by Lori Wilde
“Good boy,” she said immediately.
Trent chuckled and kissed her again.
4
While Trent gathered Erin closer and deepened the kiss, he couldn’t help thinking that maybe he was the one who needed a couple of behavior lessons. Dang, he hadn’t come here tonight intending on kissing Erin, but yet here he was, kissing her like there was no tomorrow.
And having one heck of a good time. Man, Erin could kiss, so he didn’t waste a lot of time analyzing the situation. He just accepted his good fortune.
Things were humming right along when the yip-yip-yapping sound of Brutus tugged them both back to reality.
“Let’s ignore him,” Trent murmured against Erin’s soft lips. “Brutus will be fine.”
“What if he needs to answer the call of nature?” For a split second, Trent almost said “Who cares.” After all, it was the strongest rule of the male species—you didn’t interrupt when your friend was kissing a pretty lady. Brutus was male. He should know this stuff.
But leave it to the furball to decide he couldn’t wait a couple of minutes to answer that call of nature.
Blasted dog.
“That was a surprise,” Erin said as she backed away from him like he was a big old pile of nuclear waste.
Uh-oh. Sounded like she had regrets.
“A nice surprise,” Trent said, hoping to salvage the situation.
But he was obviously too late because Erin’s expression had taken on a determined cast that he just knew didn’t bode well. At least not if he was hoping there’d be more kissing between them anytime in the near future. And he had been hoping for more kissing.
Trent glared down at Brutus, who was once again happily chasing his own tail. Dang furball.
“We shouldn’t have done that,” Erin said. Although her voice was soft, her tone was firm. The lady meant business. “I’m not interested in a relationship at this particular moment.”
Hell, he wasn’t interested in a relationship at any particular moment. But if Erin didn’t want a relationship, he sure-as-shootin’ would bet she really wouldn’t be interested in what he had in mind.
“Okay,” he said, leaning down and scooping up Brutus.
Erin eyed him closely. “I don’t mean to offend you. The kiss was lovely.”
She was downright cute. She was giving him the brush-off big time but still concerned about his feelings.
“I’m fine, Erin. No broken heart. No trampled feelings.” He took a step closer to her, then added with a grin, “To tell you the honest truth, I don’t go in for relationships myself. Short flings, sure, I’m on board with that. We all can use a little fun. But that whole ‘till-death-do-us-part’ thing gives me the chills.”
As he watched, Erin’s expression hardened like cement. “I see. It’s nice to know what your feelings are on this subject.”
For a split second, he considered backpedaling, but then he decided it was best if Erin knew what kind of guy he was from the start. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to soften the news a tad.
“Don’t get me wrong. I’m not exactly Brutus here when it comes to the ladies, but I’m not the tied-down type, either.”
Erin nodded at Brutus. “I sure hope you’re not like Brutus, especially since you’ve agreed to have him neutered.”
Talk about giving a man the chills. Yeow. He literally shivered at the thought. “I still haven’t figured out a way to tell Brutus about that.”
Apparently switching the subject to Brutus and his impending alteration was enough to soften Erin’s mood. She stepped over and patted Brutus on the head.
“You’re a good boy, and everything’s going to be all right,” she cooed.
“Just which one of us are you talking to?” Trent teased.
“Go home, Trent Barrett,” Erin said with a laugh. “And take your dog with you.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Trent looked at Brutus. “Looks like we men have worn out our welcome. But I’m pretty sure if we mind our manners, she’ll let us come back on Wednesday for more obedience lessons.”
“Yes, you can come back on Wednesday,” she said. “But next time, I want both of you to behave.”
Trent nodded his head and helped Brutus nod, too. “You bet. We boys promise we’ll be absolute angels.”
Erin sighed and started walking toward the front door again. “Brutus might behave like an angel on Wednesday, but even though I haven’t known you long, Trent, I’m positive you haven’t got a single angelic bone in your body.”
Trent chuckled as he scooted out the front door. “You may have a point.”
Erin patted Brutus’ head. “You take care of this dumb animal, okay?”
