Puppy Love

by Lucy Gilmore

  He was a marshmallow. He always had been.

  “They like you,” she said. “They respect you. The only problem is that you refuse to let any of them in long enough to do something about it. Yes, I know—people leave and people make mistakes and people let you down. So what? Open the door anyway. Step out from behind that wall and see what it feels like to have other people take care of you for a while. I think you might get used to it. In fact, I think you might actually like it.”

  Mentioning the wall had the effect of shutting him down. She could see it happening, was watching the transformation with her very own eyes. His eyes went stony. His mouth became a hard line. His shoulders came up.

  And then, without a single word, it stopped.

  “Okay.”

  She stopped as well, too startled by his sudden capitulation to do more than blink at him. “Okay?”

  “Okay.” A smile moved across his face. It was the real one—the devastating one. “I like the sound of that, but only if you promise to keep me company in there.”

  “Wait—what? That actually worked?”

  Harrison tucked Bubbles under one arm and took the final step toward her. He was as exhausted as she was, drained both physically and emotionally, and it showed in every weathered line of his face. The shadow of his beard hinted of dark deeds, and his bull-like stance was as powerful as always, but none of that mattered. No matter how many times she searched his eyes, she didn’t see any sign of the wall. Once again, she’d managed to get him to tear it down.

  But this time, he’d taken it down it for good.

  “I still think you’re going to push me and poke me and make my life generally uncomfortable,” he said.

  “That’s because I am.”

  He lifted a hand toward her cheek, holding it just above her skin until she turned into it.

  “And I still think you’re an evil dragon of a woman who trains sweet, innocent puppies to be her minions.”

  She choked on a laugh. “Why not? There have been worse crimes committed in the name of love.”

  His palm tensed on her cheek, his fingers pressing into her skin and pulling her close. It was impossible to wrap her arms around him and squeeze while he had Bubbles between them, so she did the next best thing and licked her lips. The edge of her tongue grazed the side of his thumb, drawing forth his deep groan.

  “I do love you,” he said, his breath growing ragged. “More than I thought possible, more than I knew people could love.”

  She smiled against the press of his thumb. “I always knew I could love you this much. I was just afraid you wouldn’t want me to.”

  His deep chuckle was the only sound she needed for her heart to swell and her body to start throbbing with desire. Both of these sensations—of fullness and emptiness, of the entire world expanding within her—were nothing compared to the words that left his mouth next.

  “Will you help me?” he asked, bringing his mouth down to hers. “When I stumble? If I fall?”

  She accepted his kiss readily, prepared to stand on the gusty side of the highway with a puppy wedged between them forever if it meant she could always feel like this.

  “Of course I will,” she said and laughed against his lips. “If I can train a broken, skittish puppy to love a grouch like you, how hard could it possibly be to train a man?”

  Epilogue

  “This one’s for you, and this one’s for you, and this one’s for you.” Harrison tossed the paper-wrapped bundles at the people standing nearest him in the backyard. The billowing smoke that surrounded them came from a summer barbecue rather than the forest fires that had kept him from home for the past two weeks, which made for a nice change.

  It was also nice to see so many friendly, relaxed faces. The backyard was still a pit of half-finished projects and Sophie’s never-ending battle with the raccoon who refused to heed her eviction notice, but no one seemed to care. Sophie’s sisters were there, which was a large part of the carefree ambiance, but his parents were in attendance too.

  Dawn accepted her bundle greedily and started tearing in right away. Lila was a little more restrained, but she still shrugged and daintily began undoing the tape around the edges. His mom, however, just stared at hers.

  “Go on,” he said, his voice gruff. This time, at least, he had the excuse of two solid weeks of breathing smoke outside Chelan as the cause. Even though he’d been doing a lot better job of slowing down and putting his—and Bubbles’s—health first, he had a tendency to sound like he’d gargled rocks for a few days afterward. “It’s not a big deal.”

