Payoff Pitch (Philadelphia Patriots) (2 page)

Though his aunt was a tough cookie, Noah knew the prospect of leaving her long-time home would be incredibly hard, and his heart ached for her. “I’m sorry, Aunt Roz. I know how much this place means to you.”

Roz swallowed with some obvious difficulty. “Yes, but it’s not that. I mean, not much.” She pursed her lips, fighting tears. “It’s the dogs, Noah. The facility doesn’t allow them, and I’m getting too shaky to control them, anyway.”

Toby’s head was in Noah’s lap, and the big Poodle gave him such a mournful look that Noah thought the dog had a good idea of what Aunt Roz was saying. He might not understand the words, but he sure wasn’t missing the emotion in her voice.

“I hadn’t really thought about that until now,” Noah confessed. He’d of course known this day would come but had always shoved it into the back of his mind. Was there a friend who would take the dogs in? Hopefully, someone would adopt both, as it would be wrenching for the littermates to be separated after all these years. He stroked Sadie’s long back and gave Toby a little rub on the muzzle, eliciting another snurfle.

His aunt steadied her gaze on him, as serious as he’d ever seen her. “Noah, I know it’s too much to ask, and I feel terrible doing it, but you’re the only person in this world that I’d trust to take care of Toby and Sadie. They love you, and I know you love them dearly, too. I know it’s unexpected—” She broke off, fighting for control.

Noah felt his jaw sag. Maybe he should have seen this coming, if not today then somewhere down the road. But he hadn’t. Yeah, the dogs were great and he loved spending time with them, but taking them to live with him in Philadelphia?

Sweet mother of God.

“Uh, well, Aunt Roz, I, uh—”

Roz held up a shaky hand to stop him. “Please, Noah, don’t answer yet. All I ask is that you think about it. Go back to Philadelphia and live with the idea for a while, then call me. Okay? If you can’t do it, I’ll understand.”

Noah absorbed the calm words that seemed at odds with the pleading, faded eyes that glistened with tears. Those eyes understood him better than anyone else in the world.

His staggered brain struggled to fully absorb the implications of her request. He was a pro ballplayer, on the road at least half the year. Though he had a full-time housekeeper, Cristina hadn’t signed on to play nanny to two big, crazy Poodles. And he liked a quiet house and a life with little responsibility outside of work. Quiet was definitely an alien concept with Toby and Sadie anywhere in the equation, and the two goofballs were a hell of a responsibility. Was he ready for that kind of change?

It took less than a minute to decide, when it came down to it. He sure as hell wasn’t about to say no to the woman who had been more of a mother to him than his stepmother had ever been. In the tough times, his aunt had always been there for him, and now it was time for him to be there for her.

“I don’t need any time, Aunt Roz,” Noah said firmly. “Of course I’ll take them.”

When his aunt started to cry with relief, he couldn’t bear to watch. He bent his head down to Toby, giving him an affectionate thump on the shoulder. “Looks like you and your sister are heading to Philadelphia, buddy. Hope you won’t mind some cold weather.”

“Buster? Buster, come here, you!”

Alarmed at the dead silence that enveloped the cavernous stone house, Teddy Quinn raced through the Bennetts’ marble foyer and skirted the great room on her way to the side door. She worried because Buster always greeted her with his wagging tail and bright blue Siberian Husky eyes when she arrived for the dog’s daily afternoon walk. The poor animal got little enough attention from the couple that owned him, a pair of lawyers who had brought the puppy home a year ago to placate their whiny five year-old twins. Bored after the novelty wore off and the puppy grew into a gangly, rambunctious adolescent, the twins now mostly ignored Buster, too.

Teddy said a silent prayer as she hurried to the flexible dog door that enabled Buster to get outside to do his business. Her heart thudded because she knew that if the dog was in the six-foot high enclosure that the Bennetts had constructed as a doggy poop yard, he would have started barking as soon as he heard her car pull up to the house. The silence greeting her could only mean one thing.

Buster had busted out. Again.

