by Susan Stoker
Had it really been that long? Gumby tried to remember the last woman he’d gone out with…and couldn’t.
But this battered, prickly, and confusing woman made him yearn for something he wasn’t sure he could handle. With his job, he hadn’t had the best luck when it came to women. His teammate, Rocco, might’ve found a woman who could deal with the fact he was a Navy SEAL, but it wasn’t an easy thing. He was gone a lot, his job was dangerous, and he couldn’t exactly tell a girlfriend or wife where he was going or even when he’d be back.
It would be hard enough to have a dog. A woman would complicate his life way more than a pet.
So why couldn’t he stop thinking about how Sidney Hale would taste? How easy it would be to lean down and cover her lips with his own? How she would look sitting in a chair on his back deck, watching the sunset over the ocean as they drank a glass of wine and watched Hannah frolicking in the sand nearby?
It was crazy.
But one thing Gumby had learned from being on the team was that he had to be flexible and go with the flow. Hell, it was one of the reasons he’d gotten his nickname. He’d always been that way. Never got ruffled with the curve balls life threw his way.
The team had also started calling him Gumby because one day, when they were in Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape training, he’d been the only one of the six who’d been able to contort his limbs in order to break loose from his bindings.
“Now, will you please give me your number?” he asked.
“So you can let me know how Hannah’s doing?” she asked.
“That too.”
Her brow lifted.
“And so I can call you and ask you out.”
She blinked. “Well, that’s forward.”
“Yup.”
“Let me guess, women never turn you down and fall at your feet,” she said, sounding exasperated.
“Actually,” Gumby told her, stepping back, giving her space, “I haven’t asked a woman out in longer than I can remember. I haven’t been interested in anyone…until now.”
“Why me?”
The second the question was out there, Gumby could tell Sidney wanted to take it back.
“Why you?” Gumby asked. “Because it’s been a long time since a woman has impressed the hell out of me. I thought I was saving you from a beating, when in reality, you were doing just fine without me. The last thing I expected was for the fight to be over a dog. I’m fascinated by you. I want to know more.”
“Oh.”
She didn’t say anything else, and Gumby frowned. Shit, she wasn’t interested. He’d made a fool out of himself.
“Sorry,” he said softly. “It’s obviously been so long since I’ve done this that I’m losing my touch. I wasn’t kidding about letting you do that background check though. I’m happy to do whatever adopters usually do so I can officially make Hannah mine.”
Sidney put her hand on his forearm, and the skin-on-skin contact was oddly electrifying. She removed her hand almost as soon as she’d touched him, as if she felt the arc of connection between them just as he did. “I wouldn’t mind if you called me,” she said, then bit her lip. “I just…I’m not sure we’re in the same league.”
Gumby frowned again. “I don’t think I want to know what you mean by that.”
“I mean that you have your own house. That’s impressive in California because real estate isn’t cheap. And I live in a trailer that’s seen better days. I don’t have a college degree, and I only work for the trailer park on a part-time basis. You look like the kind of guy who has a perfect family, a perfect house, a kick-ass job, and you were probably voted most likely to succeed in your senior year of high school.”
“Most likely to turn up dead before his twenty-first birthday, actually,” Gumby told her.
It was Sidney’s turn to frown.
“I don’t give a shit where you live or that you haven’t been to college. I know a lot of assholes who have a university degree who didn’t learn a damn thing while they were there. I have never judged anyone by where they live, what job they do, or anything other than the kind of person they are. And from what I’ve seen in the time I’ve known you, I have nothing to fear from that quarter. If you just don’t want to get to know me, fine, I’m not going to freak out or turn into some obsessed, scorned suiter. Just tell me. Don’t make excuses.”
Sidney stared at him a long moment before reaching behind her and taking out her phone. “Number?” she asked quietly.