  His mom opened her mouth as if to argue, but she was forestalled by Dawn’s shout of laughter.

  “Is this supposed to be a shawl?” she asked as she held the deformed lump of red yarn to the sky. “Or a…dish towel?”

  “It’s a scarf,” he retorted. “And it took me three weeks to make, so you’d better wear it every day.”

  Lila had managed to extract hers from the packaging and joined in her sister’s laughter. “I think mine has an armhole. Or a breezeway. That’ll come in handy, seeing as how it’s ninety-five degrees outside right now.”

  “Four weeks. That one took me four weeks.” He paused. “I sent one to your parents in Greece too. Your mom promised to take it to all the important sites. I think she’s finally starting to like me.”

  “Oh, she hates you,” Dawn said. “You took her precious darling.”

  “She loves you,” Lila countered. “You took her precious darling.”

  Harrison just shook his head and gestured for them to put their garments on. He wasn’t sure he’d ever understand the strange relationship that existed in a family as intimate and loving as this one, but he was getting closer.

  The two sisters looked ridiculous, of course, and not just because it was the dead of summer and the need for handmade knitwear was slim. No matter how many times he tried to get the hang of knitting, or how well he thought he was doing at the time, he always ended up with a variation of the same awkward scarf.

  Poor Bubbles would never get the full wardrobe he’d promised her—which was probably just as well, since the women in Sophie’s knitting circle had taken it upon themselves to outfit her in every style and color under the sun. They loved that damn dog.

  He was starting to think they loved him a little too. It was a nice feeling.

  “Is mine a scarf too?” his mother asked. She still hadn’t opened her package. She held it against her chest like something precious, a misty look in her eyes. “You made me a scarf?”

  “It’s not a very good one,” he said. This time, his voice was gruff with emotion, but he didn’t try to fight it. He and his mom weren’t close yet, but he liked to think they were making progress. “But I like knitting. It’s weirdly calming.”

  She nodded as if that made perfect sense. “You never were able to sit still for long periods at a time.”

  Which was another way of saying he was a lot of work. “Sorry about that,” he said.

  “Don’t be.” The mistiness in her eyes increased. “It’s always been one of my favorite things about you.”

  “What is?” Sophie asked, coming up from behind him. She wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her face in his neck, drawing a deep breath as though inhaling his very essence. “His roguish good looks? That’s what got me. Well, that and his puppy-like innocence. Isn’t that right, Bubbles?”

  The dog at his feet yapped her agreement.

  His mom chuckled. “I was just telling him that he was always on the go, even as a baby. He was always awake, always alert, always looking for something to get into. Nothing ever seemed to slow him down.”

  “Chains did the trick occasionally.” Harrison’s dad came up behind them, a beer in his hand and a smile on his face. Half of that sight was familiar to him, but he was still adjusting to the smile part. He’d been doing a lot of that ever since Minerva had come home.

  “You didn’t!” Sophie protested with a laugh.
/>   “Sure I did. Plus ropes, zip ties, a pit in the backyard with chicken wire over the top…”

  “Wallace, no,” Minerva protested.

  “Of course not,” he said, agreeing. “But it would have served him right if I had. If you had any idea what I had to go through during his teen years…”

  A few months ago, Harrison would have shut down at the reference to the past. A few months ago, he would have turned stiff and remote. But a few months ago, he hadn’t been happy.

  He was now. He defied anyone not to be with a woman like Sophie at his back and a dog like Bubbles at his feet. Literally.

  “If it’s any consolation, Sophie was a much worse teenager than I was,” he offered. “You should hear some of the stories she has to tell about her wayward youth. The drugs. The needles.”

  “Don’t you dare,” she warned in his ear.

  He dared. “The orgies.”

  His mom’s eyes flew wide open, but his dad just laughed and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “It’s probably better if we don’t ask,” he said as he led her away. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned about that girl, it’s that she’s capable of anything.”

