Home Is Where the Bark Is (10 page)

 

 

Serena
knew Nick was right. Extending the offer of free day care for Freya was a bad business decision. But, the way she saw it, she’d had no other choice. Letting Freya stay for free wouldn’t cost her much in actual dollar terms. The poor old girl ate special home-cooked meals provided by Rosemary. And the staff numbers stayed the same, give or take a dog. It was the loss of the fees she could charge the dog that could take Freya’s place that would hurt. A dog such as Nick Whalen’s Yorki-poo.

One thing was for sure: she couldn’t afford to knock back a paying customer just because some vague, unsubstantiated feeling made her distrust him. No. Rottweiler or not, Nick Whalen and his little pooch must be made to feel very welcome at Paws-A-While.

Though she herself would try to stay well out of his way.

Because she knew it was more than a suspicion he might be a cop that made her edgy around him. She couldn’t kid herself any longer. Deep down she knew she feared the tumult her attraction to him could arouse. The possible disruption to her safe, insulated-from-emotional-drama life.

Despite her model looks, she’d never had a lot of success with men. A tall, gawky, teenager with a mouthful of orthodontic hardware, always the new girl at school, she hadn’t exactly been top of the high school boy’s dating wish list. When at age eighteen her curves suddenly blossomed, she’d been unprepared for the attention it brought with them.

She made mistakes. Then retreated. Dated the same, sweet, unthreatening boyfriend for years, until he left when she refused his engagement ring. Realized she was attracted to the broad-shouldered, take-command type of guy like Nick Whalen. Learned that take-command type of guys sooner or later wanted to take command of her. And she didn’t respond well to being brought to heel.

Like the thing with Dave. The horrible Valentine’s Day still haunted her. That, on top of the stalker episode, had sent her fleeing into celibacy. She’d vowed to take a sabbatical from sex and all the complications it brought with it. So far that resolve had kept her calm, in control, and able to concentrate on establishing her business. She’d like to keep it that way.

Getting too interested in a guy like Nick Whalen could only mean unrest and disruption. Paws-A-While meant everything to her, and she needed to concentrate 100 percent on making it a financial success. She’d do that best by leaving her libido in limbo.

She’d known Nick for just a day. If she kept clear of him, she’d soon forget the unwanted effect he had on her, that frightening rush of attraction. To make sure of that, she would make darn sure she was nowhere near when he dropped off or picked up Bessie.

She made herself smile up at him. “There’s still that potty inspection. I’ll be surprised if you’ve ever seen anything like it. It flushes, you know.” She clicked her fingers. “C’mon, Mack, be a good boy and demonstrate for Nick how it works.”

It
was three days since Nick had seen anything much of Serena, and now, by Friday morning, he was getting edgy. He could not let his investigation fall behind. Adam had already been on his back regarding progress reports—his partner was not as convinced as Nick was that there was something suspicious going down at the doggy day-care center. It was vital Nick build up more of a relationship with the Paws-A-While director so he could question her. Gaining access to the doggy cam tapes was also high on the list. Not to mention a look at the center’s computer files.

Trouble was, he got the distinct impression Serena was avoiding him.

Again, she was not manning the check-in counter at Paws-A-While. The girl who appeared to be her deputy, Kylie Seymour, was booking in the dogs instead. Nick stood in line, holding a restless Bessie, while a jowl-faced middle-aged woman signed in her chubby pug named Barry.

Bessie was straining to get out of his arms. The little dog voted with her paws when it came to day care. It was obvious she could hardly wait to scamper through the door into the playroom to hook up with her new puppy pals.

Kylie took the pug through the playroom door. She turned to mouth to Nick, “I’ll be with you in a moment.”

On her way out, Barry’s owner stopped to pet Bessie. Nick was too distracted to do more than nod to her. It barely registered when the woman called Bessie an adorable pookie wookie.

Nick was too busy trying—without seeming obvious about it—to look over Kylie’s head as she opened the door that led through to the playroom to see if he could catch a glimpse of Serena.

No luck.

Yesterday he’d seen her tall, graceful figure from the distance. The day before he hadn’t seen her at all. Though he suspected she had known he was there and made sure she wouldn’t be seen.

How could he do his job when his prime suspect was being so uncooperative?

He felt frustrated. Impatient. Disappointed. He’d thought he was getting on well with Serena, maybe had even bonded some over the Joe Godfrey episode.

Hell, on what feasible pretext could he get in there to meet with her?

Kylie returned to take Bessie from him. “Your little girl has settled in so well,” she said, “she’s part of the gang.”

His little girl.
He gritted his teeth. He forced his doting-doggy-daddy smile. “I’m so glad to hear that.”

“She’s really adorable,” Kylie said. “C’mon here, sweet pea.”

Bessie responded by trying to lick Kylie’s face. Kylie laughed as she snaked her head back to avoid Bessie’s overenthusiastic pink tongue.

Kylie was a short, curvy blond with a pretty, dimple-punctuated face and a tendency to gossip that Nick did everything to encourage.

While Serena had been incommunicado, Nick had made it his business to subtly milk Kylie for any information he could about the staff at Paws-A-While. Full names. Backgrounds. Length of employment. Any possible clues as to their likelihood to commit fraud.

He already knew, for instance, that she herself was a single mom of an eight-year-old boy named Finn and a budgie named Tweety. Ironically, for the doggiest dog nut he had ever encountered, she lived in an apartment with a strict no-dog rule. Kylie made no secret of the fact she worked extra shifts to try save enough to move somewhere with a yard.

