“Sure.” Mia reached for her wine. Before taking a sip, she said, “Why wouldn’t everything be okay?”
“Come on. We’re better friends than that,” Jenny remarked. “Tell me what’s bothering you.”
The reminder of her friendship with Jenny stirred anew the emotions Gid had kicked up during their confrontation at the flower shop.
“I trust you,” she said sharply.
Jenny blinked before her eyes rounded. “I…I didn’t mean to imply—”
“No, no.” Mia shook her head and sighed heavily. “I’m sorry for jumping down your throat. I guess I’m a little…touchy.”
“Gideon?”
“How did you know?”
“Because I know you, and because Gid is the only person who makes you question yourself and your decisions.”
Mia sighed, took another sip of her wine. “He came into the flower shop a few days ago.”
Jenny’s smile was soft. “He came to see you.”
“He didn’t come to see me. It was business. He ordered flowers for his mother. Her birthday is coming up.”
“And he couldn’t have done that over the phone?” A point Mia herself had made. “Or had his receptionist do it? Or have used another florist? Please.” Jenny snorted. “He came to see you, Mia. And the reason he came to see you is because he still loves you.”
As always, hearing the L-word had panic bubbling up her throat.
She swallowed hard. “Well, nothing has changed, so it was a wasted trip on his part.”
“Did you tell him that?” Jenny looked sad.
“Not in so many words, but he knew.” Mia plucked at one corner of the napkin under her wineglass as she tortured herself for the millionth time with Gid’s parting shot. “He said I don’t trust him.”
“You don’t.”
She glanced up sharply. “And it’s a good thing, isn’t it? He’s leaving me.” She cleared her throat, embarrassed by the telling remark. “He’s leaving Chandler’s Cove.”
“Mia, he’s leaving because you turned down his proposal of marriage. Gid would have passed on the job opportunity out west to stay in Chandler’s Cove with you. He knows this is your home and where you want to stay.”
“They offered him his dream job, Jenny.”
“Yes, and what does it tell you about his feelings for you that he was willing to pass on it to start a life here with you?”
“So he said.”
Jenny’s gaze turned pointed as she replied dryly, “And you wonder why he claims you don’t trust him?”
On her way home later that evening, Mia mulled Jenny’s words. Her friend had a point, and it wasn’t the first time she’d made it. In fact, Jenny, Gabby, and Marney had made similar points several times since Mia and Gid’s breakup. They’d even gone so far as to stage an intervention of sorts right after the holidays hoping to get Mia to re-examine her motives for scuttling a good relationship with a good man.
“You can’t let the past dictate your future,” Gabby had told her that day five months ago as the women walked to their cars in the parking lot of their favorite coffee shop, The Cuppa Café.
That was easy advice to dole out, but very difficult to follow when one had a past like Mia’s.
“Charlie!” she called as she let herself into her house. She needn’t have bothered. He was in the foyer, tongue lolling out. He didn’t jump up and down and start barking excitedly the way he usually did, though. Rather, he rose on his hind legs, rested his front paws against her thigh, and licked her hand. His welcome, though subdued, was balm for her soul nonetheless.
“Hey, boy.” She rubbed his head.
It was nice to come home to someone. Memories of opening her door to find Gid already inside crowded her mind. On days when she worked late at the flower shop, he often let himself in with the key she’d given him and started dinner. Of the two of them, he was the better cook, which wasn’t saying much. Scrambled eggs and one-pot meals were his specialties. The food might not have caused her mouth to water, but the man always had.
“I’m not going to miss him,” she told Charlie. The dog looked as convinced as she felt.
If she were home more, Mia would have considered getting a pet of her own, but it wasn’t practical to take an animal to work with her all the time as she’d been doing with Charlie. Nor would it be a good idea to leave one home alone—even for shorter stretches, she decided, looking past the dog to the mess scattered across the living room floor. In the two hours since she’d dropped Charlie at home to meet up with Jenny, it looked like a tornado had touched down. Neither Gabby nor Marney had mentioned Charlie‘s predilection for home destruction. Then again, they’d rarely—if ever—left him unattended.
