Winter's Wonder: Pine Point, Book 2

by Allie Boniface

  I know that feeling. Don’t trust anyone in the world. Better to be alone than risk getting hurt.

  Hell, now he was mentally commiserating with a damn dog? Without allowing himself to think about it anymore, Zane dropped the food bag inside the shed and then hopped into his truck. He put it into reverse and backed slowly away. The dog’s yellow eyes stayed on him the whole time.

  Chapter Eight

  “Freckles and Missy too,” Becca said. She pointed at the carrier that held two young cats. “They’ll be good with the kids.”

  Shirley, one of the shelter’s faithful volunteers, nodded. “Here you go, munchkins,” she murmured as she picked up the carrier and took it outside to Becca’s idling SUV. Becca followed with Dinah, a beagle mix, straining at her leash. She jumped into the front seat and looked around, tongue lolling, tail wagging a mile a minute.

  Becca wiped one arm across her forehead. Despite the frigid air temperature, she was sweating. Damn. She hadn’t packed a change of clothes either. She hoped the elementary school kids wouldn’t mind her messy hair or smeared makeup or inevitable rings under her arms.

  “Is that all of them?” Shirley asked. She blew on her bare hands and peered inside the SUV. Two lop-eared rabbits, Sunny, the enormous orange long-haired cat, and Miles, the lab mix, sat patiently in the back two rows of seats.

  “That’s all I can manage by myself.” Becca hauled herself into the driver’s seat. As it was, she hoped Donna Dawber, the teacher who’d made the arrangements for this school visit, would have a couple of hale and hearty guys to meet her at the door and help out.

  Speaking of hale and hearty guys…

  Her mind whirled as she backed out of the Pine Point Paws driveway and headed for the elementary school on the other side of town. That kiss. That whole date, from beginning to end. It gave her goose bumps every time she thought about it.

  Dinah stuck her wet nose into Becca’s armpit, and her hands jerked on the wheel. All thoughts of Zane disappeared. “Whoa, sweetheart!” She guided Dinah back to the passenger seat and focused on the road ahead of her. In the back, Sunny howled. A moment later, Freckles chimed in. Terrific. Becca turned on the radio.

  Thankfully, it never took longer than ten minutes to get anywhere in or around Pine Point, and soon she pulled around the circular drive of Pine Point Elementary School. Miles woofed. Dinah jumped against the window, leaving muddy paw prints and a long streak of saliva. Becca checked the heat, locked the doors and left the SUV running as she dashed inside.

  “Hiya, Bec!” Eva Hadley sat at the desk just inside, with fresh makeup and perfect hair and a designer red sweater. Christmas holly was strung across her desk, and a reindeer figurine jumped back and forth over a ceramic housetop to the tune of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”

  Becca wiped her nose. She probably looked about as red-nosed as Rudolph right about now. “Hi, Eva.” She’d gone to school with the Hadley sister, one of four in town, all blonde-haired and blue-eyed and each more curvy than the last. “I’m bringing in some of the animals from the shelter. For an assembly?”

  Eva nodded. “Sure.” She waved her manicured nails at the open doors of the auditorium behind her. Young voices chattered and squealed. A class of what looked like kindergarteners straggled inside to join them. “They’re getting ready for you.”

  Becca’s heart jumped a little. She’d helped Chrissy with this assembly in the past, but she’d never done it solo. She hoped the animals behaved. She hoped the kids behaved. Last year, one little boy had insisted on pulling one dog’s coat and throwing a tantrum on stage when his teacher told him to stop. “Okay, should I just bring them in?” She looked around. “Is there, ah, anyone who could help me?”

  Eva’s eyes widened for a moment.

  Oh, God, like I would ask her to ruin her nails by carrying in the cats or helping with Dinah. Ron Ellerbee, one of the custodians, emerged from the office. “Becca. Need some help?”

  She nodded, grateful. Mr. Ellerbee had worked at the school as long as she could remember. Only over the last year or so had he changed, seemed to grow older. His hair had gone almost completely white, and he stooped a little more than she recalled.

