Rescue My Heart (25 page)

She got out of her Jeep wearing her work clothes, which was a business suit that meant all business. Problem was she had legs longer than the legal limit and a body that fueled his every fantasy.

She stood with the rest of the class, a leash in each hand, doing her best to corral her father’s dogs, and he had no idea what the hell she was doing here. He met her gaze.

She gave him a little smile.

“Your dad okay?” he asked.

“Yep.” She nibbled on her lower lip. “Just giving him a break.”

She was lying, and he had no idea why. But he didn’t have much time to dwell on it. Liza Molan was at the front
of the class with Babe, her golden retriever. Liza worked at the diner in town, and they’d gone out once about a year ago. He hadn’t pursued more with her. He never pursued more. He’d made that clear up front, and she’d seemed good with it. But then she’d left that crazy “mastering” message with Jade, and now she was giving him the hungry eyes, assessing his level of interest.

It was zero.

Adam’s gaze then shifted to Holly, who was still attempting to wrangle Thing One and Thing Two. Liza moved in front of him, blocking his view. “Hey there.” She flashed another smile. “I so need your help here. Babe’s always picking something up and chewing on it, and I can’t seem to make her drop it for me.”

Adam looked down at Babe. “Show me,” he said.

“Well, sure,” Liza said. “Right now for instance, she’s chewing on a rock—”

But Babe had spit out the rock at Adam’s quiet “show me.”

Liza stared at Babe. Then at Adam. She laughed, pushing her hair out of her face. “Oh, right. You meant drop. You said show me, and she dropped it to show you what she has. Why won’t she do that for me?”

“She’s a retriever, a working breed,” Adam said. “She needs to feel like she’s busy. That takes a lot of time and attention.”

Liza smiled and fluttered her lashes. “Most women need a lot of time and attention…I guess this is where the mastering comes in, right?” she asked hopefully.

There was a soft choking sound from Holly’s direction, but when Adam looked over at her, she was bent over tying her boot, hair in her face.

Adam turned back to Liza, who leaned in close and put a hand on his arm, pressing her breasts into him. “So, about the mastering thing…”

Another snort sounded, but before Adam could respond
to either female, two dogs on the other side of the lineup went at each other. Never so happy for a dogfight in his life, he stepped in between the two fighters, grabbing their leashes, getting the situation under control far too quickly. Afterward, Holly was staring at him wide-eyed, looking like maybe she was impressed that he’d broken up the fight without bloodshed. He appreciated her admiration, but this was his job.

The good news was that Dell had come outside with Gertie, and Liza appeared to forget all about Adam.

Thank God for fickle women.

Adam got everyone started on practicing sit and stay, then moved to stand next to Dell.

They both eyed Gertie. The St. Bernard was lying down, too lazy to sit up. “You really going to try this again?” Adam asked. Gertie had dropped out of two previous obedience classes.

“Maybe the third time is the charm,” Dell said.

Maybe, but doubtful. Because the problem wasn’t Gertie. It was Dell, who loved Gertie just the way she was—lazy and slightly naughty. Shaking his head, Adam moved on, going over all the basics. Just as in Gertie’s case, it wasn’t about training the dogs. It was about training the dogs’ handlers. It was about commitment and trust, both of which were crucial to success. Adam had ten weeks to get that through to people, to demonstrate to each owner exactly how to communicate with their dog to get them to respond.

“Training is a series of choices,” he said. “You need to make the good choices really good and the bad choices completely undesirable.” He eyed everyone struggling to control their dog. “As we stand here, your dogs should be sitting calm at your side.”

“Sit.
Sit
.” This from Gayle Little, who was yelling at her year-old black Lab, jerking on his leash. “I’ll give you a doggy biscuit to sit. I’ll give you the whole bag. Just sit!”

Adam moved to the pair. “Remember when we talked about making sure you’re giving the right command?”

Gayle, fortyish, a businesswoman and mother of teenagers, blew out a frustrated breath. “I knew if I caved to the ‘Oh please, can we have a puppy, Mom!’ that I’d be the one to end up here,” she said. “I’m not good at this. I’ve told him to sit a million times.”