Trent looked at Brutus. “This time, I’m certain she’s talking to you.”
Erin tipped her head and studied the bunch of flowers sitting on the doorstep to her store. They looked like they’d been yanked out of the ground, not picked gently.
“Nice collection of weeds,” Leigh Barrett said as she came to stand next to Erin. “Did you grow them yourself?”
“I think it’s a bouquet of flowers left by someone,” Erin told the younger woman. “Maybe by the same person who left Pookie here.”
Leigh made a loud snorting noise. “First off, those aren’t flowers, they’re weeds. Second off—” She pointed down the sidewalk. “They’re everywhere. It looks like someone was carrying a bundle and dropped a bunch on the way.”
“On the way to putting the bouquet in front of the door to my store?” Erin didn’t like this a bit. It was strange. Who would do such a thing?
Leigh put her hands on Erin’s shoulders and turned her so she was looking down the sidewalk. “Look at that, Erin. Whoever was carrying those weeds dropped them everywhere. Yeah, you may have the majority in front of your door, but if you think a secret admirer did this, then how do you explain the weeds in front of the Slurp and Burp?”
What in the world was Leigh talking about? “The Slurp and Burp?”
“Roy’s Cafe. Great chicken fried steak, by the way. Anywho, as you can see, Roy’s got a lot of weeds in front of his door, too. Now what kind of secret admirer do you suppose would leave both you and Roy weeds? Roy’s a great guy, but he’s in his sixties and married to boot.”
Erin felt the panic inside her slowly seep away. Leigh was right. There were flowers, er, weeds, in front of Roy’s Cafe, too. This didn’t seem to be a deliberate gesture.
“Thanks,” she told Leigh, meaning it more than she could explain.
“No problem. But to make you feel a million times better, let’s have Trent tell you what I just said in his official chief-of-police voice. Things always sound more impressive when a person in uniform says them. I mean, would you let someone wearing a thong and sunscreen take out your appendix?” She tugged on Erin’s arm, and they started down the sidewalk toward the police station. “Well, maybe you would if he looked really hot in that thong, but for the most part, you wouldn’t.”
Erin blinked. Leigh certainly was full of zest. “I don’t need Trent to reassure me.” In fact, Trent was the last person she wanted to see right now. She still couldn’t believe she’d actually let him kiss her last night. What had she been thinking?
Her own personal code of honesty set off an alarm. She was lying and she knew it. She hadn’t let Trent kiss her. Nope. She’d been a very active participant throughout the entire process.
You’d think being jilted at your wedding would teach a woman a thing or two about men. Apparently, all it had taught her was to wrap her arms around Trent’s neck when she wanted him to deepen the kiss. The experience sure hadn’t taught her anything useful, like how to say, “No, thank you. I’d rather you not kiss me.”
But no siree, she hadn’t said a thing to stop Trent. She’d fallen right in line with the plan and kissed the man back like a crazy woman.
“I don’t want to see Trent,” Erin blurted. “Thanks anyway, but I have to open my store.”
“Erin, Trent’s not going to arrest
you,” Leigh said, and then she laughed.
Erin didn’t like the sound of that laugh one bit. Boy, this young woman was headstrong. She didn’t seem to even have the ability to hear the word no. But Erin had been raised in a family of headstrong people, so Leigh didn’t intimidate her.
“I do not want to see Trent,” Erin said firmly and slowly.
“Why not?”
At the sound of Trent’s voice, Erin yelped. Then hoped the ground would open up and swallow her.
She’d yelped? She never yelped. She wasn’t the startled, easily scared type.
But there was no denying the obvious—she’d yelped when she’d heard Trent’s voice.
Knowing he stood directly behind her, Erin shot a frown at Leigh, who only laughed, then turned to face the man who had starred in her dreams last night.
“Hi,” he said. He had a definite twinkle in his deep-blue eyes. “It’s nice to see you today.”