She also made no secret of the fact that she was fiercely loyal to her boss. Fiercely protective, too, even though she was only a couple years older. From the start, Kylie seemed to pride herself on picking up that he had more than a dog-kid’s parent interest in Serena, had slyly teased him without stepping over the line. But her interest in gossip didn’t extend as far as Serena’s private life. All Nick had been able to ascertain was that Serena had split from a long-term boyfriend and wasn’t dating anyone else.

He cleared his throat. “Uh, is Serena available?”

“Regarding?” she asked. Her knowing look made him cringe right down to the tip of his black polished oxfords.

Damn. He was here to work. Not to have to put up with this. He thought he’d left that kind of female game behind him in Booker River Valley where he’d grown up. There, every woman from the ladies at church to his own mom saw a single person as a challenge. An opportunity for potential coupledom. In fact, of his two brothers and one sister, he was the only one to have escaped from the valley matchmaker’s clutches. The last remaining Whalen sibling free to do what he wanted, go where he wanted, without the encumbrance of matrimony.

He had every intention of staying that way.

Out of a list of three valid excuses to see Serena he tried to think of the most plausible. This lying business didn’t get any easier. Even after years of training.

“Do you have concerns with the care we’re giving Bessie?” Kylie prompted.

“No. That’s all good. Bessie, the, uh, little cutie pie, couldn’t be happier. I just want to see Serena because . . .”

Because he damn well wanted to see if she really was as disturbingly attractive as he remembered. Because he wanted to see what it was about the woman that made her his first and last waking thought of the day. Because he had to see her to ascertain whether or not she was a ruthless criminal capable of ruining the lives of—among others—her first-ever doggy day-care clients.

And to bring her down if she was.

Kylie’s knowing brown eyes did not let up their intent focus.

“Because I want to talk to her about Mack.” It was as good an excuse as any.

Kylie’s expression showed both surprise and a sympathetic warming. “Mack. We all love Mack. I’d take him home like a shot if I could. Poor munchkin.”

Nick tried not to flinch at the thought of the massive animal being called a munchkin. The dog, with his reported capacity to chow down on copious quantities of junk, seemed more cyborg than munchkin. But then there was the animal’s knee. The injury made it only too apparent he was made of frail flesh, blood, and fur.

While Serena had been top of his mind in the days since he’d first checked in to Paws-A-While, he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about Mack, either.

The expression in those doggy eyes haunted him. He knew only too well what it felt like to be a prime specimen in good health felled by a sudden, agonizing knee injury. He bet his eyes, too, had looked miserable when he’d been waiting for his operation. Not that he’d wanted sympathy. No way. He was a guy. And guys got on with it. They toughed it out and they took the right meds and they did the physical therapy and they put weight on their knees too soon. Because they were guys.

He had no idea what a dog would think. But he knew pain when he saw it in those soulful eyes.

“Yes,” he said. “I want to talk to Serena about Mack.”

Kylie smiled. “Well, in that case, I’m sure she’ll change her mind about not wanting to see you.” She flushed as soon as the words were out of her mouth and she realized what she’d said.

So Serena
had
been avoiding him.

That spelled G-U-I-L-T whichever way you looked at it. He brought to bear all his skills and training to keep his face from showing any reaction. “Where is Serena?”

“In the day spa. I’ll go tell her—”

Nick took a decisive step forward. “I know where the treatment rooms are. Why don’t I just take Bessie through to the playroom and find Serena for myself?”

“But—” Kylie started to protest, then subsided. “Okay. Why not?” A knowing smile danced around her lips. “I’m sure she’ll be delighted to see you.”

Did he imagine that Kylie then whispered under her breath,
“Whether she knows it or not”
?

He brushed off his irritation at the not-so-subtle machination but was conscious of her speculative gaze following him as he headed through the door to the playroom.

He knew from his tour on Tuesday that the spa side of the Paws-A-While business was accessed through an open doorway right at the back of the playroom. When he got to the top gate to the playroom he handed Bessie over to Adele (dance student and dog lover saving up for a trip to Europe). He watched his aunt’s little pooch scamper off to a group of small dogs without a backward glance.

Then he walked down the side of the fence that separated the playroom and through into the back rooms of Paws-A-While. To the right was Serena’s small office with the all-important computer that held the company’s files. Then to the left was a spacious area with a row of three treatment cubicles, each with a stainless-steel sink and countertop.

He saw Serena almost straight away. She sat at a high stool in the middle cubicle, holding a small black poodle. Her head leaned toward the animal while she did something to its front paws. As she worked, she crooned a litany of sweet-sounding words in her seductively mellow voice. Something along the lines of what a good little angel the poodle was, etcetera, etcetera.

He stopped in his tracks, greedy to grab the chance to observe her unawares.

Oh yeah.

She was every bit as appealing as he remembered.

She wore the shapeless Paws-A-While uniform that covered so much all it did was make him wonder what lay beneath.

He couldn’t be sure, but it looked like she had two buttons of her shirt undone. Just enough to reveal a tantalizing hint of what he couldn’t stop himself from thinking about. Curves not coated in chocolate but bare and warm and soft to the touch.

Her hair was bunched right up on the top of her head, revealing the lovely lines of her neck. He noticed she had small, perfectly formed ears. He resisted the thought of how much he would like to trace their delicate curves with his fingers, then follow that with—

Serena looked up, her eyes widened, and she flushed. She must have sensed his presence, the heat of his thoughts. A flicker of something moved across her eyes and was gone before he could analyze what it was. Surprise? Guilt?

He couldn’t kid himself for even a second that it might be pleasure.