  He followed her out to the SUV and took both cat carriers in his two hands. She swung the vehicle around and parked in one of three empty visitor’s spots, then gripped Miles and Dinah’s leashes in one hand and picked up the rabbit cage in the other. She wouldn’t have to go to Springer’s gym as long as she was managing the shelter, that was for sure. Her arms ached with the effort of getting them all into the school.

  “You can go in the auditorium’s side entrance,” Eva said. She motioned to a small door down the hall where Mr. Ellerbee was just disappearing. Unlike Becca, he seemed to be having no problem with the cat carriers. She stretched out her arms for a little relief, hoping Miles and Dinah wouldn’t take off. But the dogs only loped down the hall as if they’d been there a hundred times before.

  Thankfully, Donna Dawber met her backstage and took the rabbits. “Thank you for doing this, Becca.”

  “Of course.” She did enjoy bringing animals to the school. Not only did she love seeing the kids’ faces, but it gave the shelter residents a chance to leave their kennels and cages as well. And each year, one or two of the animals that went to the school was adopted in time for Christmas. Becca hoped that would happen again. As much as she loved them all, they deserved real homes, where their owners could shower them with love twenty-four seven.

  “How are your students this year?” Becca asked Donna as they settled the cats and rabbits on long tables at the back of the stage. The two dogs would remain leashed at her side.

  “Ah, well, they’re a handful,” the woman said as she tugged at the cloths covering the tables.

  Becca tried to smooth her hair as the dogs wound themselves around her legs. She tried to think of something encouraging to say, but just then, the curtain rose and two hundred little faces looked back at her from the auditorium. Jenny James, the new school principal, stepped to the microphone and began to speak.

  The next hour was a blur of keeping the animals calm, making sure no one pulled the dogs’ fur too much and answering questions that ranged from, “Is that rabbit the Easter Bunny?” to. “How do you know it’s a boy dog?” Becca smiled though her arms ached from holding Miles and Dinah’s leashes. They were two of the shelter’s mellowest dogs, but even they got excited as the children petted them and tugged on their tails and looked into their eyes from an inch away. Surprisingly, only one little girl burst into tears when Miles licked her face from bottom to top with his enormous tongue. Other than that, no injuries and no freak-outs from child or beast.

  “Thank you for coming,” the principal said as the hour wound to a close. She patted Dinah and Miles and then, almost as an afterthought, patted Becca’s shoulder as well. “The kids always look forward to this tradition.”

  “You’re welcome.” Exhausted, Becca sank onto the top step of the stairs leading down to the floor. Dinah and Miles joined her, one on either side. The students wandered out behind their teachers, and soon silence settled into the auditorium. Behind her, Donna fussed with the cat carriers. “I’ll take care of those,” Becca said. “I’m sure you have to get back to your class.”

  The teacher nodded. “I do. It was good to see you.” Without another word, she disappeared into the wings.

  Becca rolled her neck. Her back ached. Her shoulders ached. She had about fifty emails to answer and a potential adopter coming in later that afternoon. And right now it looked like she was by herself in trying to herd these animals back to her car. “Well, hell,” she muttered. Dinah gave her a sloppy kiss on the chin. Behind her, Sunny meowed.

  “Yes, I know you’re ready to go,” she said aloud. But Mr. Ellerbee was nowhere to be seen, and the principal had returned to the office as well. Okay, well, she’d just have to take the dogs out fi
rst and then return for the cats and the rabbits. She stood, biting her bottom lip. She hated leaving them in here alone.

  “Need some help?”

  The voice came from the shadows at the back of the auditorium. Becca squinted. She couldn’t see who it belonged to, but something about it sent a shiver down her spine. It couldn’t be him, of course. Her mind probably just wanted it to be him because she hadn’t stopped thinking about him since their date, but it sounded an awful lot like—

  Zane walked down the aisle, hands in his pockets and a half-smile on his face.

  Becca went about as warm and wiggly as her dogs. What is he doing here?

  “Lot of critters.” He stopped at the bottom of the stairs and looked up at her.