“Hi,” she said, inwardly cringing when the word came out breathless and more than a little flirtatious. Oh, for pity’s sake. First, she’d yelped, now she was doing a Marilyn Monroe impersonation? Her hormones were getting way out of control. So he was good-looking. So what? And so he was without a doubt the best kisser she’d ever kissed. Again, so what? None of that excused her behavior. When she got back to the store later, she intended on giving her libido a stern talking-to.
“Since Erin seems to have temporarily lost the ability to speak, I’ll tell you why we’re here. Erin has weeds in front of her store,” Leigh said, looking at Erin for confirmation.
“I thought they might be flowers someone had left for me. Like someone left Pookie and the birdhouse,” Erin explained, thrilled that her voice finally sounded normal. Or close to it, anyway. Trent was standing right next to her, and she was only human after all.
“Someone left you flowers?” he asked.
“Weeds,” Leigh explained once again. “They left her weeds. But there are weeds in front of Roy’s, too, and I’m sure no one’s trying to woo him.”
Trent turned his attention to his sister. “Why exactly are you here?”
“I was going to Precious Pets to buy a new toy for Brutus,” she said.
Trent raised one eyebrow. “A toy? The furball’s got all the toys he needs. Plus, he’s got my living room sofa to chew on, and my shoelaces to play tug-of-war with. Seems to me he’s all set.”
“Ha, ha.” Leigh looked at Erin. “It’s hard to believe we’re related, isn’t it?”
“Um, let me think,” Erin managed to say with a moderately straight face.
“I know, we look so much alike, how could you not know we’re related,” Leigh said.
“Leigh, truthfully, your personalities are similar,” Erin admitted.
Not laughing at the offended expressions both Trent and Leigh got was one of the toughest things Erin ever did. She couldn’t say offhand which of them looked more upset.
Trent was the first one to speak. “I realize we don’t know each other very well, but my personality is nothing like Leigh’s.”
Leigh bobbed her head. “That’s right. Trent’s more like Chase, and Nathan’s more like...well, he doesn’t really fit in with Trent and Chase. Come to think of it, Chase isn’t really like Trent because—”
“Stop. Leigh, that’s enough. I think we’ve shared enough family history with poor Erin.” Trent leaned closer to his sister and added, “And I’m nothing like Chase.”
Leigh snorted and looked at Erin. “See, this is the problem with growing up with three brothers. They drive you nuts, but what can you do? It’s not like you can send them back. I mean, come on, what are you going to use for a receipt?”
Okay, now Erin was confused, but at least Leigh had taken her mind off how flustered she was at seeing Trent again. “What?”
Trent draped one arm around Leigh’s shoulders. “Let me translate. Leigh thinks I, and her other two brothers Chase and Nathan, meddle too much in her life. But she loves us anyway. Now what about those weeds?”
Erin looked from one Barrett to the other. Wow. There were four of these people? Both Trent and Leigh had personality and zest to spare. Were they all like this? Chase had seemed nice, but she hadn’t met the other brother yet.
“The weeds?” Leigh prompted again. “Tell Trent about the weeds.”
Like a derailed train, it took Erin a couple of minutes to get back on track. Finally, she said, “I believe they might be flowers. Or at least whoever left them might have thought they were leaving flowers. Can you look at the video?”
Leigh tugged on her brother’s arm. “Come on. We’ll show you the evidence. You’ll see that they’re weeds, not flowers, and they’ve been dropped all along the sidewalk, not left intentionally in front of Erin’s store.” She gave Erin a sympathetic look. “But don’t worry, I’m sure someday you’ll meet a nice man who will bring you flowers.”
Erin’s mouth dropped open. “This isn’t about me secretly wanting someone to give me flowers. I’m concerned that someone is leaving things in front of my store.”
Thankfully Trent was on her side. “I understand completely. Now let’s go take a look at these flowering weeds.”
The three of them headed toward Precious Pets, but long before they reached it, Erin realized something was wrong. The flowers were gone. All the ones that had been scattered on the sidewalk were missing. When they got close enough to Precious Pets for her to see, she could tell they were gone from outside her store as well.