  “He’s right, you know,” Harrison said as soon as they were out of earshot. “I knew it from the start—you’re terrifying.”

  “Am I?” Sophie murmured, not the least bit put off by this confession.

  “A veritable monster.”

  “Tell me more,” she cooed, her lips brushing against his ear and sending a familiar jolt of electricity through him. “You know how much I love it when you get all romantic on me.”

  So he told her. From start to finish, using up the entire vocabulary he’d spend his wayward adolescence accumulating, he let the words fall gently over her head.

  She was as tough as a dragon and soft as a puppy. As tempting as a devil and sweet as an angel. She was everything and anything she wanted to be.

  She was finally his, and that was enough for them both.

  Order Lucy Gilmore’s next book

  in the Forever Home series

  Puppy Christmas

  On sale September 2019!

  About the Author

  Lucy Gilmore is a contemporary romance author with a love of puppies, rainbows, and happily ever afters. She began her reading (and writing) career as an English literature major and ended as a die-hard fan of romance in all forms. When she’s not rolling around with her two Akitas, she can be found hiking, biking, or with her nose buried in a book. Visit her online at lucygilmore.com.

  Don’t miss the next book in Lucy Gilmore’s Service Puppies series, coming September 2019

  Chapter 1

  Lila was going to kill her sisters for this.

  “Lila! Lila Vasquez!” A voice hailed her from across the crowded ballroom floor. It was followed by the bustling of a woman in a tasteful two-piece dress suit. A pang of envy flooded through Lila for that neat, pearly-gray fabric, but it was a short-lived sentiment.

  Mostly because it was immediately replaced by embarrassment. And despair. And the overwhelming urge to throw herself out the nearest window.

  She changed her mind. Death was too good for her sisters. Nothing less than lifelong torment would do.

  “Aren’t you so brave,” the woman cooed as she came to a halt. Her sweeping gaze took in the full glory of Lila’s billowing bubble-gum-pink ball gown. If the color wasn’t bad enough, the fact that she was followed by a trail of sparkles everywhere she went was. She’d left the ladies’ restroom looking like a glitter bomb had gone off in one of the stalls. “I wish I could wear something like that, but at our age, you know…”

  Yes, Lila did know. No one over the age of twenty-one should ever leave the house in this shade of pink. Unfortunately, Sophie and Dawn had interpreted the Once Upon a Time theme literally. Instead of the costume party she’d been assured awaited her inside these doors, Lila had found herself inside a nonprofit event as upscale as it was elegant. She stuck out like a sore thumb.

  A giant, pink, puffy thumb.

  “It’s so nice to see you, Kathy,” she said, forcing a smile. It probably looked about as plastic as she felt, but she was determined to stay put. She’d been invited to this ball as an established and vital part of Spokane’s hearing services community. Its purpose was to raise funds for the hearing impaired, largely for the purchase of medical equipment, implants, hearing assistive tech…and service dogs.

  Lila might look silly—and feel just as ridiculous—but her dogs deserved a seat at the table, metaphorically speaking. She’d give them that even if it meant she had to stand here all night, shedding glitter into fifty-dollar glasses of champagne.

  “I’m excited to hear who will be getting our puppy donation,” she said in what she hoped was a casual tone. “So are my sisters. I’m supposed to text them the moment I find out. Do you know when they’ll be making the announcements?”

  Kathy waved an airy hand. She was one of the ball organizers, but she had less to do with the details and more to do with squeezing large donations out of the city’s finest. “You’ll have to ask Anya. She has the full schedule. I only came by to ask where you got that gorgeous dress. My daughter’s winter formal is coming up, and they’re doing Candy Land this year. That’s exactly what we’ve been looking for.”

  It was enough to send a lesser woman fleeing for the nearest hiding place. Lila had spotted several already, each one more appealing than the last. There was a huge banquet table she could crawl underneath to wait out the evening’s events, or a swan ice sculpture dripping in the entryway that might provide an adequate shield. In a pinch, even that pair of waiters with giant silver platters could help her make a quick getaway.