  “What are you doing here?” Oh, suave, Becca. Wildly, she tried to channel her sister. Say something flirtatious. Or maybe don’t say anything at all. Just try to look cute. “I mean, don’t you have…work?” Obviously, her mouth had no intention of listening to her brain.

  “I’m on the second shift today. Four to midnight.”

  “Oh.” She stood there like an idiot, with Miles pressing into her leg and Dinah wriggling with pleasure at the appearance of another visitor.

  “I stopped by the shelter.” He took one step up the stairs. “Found out you were here instead.” He took another step.

  He’d come looking for her? “Ah…well, here I am.” She spread her hands wide, going for cute, and instead dropped Miles’s leash. Instantly, the dog bounded down the steps and jumped on Zane. He backpedaled, tripped and landed on his ass with ninety pounds of Labrador planted on his chest.

  “Oh, Miles! No! Bad, bad dog…” Becca scurried down the stairs. “I am so sorry,” she said as she hauled the dog up by its collar. “Very bad,” she said, with one stern finger on Miles’s nose. The dog looked at her sheepishly, then gave Becca an enormous swipe of his tongue.

  Becca closed her eyes. Wonderful. If Zane had come here with the tiniest intention of seeing her, maybe picking up where they’d left off the other night, maybe asking her out again, she was pretty sure the dog had ruined all that. “I’m sorry,” she said again, eyes still closed.

  “It’s all right.”

  She opened one eye. Zane hopped to his feet and dusted off his hands on his jeans. Oh, they were such nice jeans too, with a tiny tear in one thigh and tight enough that she could see every inch of muscle that rippled as he stood there.

  “Still want to help?” she asked with a smile.

  “Actually, I want to do this.” Without another word, he took her in his arms and kissed her.

  The world spun. Or the floor spun. Something definitely turned her dizzy the minute he put his lips on hers, and Becca forgot about the dogs and her emails and her frazzled appearance and kissed him back. His hands went to her face, holding her tenderly at first, until his tongue eased its way inside her mouth, and then one hand slipped to the back of her neck, the other to her ass, and it was all she could do to stay upright.

  “You taste so good,” he murmured against her mouth before moving his lips to her jaw, the spot below her ear, the curve of her neck. She melted, just fell into him. She moved her hands to his hair, feeling its thickness between her fingers as her body went limp under his touch. Her hips moved toward him, arching, needing to feel him, and with both hands, he guided her there, holding her against him until she felt him rise like iron.

  “Jesus,” he finally said in a ragged voice. He returned his hands to her face. One thumb brushed her bottom lip. “You’re one hell of a firecracker, doll.”

  She couldn’t think of a thing to say. Her face felt heated, her legs like Jell-O, and her girl parts—well, they were jumping up and down in protest that things had just grounded to a halt.

  “Guess we probably shouldn’t do this in an elementary school, huh?” he said. He smiled.

  Becca gasped. For a long two minutes, she’d completely forgotten where they were. She whirled and looked around. “The dogs.”

  But they were sitting on the stairs, chins on their paws. Miles licked his chops. Dinah whined. The rabbits slept in their cage, but Freckles and Missy were pawing at their carrier, and Sunny had started her plaintive howling again.

  “I have to get them back to the shelter,” Becca said. Damn, damn, double-damn. Couldn’t she just stay here in the auditorium and make out with Zane some more?

  He strode over to the two dogs and wrapped their leashes around his hands. “You take these two. I’ll get the cats and the rabbit and meet you back there. Sound good?”

  It sounded more than good. Becca smiled. It sounded perfect.

  Chapter Nine

  Zane let Becca lead the way into the kennels at the back of the shelter, more to watch her cute ass than because he couldn’t figure out where to help her take the dogs. The yelping and scratching at the doors pretty much gave it away. She pointed at two empty runs as they walked inside. “Thank you,” she said for about the fourth time.