“What have you been into?” she murmured.
Garbage was the obvious guess, since she spotted an empty egg carton amid the debris. But there was a plastic milk jug from the recycling bin, too and…was that black lace? She moved closer to inspect, eyes widening in disbelief. Indeed it was black lace, and some of it still clung to the mauled remnant of what she deduced to be an underwire.
“You ate my bra?” she asked incredulously.
Mia had hand-washed the undergarment that very morning and hung it over the shower curtain rod in the bathroom to dry. She should have known that for a dog with as much spring in his hind legs as Charlie it wouldn’t be out of the way.
He belched in response and then threw up on the toes of her shoes. Afterward, he moaned pitifully and plopped down on the floor. Garbage and a side helping of lingerie had taken their toll.
“Oh, Charlie.”
In the time it took her to clean up the mess, Charlie continued to whine and hadn’t moved. More than anything, his lethargy had her concerned, especially since she’d never found the bra’s other underwire. Even though it was nearly ten o’clock at night, Mia debated for only a moment before dialing Gid’s home number.
“I’m sorry to bother you at this late hour,” she said when he answered.
“Mia?” He sounded surprised, and her traitorous heart kicked out an extra beat when he asked in a voice laced with concern, “Are you okay?”
If she said no, even after everything that had passed between them, would he still get in his Jeep and be over right away? She didn’t have the courage to find out.
“I’m fine. It’s Charlie. He ate my…um, some stuff he shouldn’t have, and now he doesn’t look so good.” She cast a glance at the dog. Upon hearing his name, not even his tail twitched.
“Has he regurgitated any of it?”
“Yes, but that doesn’t seem to have made him feel much better.”
“I’ll meet you at the clinic in fifteen minutes,” Gid offered without hesitation.
“Thanks, Gid. I really appreciate it.”
“It’s all in a day’s work,” he replied.
…
Was that all it was? Gid wondered as he tugged on a pair of jeans and, after giving it the sniff test, pulled over his head the T-shirt he’d found on the floor of his bedroom. He didn’t want to see Mia. He wasn’t a glutton for punishment. But he knew he wouldn’t be dashing up to the clinic after hours to attend another emergency with such a sense of anticipation.
Mia’s older model blue Chevy was in the parking lot in the spot closest to the door. She was out of the car, a limp Charlie in her arms, even before he had shifted the Jeep into park. Worry caused her features to pinch.
“Has he thrown up again?” he asked as he unlocked the main door and deactivated the alarm system.
“No, but he was making heaving sounds all the way over here.”
In the examining room, she placed Charlie on the table. He whined pathetically and the look he shot Gid said, “Help me,” as clearly as if he’d spoken the words aloud.
“Hey, fella.” He put a stethoscope against a few places on Charlie’s belly and listened. The rumbling he heard was music to his ears. “Things are moving around, which is a good sign.” He glanced up at Mia. “What ex
actly did he eat?”
“What didn’t he eat might be the better question,” she replied wryly. “He got into the garbage can in the kitchen. I think there might have been some chicken bones in there from last night’s dinner. And he hit the recycling bin. He chewed up a plastic milk jug pretty good. And…” She glanced away before mumbling, “He ate one of my bras.”
Gid wasn’t sure he heard her right. “Excuse me?”
“He ate one of my bras.”
“Ah. I see. Which one?”
“An underwire,” she mumbled.
“The black lacey one from Victoria’s Secret?”
She folded her arms. “That would be the one.”
Well, no one could fault the dog’s taste, Gid thought. That stingy bit of lace had always looked plenty appetizing to him, too. He forced his mind back to the matter at hand.
“How much of it did he eat?”
“I only found one underwire attached to a piece of lace.”
“Ooh. That’s not good. The wire could perforate his intestines or cause a blockage. Either scenario would be serious.” Gid palpated the dog’s distended stomach. Charlie moaned.