  But Lila stood her ground. Lila always stood her ground. Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor extreme social embarrassment—

  “Oh God.” Catching sight of a familiar man by the entryway, she whirled around, her skirt ballooning around her legs. “This can’t be happening.”

  “What can’t be happening?” Kathy asked, her brows raised. She took a sip of her champagne, a wayward piece of glitter clinging to her upper lip. “Are you sure you’re all right?”

  No. Lila wasn’t sure of anything except that no number of waiters with silver platters would be able to help her now. What she needed was for the ground to open up beneath her, for the world to swallow her whole. Risking a quick peek over her shoulder, she scanned the entryway again and… Yep. It was happening. It was happening, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

  She dashed a hand out and grabbed Kathy’s forearm. “Quick—what’s the easiest way out of here?”

  “I think maybe you should sit down,” Kathy said, frowning at where Lila was crushing the silk of her suit. “You look as though you’ve seen a ghost.”

  On the contrary, it was no ghost that had caught Lila’s eye. That flash of white coming from the opposite side of the room was blinding enough to be supernatural, but Lila had never believed in that sort of thing. Ghosts weren’t real and bogeymen were make-believe, but a smile as toothy and brilliant as her ex-boyfriend’s had caused her plenty of sleepless nights.

  “The kitchen?” Lila asked, mostly to herself. “No, I’ll never make it that far. It’ll have to be the emergency exit.”

  She knew she was babbling, but she could no more stop the words from leaving her mouth than she could still the sudden thumping of her heart. Patrick Yarmouth. Of all the men to saunter through the door looking as though he’d dropped in straight out of a toothpaste ad, it had to be him.

  She could brazen this dress out for the sake of her company, Puppy Promise. She could smile and sparkle for as long as it took to woo the people who had the power to take that company to the next level.

  But she could not, would not, dared not risk exposing herself to the man who’d accused her of perfection like it was a four-letter word. Especially since he hadn’t spotted her yet. There’s still time to make my escape.

  “I’m sorry, Kath
y,” she said as she lifted her skirts and headed for the bright red exit sign. “I have to leave.”

  “Does this mean you aren’t going to tell me where you got the dress?” Kathy called, watching her go. “My daughter will be so disappointed.”

  “I’ll email you the details tomorrow,” Lila promised as she pushed through the door to safety. Better yet, she thought as she navigated the steep flight of steps leading down, I’ll shove the dress in a box and mail it to you.

  After tonight, there was nothing on earth that could induce her to wear sparkles again.

  * * *

  It was only cowardice if she hid behind the potted plant.

  “I’m standing next to it,” Lila said to no one in particular, if only because there was no one in particular to say it to. She’d escaped the emergency stairwell to find herself on some kind of first-floor landing. It offered a fountain and a ficus and a complete absence of other people—all three of which were serving to calm her rattled nerves. “I’m taking a break, that’s all. Getting away from all those dark suits and demure gowns. I’ll be back to my usual, capable self in a few minutes, and then I’ll be able to face him.”

  Her attempt at boosting her own confidence failed. In truth, it was only her inability to pull her skirts in far enough that kept her where she was. There was no way she could fit behind that plant.

  A soft sniffling sound stopped Lila before she could make the mistake of continuing her one-sided conversation. It wasn’t like her to flee at the first sign of danger; even less to self-soothe with a running dialogue. She was supposed to be the unflappable Vasquez sister, the one everyone else turned to in times of emergency.

  In other words, the perfect one.

  The sniffle sounded again, this time accompanied by a hiccupping sob. Her own worries cast aside, Lila picked her way out from her hiding spot next to the plant and surveyed the room. As far as she could tell, it was still empty. There was a possibility that sound might carry through one of the vents, but—