“Hey, where’d they go?” Leigh asked, scanning up and down the sidewalk. “Someone stole the weeds.” She shook her head. “It’s a sorry day when you can’t even leave weeds lying around without some bonehead stealing them.”
Trent sighed loudly and pointed at a trash can just beyond Precious Pets. “Looks like someone picked them up and tossed them.”
Erin walked over to one of the dark-green trash cans the city had placed along each sidewalk in the business district. Sure enough, the flowers had been thrown away. Now, looking at the pile in the trash can, they did look more like weeds than flowers.
When Trent came over to stand next to her, Erin said, “I guess I was overreacting. These are weeds.”
“Weeds someone sent to their final resting place in weed heaven,” Leigh said as she looked into the trash can. “Oh, well. I’m sure they lived long and happy lives.”
This time, Erin was the one to sigh. She headed over and unlocked her store. She’d spent way too much time this morning worrying about these weeds. That whole thing with Pookie and the birdhouse had made her jumpy.
“Thanks for stopping by,” Erin said to Trent. Before Trent could answer, Leigh shoved past both of them and walked inside the store. “You two go ahead and talk while I find a toy for Brutus. I’m in a hurry and need to...um, hurry.”
With that, Leigh shut the door to Precious Pets in Erin’s face.
“You’ll have to excuse Leigh,” Trent said dryly. “She was raised by a pack of wild, unruly brothers and has the manners of a Barrett boy.”
Erin laughed. “She certainly does have her own approach to life.”
“Yes, she does.” His gaze held hers, and suddenly, Erin relived every single thing that had happened between them last night. The talk. The fun. The kiss.
“This is kind of awkward,” she admitted.
He frowned. “What is? I didn’t mind stopping by to look at the flowers. But I have to agree with Leigh on this one. I think someone probably dropped them. Maybe they had weeded that planter down by the hardware store and were just carting the weeds up here to the trash can. I’ll look at the video, but I doubt it’s anything to worry about.”
Erin looked at the hardware store that sat kitty-corner across the street from Precious Pets. The planter out front was indeed weed-free. And the trash can near her store was the closest. Trent’s theory made a lot of sense.
“I guess you’re right. But that isn’t what I meant when I said this was awkward.” She looked direct
ly at him. “I meant the kiss.”
“You guys kissed?”
This muffled question came from inside the store.
Erin spun around and realized Leigh stood in front of the display window right by the front door.
Horrified, she turned back to look at Trent. Rather than being upset, he chuckled. “Well, now that Leigh knows, it won’t be long before the whole town does. Don’t let it bother you. When folks ask about us kissing—”
“People are going to ask me about it? Why would they care?”
This time, Leigh was the one to laugh from inside the store, but Erin ignored her.
“Seriously, Trent. It was only a kiss. I’m sure no one will care in the slightest,” Erin said, but she wasn’t sure which of them she was trying to convince.
Obviously herself, since Trent looked like he was struggling to keep from laughing again. “Maybe you’re right, Erin. Maybe Leigh won’t tell everyone in town that we kissed.” He looked over Erin’s shoulder, apparently at Leigh, and added, “At least she won’t if she knows what’s good for her.”
Behind her, Erin could hear Leigh muttering, but she couldn’t make out what the younger woman was saying. It didn’t matter anyway. Even if people in town did hear about the kiss, she couldn’t believe they would care. And even if they did care, she could tell them politely that it was none of their business. After all, she and Trent weren’t going to get involved. They weren’t going to show up around town on dates.
Trent must have read her mind, because he teased, “If anyone asks about us, say in your best cop voice, ‘there’s nothing to see here, so move along.’ That should take care of the problem.”
Erin smiled at his nonsense. What was it about Trent Barrett that could make her weak in the knees one second and laughing the next? The man certainly was fun to be around, but Erin had the scarred heart to prove that fun men were the most dangerous kind. They’d break your heart, usually without meaning to, but they’d break it just the same.
“I think I’m going to go inside now,” Erin told him, her smile long since gone. “Again, thank you.”