“But he’s going to be okay. I mean, you can fix him, right?”
Mia looked up at Gid with such hope shimmering in her eyes. With such…was it trust? He wanted to tell her that he could. He wanted to tell her that he would move heaven and earth for her.
But what he said was, “I’ll do everything within my power to help him, but I won’t make any promises that I’m not sure I can keep.”
He wasn’t only talking about the dog. Did she understand that? Her brow furrowed a moment before she nodded.
Gideon scooped up the dog. “Let’s get some X-rays so we can see exactly what’s we’re dealing with.”
Chapter Four
It was a very long night.
Mia passed most of it sitting on the floor beside the little bed Gid had made up for Charlie out of towels. The tiles were cold thanks to the air conditioning. Even though she hadn’t asked for one, Gid gave her a blanket, settling it around her shoulders with the same sort of tenderness and caring he’d exhibited with his four-legged patient.
Thankfully, the X-rays revealed nothing ominous. If Charlie had swallowed the underwire, he’d chewed it up into pieces small enough to pass through his intestinal tract.
Before finally settling down and falling asleep, the dog vomited twice more, emptying his beleaguered belly of an interesting assortment of inedible objects. Both times, Gid had sifted patiently through the mess, unfazed.
“I liked that bra,” she thought she heard him mutter as he’d pushed a scrap of soggy black lace to the side with the tip of a pen.
Mia fell asleep not long after Charlie did. When she woke, she was no longer alone on the floor with the dog. Gid was seated next to her, his long legs stretched out. Her head was pillowed on his right shoulder. His temple rested against her crown. The warmth she felt wasn’t from the blanket, although he’d apparently tucked it under her chin. The man radiated warmth, inside and out.
She allowed herself to luxuriate in it and breathed deep to take in his scent. She couldn’t smell aftershave or even a hint of the soap he’d scrubbed with after tending to the dog. But she recognized his smell. Indeed, everything about this moment was familiar, comforting, compelling. It terrified her how deeply she wished they could stay like that, caught halfway between the dreaminess of waking and the stark reality of day. But that was impossible. Even before Charlie stirred and roused Gid, Mia knew time was up.
“Woof!”
Charlie was already on his feet as Gid lifted his head. The little dog stretched. The man yawned. Mia held her breath.
“Looks like someone’s feeling better this morning,” Gid said.
The hand he pushed through his hair left it a sexy, rumpled mess. She couldn’t resist reaching over to smooth it down, just as she had done dozens of times in the past.
Gid’s expression grew serious at her touch. He reached for her hand as she drew it away, captured it and held on tight.
“I always liked waking up to you,” he said quietly.
Her heart squeezed, the sensation at once painful and pleasing. She’d always liked waking up to Gid, too. These past several months, she’d been so lonely. She missed seeing his face at first light, his jaw rough with stubble, his mouth soft and welcoming. She was leaning toward him when Charlie barked again.
“Woof!” The dog padded to the door and continued yipping.
“I think he wants out,” Mia said wryly.
“His timing stinks,” Gid muttered as he rose. He was still holding her hand, which he used to help her to her feet. “Come on.”
Together, the three of them went outside. Even though it was barely past dawn, the temperature was already in the seventies. It was going to be a hot day. Humid, too, at least until the sun was at full strength and the mist burned off. Before opening the door, Gid had slipped on Charlie’s leash as a precaution. He needn’t have bothered. The dog wasn’t moving as fast as he usually did. His steps were slower, more tentative, but as his wagging tail clearly attested, he was on the mend.
Charlie lifted his leg and did his business on the shrub closest to the door.
“Let’s try something,” Gid murmured before saying, “Hey, boy, want a treat?”
The offer didn’t turn Charlie into the whirling dervish of old, but the dog’s triangular ears perked up and Mia swore he grinned.
“I think he’s ready for a meal. I’d recommend giving him something plain to start and not too much.” He handed her the leash.
“Are you hungry?” she asked Gid, her gaze still on the dog.