Inwardly sighing in relief, Gumby gave it to her. He felt his phone vibrate in his own pocket, but didn’t bother to take it out. “Thank you,” he said. “I’ll call you as soon as I hear from the vet later on today. She told me that Hannah would probably need to stay here for a bit, until the worst of her wounds heal. Then I can take her home.”
“Okay.”
“And, even though it might hurt my chances with you and your rescue organization, I have to admit that I don’t know a hell of a lot about dogs. Will you help me?”
“You’re really serious about keeping her?”
“Yes.”
“Then I’ll help you.”
“Thank you.” He turned to look back at the building before returning his gaze to hers. “Now I have to go in there and convince them I’m not beating you and that I’m perfectly harmless.”
Sidney smiled. “I did see one or two employees peek out the window, probably making sure you weren’t smacking me around out here.”
Gumby’s lips didn’t even twitch. “Not funny.”
Sidney rolled her eyes. “I need to get home and clean up anyway. I’m sure my boss has a list a mile long of things I need to work on this afternoon.”
Gumby nodded and reached up toward her face. She didn’t flinch away, not that she could go far with her back up against his truck. He gently brushed his thumb against the black mark forming under her eye. “Get some ice on that to try to stop some of the bruising.”
“I will.”
Forcing himself to step away from her, Gumby backed toward the building. “Drive safe.”
“You too.”
Then he turned and quickly strode for the doors to the veterinarian’s office once more. With one hand on the door handle, he turned and watched as Sidney pulled out of the parking lot and merged into traffic.
Feeling as if his life had just made a one-eighty, Gumby couldn’t stop himself from smiling as he made his way back inside to arrange payment and to make sure his information was on file for later.
Sidney might not think they were in the same league, and she’d be right. Gumby had a feeling she was so far above him it wasn’t even funny. But he wasn’t going to let her get away without a fight. It had been so long since he’d felt even the smallest desire to get to know a woman the way he wanted to know Sidney. She’d surprised and impressed him, and that was damn hard to do.
Just wait until he told his teammates that he’d gone from the quintessential bachelor to being a doggy dad—and maybe even being officially off the market—over his lunch break.
Chapter Two
Later that afternoon, Sidney lay under a double-wide trailer as she messed with a leaky water pipe. She thought about everything that had gone down earlier, and it almost seemed as if it had happened to someone else.
She’d gotten very used to her life. It had a sameness that was, in many ways, comforting. Not very exciting, but comforting. How she’d ended up being a dog rescuer, she wasn’t sure. It wasn’t as if she’d planned it. But with her upbringing, she couldn’t say she was that surprised.
“Hey, Sid! You under there?” a voice called out.
Smiling, Sidney said, “Yeah! Gimmie a second!” She finished tightening the connection and hoped that would fix the issue. If not, they’d have to replace the entire line, something she knew Jude would be pissed about.
Jude Camara was her boss and the owner of the trailer park. He was in his early sixties, but looked more like he was in his forties. He was big, buff, a
nd tattooed. He’d given her a break when she’d first arrived in California, and Sidney owed him more than she could ever repay. Not in actual money, but because of all the help he’d given her over the years…including paying her to be the park’s handy-woman. She’d learned everything she knew about plumbing, electricity, and basic home care from Jude.
Sidney crawled out from under the trailer and looked up at her neighbor. Nora was also thirty-two, but that’s where the similarities between them ended. She was tall to Sidney’s short. Had beautiful blonde hair to Sidney’s dark. She was slender and proportional, and Sidney always felt dumpy and unsophisticated next to her. But Sidney also felt as if she had way more street smarts than Nora. The other woman was constantly jumping from one guy to the next, sure that each would be her ticket out of the trailer park.
Today, Nora was wearing a pair of jeans she looked like she’d been poured into, and a halter top that seemed as if it was one strong gust of wind away from exposing her boobs to the world. Her hair was extra teased and tall, and she’d done her makeup with a heavy hand.
“Hey, Nora,” Sidney said as she stood and wiped dirt off her jeans. “What’s up?”
