by L. P. Maxa
Lonnie yawned and pointed out an all-night big box store where they could pick up a small sack of dog food and a couple of dog bowls.
That done, he asked, “Do they have a back door? I’d hate to parade through the lobby with a snarling dog that’s probably not allowed anyway.”
“Gotcha.” Brittany pulled around to the back of the property. “My key will get us in this door.”
She carried in her gig bag and the sack full of dog stuff, and he trailed behind with the carrier. The suite was a welcome sight after the long day and she collapsed into the easy chair. Lonnie set the carrier down and stretched out on the sofa. “Yep. Perfect fit.” His eyes traveled to the king-sized bed in the alcove and he raised his eyebrow. “Unless you’d rather?” He laughed out loud when she felt the blush come up her neck.
But he was all business again when he peered into the carrier. The snarling and snapping had stopped, but the little dog was cowering and shaking. “Let’s get some light on the subject,” he suggested, hoisting the carrier up to the sofa and turning on the lamp. The lamplight filtered through the cloth mesh and shone onto the dog.
Brittany peered over his shoulder at the terrified little animal. “Pretty little thing. Look, it’s a female. Look at you, baby girl. You’re absolutely precious, aren’t you?” She reached out to the dog and was rewarded with a warning growl. “Boy, she’s skittish. She’s not gonna let us touch her.”
Lonnie’s face clouded. “You know what that means.” He peered down into the carrier. “My guess is that this baby girl wasn’t treated nicely wherever she came from.”
Brittany studied the little dog. “She doesn’t appear to be underfed.” The dog was tiny, but not thin, and her shiny coat and bright eyes spoke of good health.
“She’s had plenty to eat. But there are other signs. She’s not wearing a collar and I’d bet our next concert take that she’s not chipped. She’s not socialized, or she wouldn’t be so afraid of us. Look at her tail. See that break about three inches from the tip? Somebody was careless. Or worse. But the most telling thing I see are the callouses on the backs of her legs. Those are from lying on concrete. Somebody threw her outside and filled her food bowl once a day but that was it.”
“That sucks. So that’s your diagnosis, Dr. Jeffries? Neglect at best, maybe worse than that?”
“That about wraps it up. Let’s see if she’ll eat anything.”
Brittany filled up one bowl with water and Lonnie poured a little food in the other. They slid the bowls in the carrier and the little dog ate and drank eagerly. “We better put a towel in there with her so she can pee and poop on it. I’ll wash it out in the morning.”
Lonnie slid in a towel. “Let’s see if she’ll settle down for the night.” He turned off the lamp and kicked off his shoes.
Brittany got him a pillow and found an extra blanket in the closet. He pulled the blanket over him and wiggled out of his jeans. “Gotta stay covered. Wouldn’t want to give you a thrill.” He winked and tossed his jeans on the floor.
Brittany shook her head and found her pajamas. She took the shortest shower on record and crawled between the covers of the great big bed. From the soft snores coming from the sofa, she figured Lonnie was already asleep. She turned over and looked across the room where he lay sleeping, his hand curled on top of the carrier.
Clearly, she didn’t know Lonnie Jeffries at all.
###
Lonnie blinked and turned over, snuggling down into the warmth of the comfortable sofa. He’d come awake twice in the night, listening as the little dog lapped noisily from the water bowl and crunched on the dry kibble. She’d gone back to sleep both times and so had he, but not without sneaking a few peeks at the beautiful young woman sprawled out in the huge bed in the alcove across the room.
Brittany had surprised him last night. He’d not thought of her as an animal lover. But why wouldn’t she be? People were always surprised to find out the same about him.
What had been even more surprising was her willingness to let him crash on her sofa. They barely knew one another. But gazing across the room, seeing her sleeping so sweet and sexy, he realized he’d love to get to know her better. A lot better. And not only in that big, comfortable bed. He’d like to take her out for a meal, go for a walk with her down Parkway and maybe do a little window-shopping. Maybe go for a hike down a mile or two of the Appalachian Trail that ran through the park. He’d like to find out what made her tick. He would love to make music with her again.
And while it scared the hell out of him, he wanted it anyway.
