Pierce My Heart (Women of Willowbrook Book 1) (8 page)

“Well, thanks. Have a nice day,” I respond flippantly.

The weird look in his eyes goes into overdrive at my words.

More aware, more intense, and even scarier.

It’s still freaking hot, but I do
not
care.

Nope.

I want to go in and adopt the biggest, meanest looking dog so if another super-hot guy comes around and starts spouting bullshit about me being gorgeous I can sic it on him.

Load of crap.

I put more pressure on my hand, trying not to show just how much his throwaway has actually hurt me, especially when there’s
no
logical reason it should (I don’t even know his name), before he lets go. I take a huge step back, feeling the same loss as before but even greater this time because I know it’ll be the last time I feel his arms around me or get to look into his eyes.

I look for Evan and notice the other three had moved a bit away, giving us privacy. She was close to tall, dark, and handsome, again, and looking at me like I was crazy.

“I need to go check out the fur babies so I can get the brownies done before tonight,” I tell her, avoiding all eye contact with anyone but her.

She looks stuck.

She wants to say something, but doesn’t in front of the guys. I know they aren’t the reason she’s keeping her mouth closed—worse things hadn’t stopped her in the past. So either she really thinks I’ve lost my mind or I’ve left her speechless (another feat), but I’m ready to move on.

I turn away, let myself take one last lingering look at him, his face a mix of determination, intensity, and amusement, and start towards the door.

With or without Evan following, I don’t know.

I was
not
looking back and getting lost in his eyes, again.

Shoving the door open with more force than necessary, I’m immediately met with the sound of barking. Not loud barking that drowns out my thoughts of the last ten minutes (unfortunately), but loud enough you can hear the excitement, or wariness, of the dogs’ from all the people coming through and giving them attention.

I pause to try and get myself under control when I catch sight of a stunning blonde walking over to me.

She’s taller than me by a couple inches and her hair is about a hundred different shades of blonde that are blended together so well it either costs a fortune to maintain or she was blessed by the sun and some amazing genes.

Taking in her soft heart shaped face, high cheekbones, full lips, a sleek nose, delicate brows sitting over sky blue eyes, and dark, thick lashes I know she must’ve paid a small fortune to make them look that way (mine had the same look and even with
my
lashes I used a booster and about thirty swipes of mascara to get it), I chalk it up to fab genes.

Her parents have to be stunning.

The smile she has on her face draws my eyes. It’s so flawless she could be used as an advertisement for the after of a ‘before and after’ teeth whitening.

And even with the scrubs she has on, you could see she has a body to die for. All curves but no tummy to go with it; think if Marilyn Monroe and Jessica Rabbit had a baby, then Betty Brosmer and Scarlett Johansson had a baby, then those two grew up and a had a baby: that’s her.

I feel a twinge of self-consciousness but am too wrecked emotionally from my encounter outside to give it much thought or attention.

Instead I smile back, give a little wave, and say, “Hey.”

She stops a few feet in front of me with a wave of her own.

“Hi! Welcome to the Willowbrook Animal Humane Society. I’m Grace. What can I help you with today?”

God, even her voice is beautiful.

A little raspy, like she’d just downed a shot, but breathy like she was soft-spoken. The first I could believe, but she gave off an air that said anything but soft-spoken.

I immediately like her.

“I saw the flyer for the adoption you guys are having so I decided to stop by and check it out. I’m Anna, by the way,” I tell her.

She claps her hands together with a gleeful smile. “That’s awesome! I’m so glad you decided to come here instead of a breeder. There are way too many animals roaming the streets. We try to do what we can, but there’s no way we can accommodate them all so finding good homes for the ones we do take care of is always a great thing. Were you looking for a cat or dog?”

“Dog,” I reply, liking the idea more and more.

“Cool. Did you want to come back with me and take a look at our animals?”

I look out the small window embedded in the front door to see if Evan is walking in. When I don’t see her, I figure she is still in conversation with tall, dark, and handsome and decide to let her have her time.

Turning back to Grace, I smile. “Definitely.”

She motions for me to follow and waits until I’m next to her to continue down the hallway.

I hadn’t noticed when I came in, but the place isn’t sterile like I pictured it’d be.

The walls are a cheery, light yellow and the linoleum is white, but with veins of browns and tans shooting through, tying in the colors of the couch and chairs on both sides of the entrance as well as the wood color of the help desk.

Looking at the bright pink scrubs with random swirls of color on the bottoms that coordinate with the yellow, blue, pink, hell,
rainbow
tennis shoes Grace is wearing, I figure she had something to do with it.

We stop at a door and she slides her key card through the slot to the side of it, waiting for the little light to flash green before opening it. The barking that had been muted, but slowly increased in volume as we got closer, suddenly hit a crescendo as she swung open the door.

“Is this your first time looking for a dog?” Grace asks from my side.

My eyes jump around the room in wonder before coming back to her.  “Yeah. I, uh, I don’t really know much about them. Taking care of one that is. It’s a little daunting, but when I saw that flyer something felt right about coming here.”

Those eyes flash in my mind and now I’m wondering if the universe is playing a trick on me by leading me here only to meet
him
.

She looked thoughtful for a moment. “If you’d like, I can give you my number and we can meet up at Petco or something to make sure you have everything you need. That is, if you find someone today. We give out a small starter kit, but that’s all it is; a starter kit.” Lifting her hand, she starts listing the things off as we slowly move down an aisle that has cages on both sides. “You get a leash, your choice of color, a collar, ditto, a small bag of food, a dish for the food, and a small info packet about the specific dog.”