“Jeez. What happened to your face?” Nora asked.
Sidney brushed off her concern. “Smacked it on the bottom of one of the trailers.”
“Ouch. Anyway, I need your help.”
Sidney wasn’t surprised. Nora always needed help with something.
“I’m heading out to meet a guy I met on Tinder and was wondering if you’d be my wingman.”
“Of course. You want me to text and if things aren’t going well, you can pretend to have an emergency so you can leave?” Sidney asked.
Nora laughed. “Oh, no. Things are going to go well, I have no doubt about that.”
“How do you know?”
Instead of answering, Nora pulled out her phone and clicked a few things before turning it so Sidney could see the picture she’d pulled up.
“That’s how I know,” Nora said with a smirk.
The guy on the screen was hot, there was no doubt. He was sitting on a Harley-Davidson and smirking. He wore a black muscle shirt that showed off his muscular and tattooed arms, but there was nothing about him that appealed to Sidney. It was as if the man was trying too hard. He was nothing like Decker.
That thought stopped Sidney in her tracks.
What in the world was she doing, comparing this guy to Decker? It was crazy. She’d just met the man today.
“He’s good-looking,” Sidney told her friend with a smile, trying to push thoughts of Decker Kincade to the back of her mind.
“Good-looking?” Nora asked in disbelief. “He’s fucking hot. And I’m going to be in his bed this afternoon if it’s the last thing I do.”
Sidney chuckled and shook her head. Nora was nothing if not optimistic. “What do you need my help with then?”
“I told him that I had a roommate,” Nora said. “I need you to call in about an hour and a half, and I’m going to pretend you told me we had a water pipe burst so I can’t go home. I’ll milk it so he’ll feel sorry for me and let me stay at his place. Then I’ll blow his…mind…so skillfully, he won’t want me to leave anytime soon!”
Sidney didn’t understand her friend’s desire to sleep with half the male population, but she didn’t look down at her for it either. Nora definitely had the body to go with her sex drive. “You think he’ll fall for it?”
“Oh, yeah,” Nora said. “He’s gonna take one look at this,” she gestured to herself with one hand, “and fall over backward to get it.”
“What does he do?” Sidney asked.
Nora shrugged. “No clue.”
“Where’s he from?”
Again Nora shrugged. “Here, I guess.”
Sidney shook her head in exasperation. “Do you know anything about him at all?”
“I know he’s got a Prince Albert and a big dick.”
Sidney rolled her eyes. “I don’t want to know how you know that, yet have no idea what he does for a living.”
Nora smirked. “He sent me a picture, of course.”
“Gross,” Sidney said, wrinkling her nose.
“Oh, honey. We need to get you laid,” Nora said sympathetically. “Because his Johnson definitely isn’t gross. Not at all.”
“I’m good, thanks,” Sidney told her. “You have a condom?”
“A whole box, thanks, Mom,” Nora said with a roll of her eyes.
“Good. And if you need me to rescue you because it turns out the picture he used on Tinder isn’t really him, and he’s actually an accountant who wears glasses, a pocket protector, and highwater pants, just call me. I’ll go with the flow and say whatever you need me to in order to get you out of there.”
“Sid, I don’t care in the least if it’s not him in the picture, as long as the picture he sent of his dick is the real thing. It’s been a week and a half since I’ve gotten me some, and I’m due.”
That was the other thing Sidney didn’t understand. It had been three years since she’d slept with anyone and, frankly, her vibrator gave her three times the pleasure any man ever had. She didn’t get the hype.
“Okay. You go and have fun. I’ll call in a bit,” Sidney told her.
“Thanks. You’re a gem,” Nora told her, then leaned forward and gave her an air kiss.
Sidney returned the gesture and watched as Nora strutted off. She had on a pair of four-inch heels and didn’t seem fazed by the fact she was walking on uneven, rocky ground.