“It’s not the words you use,” Adam told her. “It’s the tone. He can’t hear the message you intend when you’re yelling at him.”

“He’s not listening, no matter what my tone.”

“Kids don’t listen, either,” Adam said, “but you have consequences for that, right? Like taking away privileges, using time-outs.”

“Yes, of course, but I don’t want to be mean to a dog.”

“In the animal world, dogs correct each other without hesitation,” Adam told her. “You’ve seen this: they’ll snap in one instant and then play in the next. They don’t punish one another; they correct. That’s how you train effectively.”

“So how do I correct?” Gayle asked.

“Don’t scream your command. Say it and mean it. Your success will depend on how motivating you sound.” He turned to the black Lab. “Sit,” he said with calm authority.

The dog sat.

Gayle blew out a breath. “So, in other words, it’s not him, it’s me. Is that it?”

“You can do this,” he said.

She smiled and shook her head. “Hell, Adam. I just realized, it’s not my tone, it’s
yours
. You speak, and I’d do anything you asked of me.”

“Me too,” Liza said quickly, nodding like a bobblehead.
“Anything.”

Adam felt Dell roll his eyes. He was also pretty sure Holly snorted again, but when he looked at her, she was concentrating on Donald’s dogs.

He got the class back to work. He had them walk in a large circle, and each time they stopped, the dogs were to sit.

Holly was having trouble with this. Her dad’s dogs kept getting tangled up in her legs.

“They’re distracted,” she said breathlessly, arms straining to hold the dogs.

This was because Thing One was staring at the cute little white springer spaniel next to him. “Distracted by tail,” Holly said with some disgust. “Just like a man.”

Hard to argue the truth. Adam stepped between Thing One and the spaniel.

Thing One’s gaze rolled up Adam’s legs to his face, and then he sat. Adam looked at Holly. “It’s your job to keep his mind on the task.”

“Uh-huh,” she said dryly. “Is this where the…
mastering
comes into play?”

He slid her a look that she met evenly, with a daring quirk of her brow.

Under the guise of shifting the leashes back into her hands, he leaned in. “Are you asking for a private lesson?”

“If I get to be the master.”

He gave her his best wicked smile. “Only the teacher gets to master.”

She bit into her lower lip and slid a look to the building, specifically the loft where he slept at night.
Playing with fire,
he told himself, with only one possible outcome—someone was going to get burned.

Somehow he got through the rest of the class. When it was over and his pupils had all headed to their cars, Brady stepped outside. He intercepted Holly on the way to her Jeep.

“Worried?” Dell asked Adam, the two of them watching Brady and Holly from across the lot.

“Why would I be worried?” Adam asked.

“Because your woman is talking to your nosy brother, who’s maybe spilling all your secrets.”

“She’s not my woman.” Although ever since their trek, she’d been starring in all his late-night fantasies…“And I don’t have any secrets.”

“Uh-huh.”

Okay, so he had plenty of secrets, and he
was
uneasy. He’d been so since they’d gotten back. Adam was a realist and always faced the facts head-on. The facts here were simple. He’d had some problems when he’d come home from his last tour. He’d also had enough counseling to know that his reactions to what he’d faced over there weren’t unexpected. And he was better. But he still wasn’t back in the game. He was still being a benchwarmer in his own life. From the outside looking in, it might appear that he was an active participant, but he wasn’t. Not fully. He wasn’t letting people in. If he could let anyone in, it would be Holly, but he honestly wasn’t sure if he could.

The cave incident was a perfect example. He’d failed there, big-time. With an audience of one, no less. It was more than a little humiliating that after all this time he was still so fucked-up.

And now Holly knew it, too.

He had no idea if she was going to keep his little—big—secret, and that was more than a little unsettling. He headed toward her, complete with his shadow. “I don’t need an escort,” he said to Dell.

Dell kept walking with him.

Adam slid him a look. “Thought you said Brady was the nosy brother.”

“It runs in the family.”