He shut his eyes and tried to go back to sleep, but the sun was peeking through the windows and the dog was stirring again. He refilled the food and water bowls and switched out the soiled towel for a clean one. He was tiptoeing past the big bed when Brittany groaned and turned over. “Aw, crap. Morning already?”
“That’s what it looks like, darlin’. And we need to get our baby girl to a vet for a once-over. What time do you have to be at the club?”
“Not ’til early afternoon. Damn, I was gonna sleep in.” She pulled the pillow over her head.
Brittany Barstow was not a morning person.
Lonnie laughed and put a clean towel in the carrier, ignoring the dog’s halfhearted growl. He slipped into the bathroom and took a quick shower, filched one of the hotel razors, and was about to pull on yesterday’s T-shirt when a long feminine arm thrust a shirt into the bathroom. “This might fit. It hangs on me.”
He pulled the yellow ETSU sorority T-shirt over his head, and it turned out to be only a little tight. Then he pulled on yesterday’s jeans. He found Brittany on the sofa holding a cup of coffee she must have made on the Keurig in the room. She was wrapped in a pink fuzzy robe and still looked half asleep. He made himself a cup and sat down beside her. “First order of business. Find a vet to look her over.” He picked up his phone and started a Google search.
“Shouldn’t our first order of business be to try to find the owner?”
Lonnie looked down at the dog. “Like hell. I’m not lifting a finger to find them.”
“You’re not?” Brittany looked at him, aghast. “But she belongs to somebody.”
“Don’t give a shit.” He crossed his arms in front of him. “They took crappy care of her and may have even abused her. I’m not sending her back to that.”
“Lonnie, that’s tantamount to stealing. I looked it up while you were in the shower. She was an expensive dog. Those designer dogs can go for as much as a registered purebred.”
“I don’t care what she cost them. They didn’t take care of her. We send her back to that, we may as well have left her in the parking lot.”
“But…”
“But nothing. Get the stick out of your ass. We’re not returning her.”
“Yes, we are.”
They were still arguing about it thirty minutes later. He’d found a clinic in Pigeon Forge they could take the dog to this morning. Not knowing how long they would be, Brittany had gone ahead and dressed for work. Lonnie hoped to hell Ike remembered to bring him something to wear. They packed up the dog. “I still say those owners can stick it as far as I’m concerned,” he snapped as he threw open the door, only to come face-to-face with Cooper and Chessie Barstow with Brittany’s baby sister Bella.
“Uh, good mornin’, sir. Good mornin’, Chessie.” He plastered on his most engaging grin. “And how’s my favorite pretty little lady?” He waggled his fingers in front of Bella, earning himself a laugh from the cheerful toddler.
Cooper’s eyes zeroed in on the sorority T-shirt and his eyes narrowed. “Why would you be wearing one of my daughter’s T-shirts? Has Sigma Kappa gone coed?”
“No, this definitely belongs to your daughter.”
“Yeah, I had to loan it to him. He didn’t have one of his own.” Brittany came through the door with the dog carrier. “Here. You carry this damned thing. It’s heavy.” She thrust the carrier toward Lonnie and treated them all to a first-class scowl.
“So it’s not enough to spend the night with my daughter. You’re bumming her clothes, too?” Cooper glowered at the two of them.
“Stuff it, Daddy. I’m not sixteen anymore.”
“Besides, sir. Do you really think that if I had spent the night in your daughter’s bed, she’d be giving us all go-to-hell looks this morning? No, sir. She’d be grinning like a fool.” He ignored Brittany’s outraged gasp. “Well, you would, darlin’, and we both know it.”
Cooper stared at him, too stunned to respond. Brittany shut her eyes and shook her head. Chessie burst out laughing. “So, if you didn’t spend the night making our Brittany grin like a fool, what were you doing in her suite?” Chessie sputtered.
“I spent the night with this lovely lady.” He took the carrier from Brittany and held it up for them to see inside. “We found her under Brittany’s car last night. She’s not tame and Brittany wasn’t sure she could handle the pup by herself. I didn’t want your daughter to get a dog bite.” The dog obligingly growled as though to make his point.