  “It’s no problem.” He eased the dogs back into their respective spaces and snapped the doors shut. He might almost feel sorry for them, except the place was well-lit and warm and each dog had a cozy-looking bed and some chew toys. Better than living outside, that was for sure. Someone had even hung red tinsel around the perimeter of the ceiling, and a tiny tree with a few ornaments perched merrily in the corner by the door. He turned around to ask Becca how long the dogs typically stayed, and how many they usually had there, but she’d already headed back to the front of the shelter. By the time he caught up with her in one of the cat rooms, she was kneeling on the floor in front of an elaborate floor-to-ceiling climbing tree.

  “Oh.” She twisted and looked over her shoulder. “Hi.” She hauled a scared-looking white cat from its hiding place and cradled it in her arms. “I’ve got to give this guy his meds.”

  Zane nodded, but before he could ask what kind and why, she squeezed a dropper of something straight down the cat’s throat. It barely wriggled in her arms. Zane didn’t blame it. Being in those arms and snuggled up to that chest would be a pretty nice place to hang out. She set the cat back on the floor and stroked its head.

  He looked around. “You don’t keep them in cages?” Cats of all sizes and colors walked, napped, and played in the room. Some watched him with suspicious eyes. A yellow one wound through his legs in a figure-eight motion. Another sat at the top of a set of built-in shelves and yowled.

  “No. It’s one of the things I always loved about this place. This room and the one across the hall are all open. We do have some cages in the back, for kittens or for cats who come in and need to be quarantined, but for the most part, they can come and go as they please.”

  He scratched the back of his head. Seemed like a hell of a lot to keep track of, but he had to admit, this arrangement looked a lot more comfortable than being confined to a two-foot square space. “Huh.”

  Becca cocked her head. “Not sure what to make of it?”

  He shrugged. He hadn’t come to the shelter to assess its set-up or make friends with the animals. As if echoing his thoughts, she took a step toward him. “Why exactly did you come this morning?”

  Easier to show her than to explain. Hell, he’d been replaying her kisses on his lips the whole drive back from the school. When he leaned in again, she met him halfway. She slid her hands up his chest, and her lips met his. Fire. A cat pawed at his leg. Another mewed from somewhere close by. None of it mattered. All he could do was press his hands into the small of her back, pull her close and taste her.

  This time, she pulled away first. Her cheeks had pinked, and she bit her bottom lip in that damn adorable way he’d noticed the first night she’d showed up at Mountain Glen. “This is nice,” she said in a whisper. “But—”

  “I know.” He kissed the top of her head. “You have work to do.” He took a step back, though he left his hands on her hips. “I
came here because I wanted to ask you to dinner again.” This time, it wouldn’t end with a chaste kiss at the car door if he had anything to say about it.

  She tucked a strand of her flyaway hair behind one ear. “I’d like that.”

  “Tomorrow? I’ll pick you up at eight?”

  She nodded. “Okay. Where are we going?”

  “Ah, doll, that’s a surprise. You’ll have to wait and see.”

  “You are absolutely not wearing anything from that closet,” Ella said the next morning. “I have the day off, and we’re going shopping.”

  “I don’t have the day off,” Becca answered, “and I’m sure I can find something appropriate for dinner without going shopping.” Even as she said the words, she still couldn’t believe them. Another dinner with Zane. Another chance to spend time with him, maybe feel his hands on her, maybe, if she was really lucky, feel his lips on her and more.

  Oh, she’d like the more, even though the thought of getting naked with him half-terrified her. Everything about him seemed big, from his hands to his height to his ego. She wondered just what else she might find that was larger than life.

  “Isn’t there anyone who can cover for you?” Ella wandered into Becca’s bedroom, still in her robe and slippers. “Even for lunch? There’s a new place over in Silver Valley, a little boutique with all this great stuff from the city.”

  “That means it’s out of my price range.” Becca pulled on a pair of jeans and a blue Pine Point Paws sweatshirt. She tied her hair back and dabbed on a little blush and eyeliner.

  “You didn’t let me finish.” Ella stretched out on Becca’s twin bed. “It also has a consignment shop attached to it. One of the girls in the salon got a whole bunch of designer stuff for, like, thirty bucks the other day.”