At that bit of information, I look at her with my brow furrowed in confusion.

She sees the look on my face and lets out a small laugh before explaining, “Yeah, first time owners almost always give me that look when I mention that. I try to spend some quality time with each dog to get a feel for them. Find out if they’re easy and loveable or if they’re skittish, that kind of thing. The rest of the info is stuff we find out from the previous owners, if there are any, when they drop them off, and about the breed, or breeds, of the dog. It’s my way of trying to make the transition smooth for everyone.”

That’s seriously awesome.

“That’s seriously awesome,” I tell her, with not a small amount of awe in my voice.

She shrugs, but let’s out her glamorous smile.

“Thanks. I like to do what I can to help out as much as possible. Nothing’s worse than having a loving home and then all of a sudden it’s ripped away from you, and you’re left alone wondering why,” she says, her smile dropping as her voice gets quieter.

I feel my own smile vanish as I hear the pain in her voice.

After a moment of silence, I hear a beep come through from somewhere. Grace grabs a small monitor from her pocket and I notice it’s showing the room with the help desk and chairs. There’s a figure moving around in there, but I can’t tell who.

“If you’re good to look on your own, I need to run up front…” she trails off, looking at me.     

I manage to muster up the kindest smile I can, trying to give her some sort of comfort, and nod. “Go ahead, I’m good.”

She takes a step only to grab something from her other pocket and turn back to me.

“Before I forget, here’s my card. I’m writing my cell on the back in case you don’t catch me here.” She grabs a pen from behind her ear and starts scribbling it down. “If you don’t find a dog that clicks with you, you can just walk out the same door we came in. Cool to meet you, Anna,” she says with a lip tip, then she’s gone.

After I hear the door click, I turn back to continue walking the cages.

There are around thirty dogs, fifteen on each side, of all sizes and breeds. Looking at them, I realize that even though I’ve never owned a pet in my life, it’s a good thing I don’t work here. I’d be trying to take them all home.

The small dogs, while cute, didn’t really strike me as right and none of the others I’d seen seem to ring any bells.

I feel myself deflate a little as the end of the line of cages looms closer and still none of them feel right, when I look to my left at the second to last cage and my eyes lock with a pair of chocolate brown ones. While the other dogs are going wild, jumping and barking like crazy, this one is simply sitting there looking up at me.

I grab the clipboard hanging on the cage with the dog’s information.

It reads that she is a she, her name is Juliet, her breed is Boxer mix—with what I’m not sure, but if I have to guess I’d say German Shepherd based on her coloring (you watch enough cop shows, you see plenty of German Shepherd’s to get a feel for their color)—that she’s just under a year old, and housetrained. She gets along with dogs, cats, and children but was a little shy around crowds of new people.

I’m so focused on reading through every detail on the list that I don’t hear the two sets of feet walk up behind me.

“Juliet is a great dog.”

I whirl around at the voice to see Grace and Evan standing there.

As I open my mouth to respond, I feel something cold touch the back of my hand. Looking down, I see that Juliet had started to sniff me through the cage and her nose was the something cold I felt. Turning back to her, I drop down into a squat and stick just the tips of my fingers through the metal. She immediately butts her head up against them before giving them a lick.

While I scratch her head as best I can, I feel a smile break across my face as a feeling of happiness bubbles up inside me.

“Yeah, she is,” I agree, turning my head and looking up at Grace. “I’d like her, please.”

Grace blinks.

“Don’t you want to ask anything about her?”

“No, I don’t need to.” I stand up but keep my hand close to the cage. “I saw it in her eyes. She’s the one I want to give love and a home to.”

Evan walks towards me and looks down at Juliet, my eyes following her until I catch sight of something near the door.

It’s
him
.

Again.

He’s standing there, well, all three of the men are standing there, but only his eyes are on me. Grace sees me looking at something and turns her head to see what it is. She lets out a small sound that has my focus shifting her way.

She’s blushing like crazy and has a shy smile playing at her lips.

I feel my eyes get squinty as green colors my vision.

When I look back at the men, I see that he’s looking at her too with a different weird look.

At this rate I’m not sure he has any normal looks, though that isn’t necessarily a bad thing if the evidence is to be believed.

They’re still hot.

All three start making their way towards us and it’s a sight to behold; watching their long, strong limbs moving easily down the aisle. I can’t tear my eyes away and I don’t need to look at Evan or Grace to know it’s the same story for them. When they stop a few feet away, Grace closes the gap and throws her arms around
him
, making his beautiful smile come out and shine with happiness.

A smile that has me closing my eyes and turning my head away at the unexpected pain I feel slice through me.

I know
I
thought I’d dismissed him, but I was fooling myself thinking he’d show any real interest in
me
if he had the likes of Grace all over him.

I’m rethinking calling her to get the help I’d need with Juliet. Maddy knew dogs well enough, just because she doesn’t know this one like Grace does, doesn’t mean she can’t help.

A weird tingle starts moving through my body so fast and hot it almost feels like a burn. My eyes shoot open, trying to figure out what it is, but the moment I do I’m caught in his stare. And what I see has my already confused mind turning downright befuddled.

He looks
upset
. Not with me, but definitely with something.

Almost like he’s the one in pain.

I feel my body tighten as I prepare to move toward him, to make sure he’s okay, when Grace’s voice stops me.