Cooper’s face cleared and he peered in the carrier. “I think I saw her out there yesterday when we drove up. Ran from us.” He took Bella from Chessie’s arms and held her closer to the carrier. “Doggie, Bella. Pretty doggie.”
Bella cooed and laughed. “Doggie.”
“We don’t think she was treated well wherever she was,” Brittany shared. “Doofus here thinks we can keep her. I think we have to at least try to find the owners.” She folded her hands in front of her.
Chessie peered into the carrier. “How could anybody mistreat a little thing like that?”
Cooper straightened. “Damned if I know. We were going to kidnap Brittany and take her to breakfast. Could we interest you both in coming?”
Lonnie looked at his watch and made a face. “I’d love to, but we have an appointment for her in Pigeon Forge in thirty minutes.”
They said their good-byes, and as they were getting in the car, Brittany snapped, “I can’t believe you said that to my father.”
Lonnie grinned. “Just speakin’ the truth, darlin’. Even your father could see that.”
She rolled her eyes and he laughed.
###
The vet rocked back on his heels. It had taken two vet techs to get the little dog out of the carrier and hold her still for a cursory examination. “She’s definitely distrustful of people. Doesn’t speak well for her owners, whoever they are.”
Brittany looked down at the frightened, squirming dog. Her heart went out to the tiny animal. “What all did you find?”
“No microchip and she hasn’t been spayed, which is dangerous for a little dog like this living outdoors. Any dog in the neighborhood could get to her. And based on everything you two have told me, I agree with Mr. Jeffries’s assessment. Tossed outside and fed, but not much else.”
“And she wants to send her back to that.” Lonnie was still pissed and was not bothering to hide it.
“I don’t want to send her back to that. I think we have to at least try to find out who she belongs to.”
The old vet’s eyes twinkled. “Ahh, it’s a conundrum all right. May I suggest a compromise? See if anybody’s looking for her. Check online. See if anybody’s posted any fliers in the area where you found her. Put up a flier or two yourself. But don’t knock yourselves out. I sure wouldn’t.”
Lonnie looked at her. “Could you live with that?”
She nodded. “Yeah, I could.”
Lonnie whipped out a credit card to pay the vet while Brittany worked with the techs to get the little dog back in the carrier.
“So what now?” he asked as they stowed the carrier in the backseat.
Brittany looked at her watch. “I don’t have to be at the club for three hours. We can take her back to the hotel.”
They picked up breakfast at a drive-through and paid another visit to the big-box store to buy the collar and leash they’d forgotten the night before. Back in the hotel room, Lonnie reached into the carrier but was rewarded with another snarl. “She acted that way at the vet,” he observed. “There’s something about someone reaching in the carrier for her that she doesn’t like.”
“So let’s try this.” She left the carrier flap open and put the food and water bowls about three feet away. The little dog eyed them doubtfully. “Okay, pooch. Let’s up the stakes.” She tore off a chunk of her breakfast sandwich and put it in the food bowl.
The dog eyed the piece of sandwich a moment before cautiously leaving the carrier and running for the bowl. She grabbed up the sandwich and found a spot in the corner of the room where she settled in and daintily devoured the morsel.
Lonnie laughed. “Bribery. Works every time. Now that she’s fed, this baby needs a name.”
Brittany raised her eyebrow. “That’s tantamount to deciding to keep her.”
“I thought we’d already decided that.”
They kicked around names and finally decided on Cocoa due to her reddish-brown coat. Lonnie took the price tag off the tiny jeweled collar Brittany had chosen. “Okay, Cocoa. Now that you have a name, let’s see if we can get you to accept the collar.”
It took him an hour of coaxing, but he finally got the collar on the trembling dog. Watching him, Brittany marveled at his patience as he earned the little animal’s trust. He was so gentle, so kind, so understanding with Cocoa, showing her with soft words and softer touches that humans were not to be feared.
Brittany marveled at this side of Lonnie Jeffries. But then, the only side he ever showed the world was the outrageous flirt. The Lonnie down on the floor gaining Cocoa’s trust was a man she wanted to get to know.