Looking down at herself, Sidney grimaced. She was covered in dirt from head to toe, and the one time she’d tried to walk in heels, she’d fallen flat on her face.
In many ways, she admired Nora. The woman didn’t care that she used her body and face to get men to pay for shit. She didn’t have a job, but she didn’t need one, because men were constantly “loaning” her money. She wasn’t a whore, didn’t take money to sleep with men, but because she slept with them, they gave it to her. It was a thin line, but Sidney was the last person who would ever judge Nora.
She was kind, would happily share her last dollar if someone needed it, and always had a smile on her face. Yeah, Sidney liked her, and even envied her sometimes. She also had a great relationship with her family—something Sidney had never had.
Refusing to think about her family, knowing it would just lead her down a road she didn’t want to travel, Sidney was about to grab her tool bag and head to the next job she had to get done when her phone vibrated in her pocket.
Pulling it out, she saw Decker’s name on the screen.
Feeling suddenly giddy, she considered letting the call go to voicemail. But she was too curious about Hannah to do that.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Sidney. It’s Decker.”
“Hi.”
“I wanted to call and let you know the doc called me back. Hannah’s wounds looked worse than they were. She agreed with our assessment that she was dragged behind a car, which ripped out all her toenails and basically burned the pads off her feet. Those’ll be wrapped up for a while so they can heal.”
“And her back?”
“Her best guess is battery acid.”
“God. People are such assholes,” Sidney breathed.
“Yeah. Totally in agreement with you there. She cleaned her back and said the hair probably wouldn’t grow back, but the damage wasn’t as bad as it might’ve been if she hadn’t gotten medical care so quickly. Apparently Hannah looks funny with half her back shaved, but she reassured me that the hair’ll grow back quickly around the burn.”
“Good. How long will they have to keep her?”
“She said probably only about a week or so. A lot depends on how she does once she wakes up.”
“Right. I can call Faith, the lady who runs the pit bull rescue I’ve been working with, and she can pay for Hannah’s treatment,” Sidney told Decker.
“Nope. I got it. Just give me her number, and I’ll call her and get th
e ball rolling on adopting Hannah.”
Sidney bit her lip. “I haven’t told her about Hannah yet.”
Sidney was almost as surprised as Decker seemed to be, if his silence was any indication. Usually calling the president of the rescue group was the first thing she did after getting her hands on a pit bull. But for some reason, she hadn’t this time. Some of it was because she’d once again broken the law in order to get Hannah out of that asshole’s clutches.
But mostly it was because of Decker.
“You know I’m willing to do whatever’s necessary in order to adopt her,” Decker said after a moment.
“I know. But it seems as if it’s just a lot of unnecessary red tape at this point. You want her. She likes you. Making you pay the adoption fee on top of what you’re already paying the vet doesn’t seem right.”
“I feel kinda like a little kid whose mom just pushed him up on the diving board and told him to jump,” Decker said with a laugh. “Will you help me figure out what I need to get for— Oh…shit.”
“What?” Sidney asked, alarmed.
“My house. I’m in the middle of renovating it. There’s shit everywhere. I can’t bring a dog here.”
“It can’t be that bad,” Sidney said. When Decker didn’t respond, she winced. “Is it that bad?”
“I just…I live alone. And spend most of my time on my back deck. I haven’t been in any hurry to get the house done. I bought it as a foreclosure and it needed a lot of work. Both inside and outside. But I got it for a steal. I figured I had boatloads of time.”
“Do you want me to come over and take a look? I’m pretty handy.”
The offer popped out before Sidney even thought about what she was saying. She bit her lip and closed her eyes. Shit, Decker was going to think she was totally coming on to him. He’d think she was easy, and probably take advantage.
“Seriously?”
Sidney opened her eyes and stared blankly at the side of the trailer she’d just been under. “Yeah.”
“I’d love that.” He sounded relieved.
“I’m sure a professional contractor would probably be a better bet,” she told him honestly, trying to backtrack.