She flung open the mud room door and scanned the empty yard, quickly locating the escape tunnel. In the front corner of the enclosure, clumps of dirt and grass were strewn around a freshly-dug hole under the cedar fence. That particular location was Buster’s preferred route—it was the third time he’d dug that same tunnel and escaped into the wind. And yet the idiot Bennetts hadn’t done a thing to stop it from happening again.

Teddy gritted her teeth, furious that the lazy owners had ignored her advice on how to secure their yard. Of all the dog breeds in the world, Siberians were among the most inclined to dig their way out of captivity and run like their tails were on fire. They loved to dig, but even more they loved to run. They
needed
to run.

“Shit!” She cursed Winston Bennett for his lousy attitude toward his dog’s welfare. She’d been lucky the first two times Buster made his break because he’d raced straight to the local park where neighbors recognized him and grabbed his collar before he could continue his dash to freedom. But she knew that he could just as easily have sprinted away so fast and so far that she would never have been able to find him. Or, worse yet, she could have found the beautiful creature’s broken body in the middle of the road, crushed by a car or truck.

There was no point calling Bennett. He’d just snap that it was her responsibility to find the dog. And his wife would probably berate Teddy for getting her out of a client meeting or something. That had happened once before. No, this was on her. She’d deal with the Bennetts later.

She hurried out to her car after quickly locking the front door of the house. Popping the hatch of her dusty Ford Escape, she reached into one of her plastic containers and grabbed a handful of the dried liver chunks she’d made at home. Buster, like every other dog she’d met, would dance a jig for one of the disgusting but effective treats. If he’d come to her for anything, he’d come for liver.

The park. Only a couple of blocks away, it would be deserted in the early afternoon except for maybe a couple of moms or nannies and their preschoolers. Teddy stuffed the liver in the pocket of her jeans, slammed the hatch shut and took off, running down the road with her long ponytail flying behind her.

But she almost came to an abrupt—and tragic—end when a dark blue car popped out of the neighbor’s hidden driveway and slammed to a stop just before slamming into
her
. Fortunately, she’d unconsciously registered the car out of the corner of her eye and, at the last moment, managed to dodge just enough to miss getting T-boned. For several frantic heartbeats, she and the obviously startled driver gaped at each other, but then Teddy got moving again. Half-turning her head, she gave the man a little wave as if to say
no harm, no foul
. He looked absolutely stunned at first but then recovered and gave her a warm smile.

Teddy remembered that sexy smile. He’d used it on her once before—the time she was walking Buster and the dog unexpectedly deposited a present on the guy’s front lawn just as the big and decidedly gorgeous man looked up from washing his fancy car. Embarrassed, Teddy had given him a shy smile in return as she stooped to pick up after Buster, then had scurried off before her panties melted. From more than fifty feet away, the thirty-something, athletic-looking hunk had radiated the kind of confident masculine power that very few men could muster. He was, quite simply, totally hot.

That was the only time she’d ever laid eyes on him despite having walked Buster every day for the past month. She’d idly hoped more than once that she’d bump into him again but it had never happened.

Until today, when he’d almost bumped into
her
.

Focus, girl. Find the dog.

Teddy picked up her pace as she veered to the far side of the road to face the traffic. She glanced left to right and back again, then stared down the street toward the park, hoping to get lucky and catch a glimpse of Buster. She called out his name a few times even though she didn’t expect him to hear her.

When she stopped shouting, she heard the purr of a well-tuned engine approaching slowly from behind.

“Hey, there, are you all right?” The hot neighbor’s deep, sexy voice slid over her like warm honey.

She glanced over at Mr. Gorgeous, frowning at her out the open window of his Beamer sedan. “I’m fine, thanks,” she said, breathing hard. She told herself that it was strictly from the run and her anxiety over Buster. Definitely not from him.

“Good. But I couldn’t help wondering, since you sure don’t look like you’re running just for exercise.”

How perceptive.
Might the look of sheer panic on her face account for that?

She snuck another glance, noting that he’d matched the car’s speed to hers as they neared the entrance to the park.

“I’m chasing an escaped dog,” she said.

Teddy swore she heard a faint chuckle over the sound of her panting. “What was he in prison for?” he said.

“That’s really not very funny,” she snapped. “The poor dog could have been run over by now.”