“That depends.”
She chanced a look at him. “On?”
“Are you asking me to breakfast?”
She moistened her lips. “If I say yes?”
He regarded her for what seemed like ages. “Then I’m starving.”
…
Gid had to close up the clinic before he could get in his Jeep and head to Mia’s house. He almost hoped he would change his mind. He was asking for trouble, spending time with her when she’d already made it clear they had no future together. But he couldn’t stay away. She was like a magnet that way, always drawing him in. When he arrived at her house fifteen minutes later, he knocked rather than just going in as he would have in the past. He heard Charlie barking a moment before Mia opened the door.
Her smile was uncertain and slightly embarrassed as she invited him inside. “I started the coffee already.”
The scent of French roast, which was most welcome after a night of little sleep, greeted them in the kitchen. Gid got two mugs from the cupboard and filled them, adding a dash of creamer to Mia’s, while she puttered in front of the stove, cracking eggs into a pan where butter already had melted.
The silence stretched, broken only by the sound of sizzling eggs and Charlie gobbling up the dry dog food Mia had put in his dish.
“So, when are Marney and Dell back from their honeymoon?” he asked, hoping to end the awkwardness.
“Next week.” Mia nodded in Charlie’s direction. “Despite last night’s excitement, I’m going to miss him.”
“You should get a dog.”
Her expression softened. “You know I would if I were home more.”
“I think Loretta would let you bring one to the shop. She obviously has no problem with Charlie being there.”
“That’s only because he’s Mr. Bonaparte’s dog.” Mia chuckled. Mr. B.’s reputation for both his wealth and his wrath were equally known around town, despite the fact the man himself wasn’t around much. “Besides, she knows it won’t be forever. Once Marney is home, she’ll take Charlie back. If Gabby doesn’t return to town first. She and T.J. are in California right now visiting his office there.”
Gid sipped his coffee. “Well, once you own the shop, you can do as you please.”
“Yes.”
He watched a grin spread across h
er face and doubted she knew she was smiling.
“Has Loretta made any more noise about retiring?”
“Not exactly, but she comes in less and less frequently these days, and she knows I want to buy the business eventually.”
“You finally talked to her?” Before their breakup, Gid had been after Mia to put her cards on the table with her employer and make her desire known.
“More like she talked to me.” The smile turned circumspect. “Apparently I’m not as hard to read as I like to think I am.”
No, Mia wasn’t hard to read. Not since the first time she’d cowered at Gid’s raised voice. She’d been abused, abandoned, let down repeatedly. All of that became abundantly clear both in what she said and what she held back.
But knowing what she was thinking and figuring her out were two different things, as Gid had discovered the hard way. They’d met at the flower shop when he came in to order roses for his mother. Mia had waited on him. He’d flirted with her. She’d flirted back the next several times he made excuses to come in and see her. Finally, he’d asked her out, figuring his interest would cool once they’d slept together. The opposite occurred, surprising them both. It felt right, though, destined in a way no other relationship ever had. He’d settled in, aware of her baggage, even if she’d never shared with him a full account of her childhood. She’d seemed happy if still guarded.
She turned the eggs while he put a couple of slices of bread in the toaster. Then he set the table. They worked in the companionable silence of a couple, even if they no longer were one.
Once they were seated at the table, she said, “I can’t thank you enough for helping Charlie last night.”
Being on call for emergencies was part of his job description but Gid decided not to remind her. Instead, he said, “I’m glad it turned out to be nothing serious.”
“Same here. I feel bad enough as it is. I can’t imagine having to call Marney or Gabby and telling them something had happened to the dog or, worse still, having to call Mr. Bonaparte.”
“These things happen, especially when an animal is in new surroundings. It wasn’t your fault, but you might consider partitioning him off in a safe area the next time you’re out.” He ate a bite of egg. “Speaking of Bonaparte, have you ever met him?”
The Billionaire's Matchmaker: An Indulgence Anthology (Entangled Indulgence) Page 14