didn’t disappoint… such a fun, sexy book… I think this one can be read as a stand-alone book, but I encourage you to try the first two in the series, where you meet all the characters of this really fun town.”
“The writing is, as always, very good. Shalvis makes her characters seem like reflections of ourselves, or at least our relatives. She also makes the scenarios real, not too sweet or too violent. Definitely a good choice for a rainy afternoon.”
—
RT Book Reviews
“A Perfect 10. A truly fun and engaging tale from beginning to end… readers will not be disappointed… Be sure to put this one on your book buying list and get ready to snuggle down for some hot reading.”
“Chloe and Sawyer are my favorite couple of the series… These two set the pages on fire!… It’s entertaining, sweet, steamy, and one of my favorite contemporary romances of the year!”
“5 stars! A truly delightful read that had me chuckling while reading it… a nice blend of romance, humor, and drama. Definitely going on my keeper shelf. I highly recommend this one.”
“A wonderful romance of reunited lovers in a small town. A lot of hot sex, some delightful humor, and plenty of heartwarming emotion make this a book readers will love.”
—RT Book Reviews
“A Perfect 10! Once again Jill Shalvis provides readers with a sexy, funny, hot tale… The ending is as sweet as it is funny. Tara and Ford have some seriously hot chemistry going on and they make the most of it in
The Sweetest Thing
. Trust me: You’ll need an ice-cold drink nearby.”
“Witty, fun, and the characters are fabulous.”
“It is fabulous revisiting Lucky Harbor! I have been on tenterhooks waiting for Tara and Ford’s story and yet again, Jill Shalvis does not disappoint… A rollicking good time… If you have not read the first book yet, this one will certainly compel you to do so…
The Sweetest Thing
is shiny and wonderful book goodness.”
“This is a fun and flirty story of past loves, secrets, and three sisters whose lives draw the reader in. For a good-time romance, check this one out.”
—
Parkersburg News and Sentinel
(WV)
“A fun-filled, sexy, entertaining story… [satisfies] one’s romantic sweet tooth.”
“Hot, sweet, fun, and romantic! Pure pleasure!”
—Robyn Carr,
New York Times
bestselling author
“4 stars! [I]ntroduces some wonderful characters with humor, heartwarming interaction, and an abundance of hot sex. Readers will be eager for the next story.”
—
RT Book Reviews
“This often hilarious novel has a few serious surprises, resulting in a delightfully satisfying story.”
“Heartwarming and sexy… an abundance of chemistry, smoldering romance, and hilarious sisterly antics.”
—
Publishers Weekly
“Shalvis’s writing is a perfect trifecta of win: hilarious dialogue, evocative and real characters, and settings that are as much a part of the story as the hero and heroine. I’ve never been disappointed by a Shalvis book.”
“One of those books that totally and absolutely encapsulates its title… utterly irresistible. The romance instantly jumps off the page… Jill Shalvis seems to have a golden touch with her books. Each one is better than the previous story.”
“A beautiful start to this new series. The characters are as charming as the town itself. A pleasure to read.”
“A Jill Shalvis hero is the stuff naughty dreams are made of.”
—Vicki Lewis Thompson,
New York Times
bestselling author of
Chick with a Charm
“Jill Shalvis has the incredible talent for creating characters who are intelligent, quick-witted, and gorgeously sexy, all the while giving them just the right amount of weakness to keep them from being unrealistically perfect.”