He visibly winced. “Yeah, you’re right. Sorry. I’ve had to chase dogs more than once myself. Can I give you a hand?”

The tension in her chest eased a bit at the offer. The thought of Buster meeting a tragic end made her ill. And if she didn’t find him, his owner would have her hide. It didn’t matter that the dog’s escape wasn’t her fault—Bennett would blame her for not finding him. And though the lawyer was one of her more difficult clients, he was also a very well-paying one that Teddy didn’t want to lose.

She gave her unlikely helper a tentative smile. “Sure. That would be great. He likes to go to the park, but he might have headed farther down the road toward the tennis club, too. Could you check that out?” She veered a little toward him, enough to see the genuine concern in his magnetic dark gaze. “He’s a Siberian Husky, by the way. Black and white. And his name is Buster.”

“Sure, I know who Buster is. And I’m on it,” he said with no hesitation. “I’ll drive around the neighborhood and hook up with you later.” The BMW roared away before Teddy could thank him for his kindness.

Hook up with you later?
Now that sounded interesting. Then again, he obviously didn’t mean hook up in the
let’s grab a beer and see what happens
sense.

Teddy couldn’t repress a mocking snort at the idea, even as she kept up her fast jog. Who was she kidding? If a hottie like that wasn’t married, he was probably dating a supermodel or somebody equally spectacular—certainly not a dog walker slash student like her.

“Buster! Here, Buster! I’ve got treats for you!” She yelled out a few more encouragements in her sappy doggy voice as she sprinted past the play structure and swing set. The park was deserted. No moms, no kids, and, most importantly, no Buster. It was wide open in this section, so if he was anywhere around she’d have already seen him.

Damn, damn, damn
.

The park had been her best hope, but she hadn’t counted on there being nobody around to stop him or at least see where he was heading. Buster must have kept running west through the park, past the ball field and on into the stand of trees beyond the fence. Or else he could have stuck to the road and motored on down toward the tennis club and maybe even to the high school farther in the distance. Those were really the only big, open spaces she knew of in the immediate area. Other than that, it was just houses and yards, and Buster didn’t seem the type that would go running back toward something he probably associated with captivity. Every instinct told her that he wouldn’t go east, because he was so used to heading for the park on his walk.

Trying to keep her worry from escalating even more, Teddy crossed through the eastern end of the park. Then she circled the ball field and headed for the big stand of evergreens and sycamores on the west side. Once she’d penetrated the line of trees, the thick canopy of leaves and branches overhead blotted out most of the bright sun as she picked her way slowly through. Buster might have decided to check out these woods. On their daily walks, he would sometimes pull her in that direction and even whimper a little when she took him on a stroll around the perimeter, as if something interesting must surely be happening in there. Like maybe he could find a critter or two to chase.

But as she combed her way through, it became clear that Buster was no longer there, if he’d ever been. Since he could have escaped as much as three hours ago, right after Winston Bennett left for work, there was just no telling how far Buster might have run.

Tears started to prickle her eyes as hopelessness began nudging aside panic. What should she do now? Knock on neighbors’ doors? Get in her car and drive around looking for him? Whatever she decided, the first priority should be a call to Mr. or Mrs. Bennett. Maybe they would come home and help her search.

Then again, maybe not.

In any case, she would retrieve her cell phone from the car and call them as she drove around the area. With both her and Mr. Hot Neighbor on the lookout, they could cover a lot of ground and maybe get lucky.

Picking her way out of the trees, she took off at a fast jogging pace, heading directly across the baseball field to the park entrance, her eyes constantly scanning the distance for any glimpse of Buster.

Unfortunately, scanning for Buster meant she wasn’t focusing on what was in front of her, something she realized when her right foot landed awkwardly in a small depression in the infield dirt, making her ankle wobble and then give way. Pitching forward and to her right, she tried to tuck into a roll but didn’t quite manage it. Instead, she hit the ground hard, landing on her right elbow and shoulder.

Growing up on a dairy farm, Teddy had suffered her share of injuries—including a disfiguring one. She knew that the first order of business after a hard fall was getting up and assessing the damage, and that was what she did now, using her uninjured arm to push herself up onto her knees before rising to her feet.