She was drawn to this man, and she’d like to kiss him again, except longer and deeper to reacquaint herself with his warm, tasty lips. She’d like to go out with him, go to a movie with him, take a walk with him and exchange quips over hamburgers.
She wanted to sing another duet with him.
They worked with Cocoa for the better part of two hours. She finally let them pet her but was still wary, especially when they went to pick her up. Lonnie snapped on the leash and with a bit of coaxing she went outside to do her business. “She seems to have some understanding of potty training,” Brittany observed. She looked up from her phone. “I checked all the missing dog websites in Sevier, Cooke, and Blount counties. Nobody’s looking for her.”
“Did you really think they would be? They’re probably glad she’s gone.”
Ike knocked on the door, said his hellos then handed Lonnie a duffel bag. He ducked into the bathroom and emerged a few minutes later with fresh jeans that hugged his great ass and a T-shirt that showcased his muscular shoulders and chest. Brittany’s breath hitched in her throat when he knelt and patted Cocoa’s head.
Lonnie Jeffries was sex on a stick. And if the way his fans carried on was any indication, she was not the only woman who noticed.
She pushed that unwelcome thought aside and helped him coax Cocoa back into the carrier. “Towel or no towel?” she asked.
“We can take her outside for another potty run tonight,” Lonnie said. “I told Ike we would need to stop back by on our way out of town.”
“Bet that went over like a turd in the punchbowl.”
Lonnie shrugged. “They’ll live.”
###
The club was even more crowded than it had been the day before. The TV spots had aired in Knoxville and Tri-Cities and fans had flocked to the club. Brittany put down her clipboard and tuned up her fiddle for a set with The Barstows, bringing down the house when she and Chessie played the dueling fiddle parts for “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” which had the audience pounding the tables and stomping along with the music. The crowd clapped and cheered when her father stepped to the mic and introduced The Jeffries. Lonnie flashed her a smile as he walked past her to the stage and Brittany’s breath caught in her throat.
She was in trouble.
They took the stage and Lonnie made his usual outrageous comme
nts, which had the audience laughing. After the band had played a few songs, he leaned into the mic and said, “Tonight I’m dedicating a new tune to a sweet and pretty lady who loves little dogs.”
He looked across the room at Brittany. For once there was no impudent grin on his face. His eyes shone with purpose as he caught her eye and nodded once. She nodded back as chills ran down her spine.
Ike played the ear-catching intro on the mandolin, but it was Lonnie who stepped to the mic and took the lead. Brittany listened closely to the words of the song as well as the enchanting melody as Lonnie poured his heart into singing directly to her. Her heart pounded in her throat as she stared at him. Yep. Deep trouble. But she wanted to see if this attraction was more than physical.
She wanted to give a relationship with Lonnie Jeffries a chance.
It was after midnight before she was finished at the club. Ike’s van fell in behind her car as they drove to her hotel. They parked next to her but only Lonnie got out. Ike rolled down the window. “You need to make this quick.”
“I won’t be long. But I am going to check on the dog,” Lonnie replied firmly.
Ike looked from Lonnie to Brittany. “Riiiight.”
Lonnie followed her to the room and they opened the carrier. Less suspicious, Cocoa hopped out and let Brittany put on the leash then she sighed with relief. “I think she’s going to be okay with me from now on.”
“Looks like it.” He looked down at Cocoa. “Will you be able to take her home with you or will you have to take her to a shelter?”
“No way I’m taking her to a shelter.” Brittany didn’t try to hide her indignation. “She can stay with me, at least until we know that nobody wants her back.”
“Which they don’t. I wish I could take her, but tomorrow we’re leaving for two weeks in Nashville.”
“She’ll be fine with me.” Once I cough up the two-hundred-dollar pet deposit.
“Okay then.” He looked at Brittany. “Thanks.” He took a step closer to her, and then another. Brittany’s eyes widened at the look in his eyes as he reached out his arms. Hunger and desire were written all over his face as he stared at her solemnly. “Come here, darlin’.” His voice was gravelly and low. “I’ve wanted to kiss you all weekend. Kiss me, Brittany. Send me off to Nashville with the taste of you on my lips.”