Holly had put the dogs in the Jeep, and Brady was showing her something on his phone. A picture, it turned out, of Brady and her dad on horseback. Brady looked up as Adam
approached. “Hey. Holly was just about to tell me why it took you three days to find Donald.”

“Two days,” Holly said, meeting Adam’s gaze. “It only took two days.”

“I could have gotten from here to Timbuktu and back in two days,” Brady said. “Next time, you should take me. I’ll fly you in the chopper.”

“We had a lot of ground to explore,” Holly said.

“Explore.” Brady went brows up at this. “Is that the line he gave you? Did he take advantage of you? Because if he did, I could beat him up for you if you’d like.”

“No!” She laughed, then took in Adam, who was doing his best to appear utterly uninterested. “You could really beat him up?” she asked Brady. “He’s pretty tough.”

Brady laughed.

Adam slid him a long look but Brady wasn’t cowed. “I could totally take him,” he said.

Yeah, over Adam’s dead body.

Maybe.

“We really did have a lot of places to look,” Holly said. “We hit Diamond Ridge and Mount Eagle first, and then the Kaniksu Caves—”

“The caves?” Brady turned to Adam, mocking gone. He knew how he’d managed to avoid any caves at all. And perfect, now both brothers were looking at him like he was a ticking time bomb.

“You got inside the caves?” Brady asked.

Jesus. This got better and better. “It’s not a big deal,” he said before Holly could say that no, in fact, he hadn’t gotten all the way inside the caves before having a colossally fucking humiliating breakdown. Because he
should
have gotten inside that cave. It wasn’t like they’d been in enemy territory, with bad intel and half the good guys already dead.

“And then from there, we went to Fallen Lakes.” Holly reached out to squeeze Adam’s hand. “I’d never have found my dad without him.”

Brady was clearly surprised, and so was Dell. They were surprised because they’d been giving Adam the kid-glove treatment, and Holly hadn’t bothered with kid gloves at all.

“Huh,” Brady said, looking impressed. His gaze warmed considerably as he smiled at Holly.

She blinked, as if blinded by the sight, and Adam rolled his eyes. Brady had always had a way with the ladies. But then Holly turned to Adam and the look on her face was all for him, and the oddest thing happened. His chest loosened from a tension he hadn’t even realized he’d been holding.

He could trust her,
really
trust her, the way he trusted Dell and Brady—when he didn’t want to kill them, that is. The knowledge wasn’t expected, but he wasn’t quite sure it was welcome, either. He’d liked assuring himself that she was just a diversion. Nothing more.

But she kept being more.

He wanted to touch her. Not just for sex, though he wanted that, too, wanted to bury himself deep and lose himself in her again. God, how he wanted that, to put his hands on her and have her hands on him.

But he also just wanted her close. He wanted to hold her and not let go. And damned if that wasn’t a thought. Maybe he
should
sleep with her again, work on clearing up this confusion with some down-and-dirty sex.

Except with Holly, it wasn’t just sex. He shoved his fingers in his hair and tugged. This wasn’t helping. He realized everyone was staring at him, but just then Jade stepped out the front door of the center and waved him over.
Thank God
. No more time to obsess or further embarrass himself, he had work. “Gotta go.”

“Adam,” Holly said.

He slowed, though he didn’t want to, and looked down at the hand she’d placed on his arm. Dell and Brady moved off, giving them privacy. Privacy he was damn sure he wasn’t prepared for, not with her.

“I’m hungry,” she said. “Want to get dinner?”

He looked into her eyes and knew he had to be honest right now, or this would get as out of hand as it had the last time. “Dinner isn’t what I’m hungry for, Holly.”

Her mouth opened, then closed. He didn’t know what she’d been about to say, but he knew that her response
should
have been a slap across his face. He certainly deserved it, if not for the other night on the mountain, then for all those years ago when he’d touched her and shouldn’t have.

But as it turned out, Holly had no response at all—at least not one she was willing to share with him. She gave him nothing but a look that he refused himself the luxury of interpreting. With a nod, he walked away, telling himself he was doing them both a big favor, but especially her, one she’d thank him for eventually.