Puppy Kisses

by Lucy Gilmore

  Dawn pulled the car up the crunching gravel drive to the ranch and slowed to a stop. “Well, I guess that’s as close to a deal as we’re going to get, isn’t it?” she said. “I’m on basement and Uncle training duty. You can keep shamelessly spoiling Gigi, because that is literally what you’re doing by letting her sneak onto your lap like that. Between the pair of us, we’ll wrest that land out of Bea’s hands and keep the Smithwoods from regaining their familial stronghold. If that’s not the plot for one of my Aunt Nessa’s favorite telenovelas, I don’t know what is.”

  “My life was perfectly ordinary last month.” Adam felt compelled to protest. It was a feeble protest, though, since the golden retriever had rolled onto her back again in a shameless bid for tummy tickles. “Then you introduced this girl into my life and, well…”

  He didn’t dare finish that statement. Dawn had introduced Gigi into his life and, well, he’d fallen in love. He had the feeling that when it came to this particular woman, love was the worst possible thing to admit.

  Chapter 9

  “Uh, Dawn? Is there any chance you’ve been seeing another cult leader?”

  Dawn glanced over at Sophie, who sat in the passenger seat of her car with a takeout pizza balanced on her lap. She’d managed to convince her sister to spend the evening at the kennel with her…though, honestly, that was never a difficult task where promises of hot food and melted cheese were concerned.

  “Not to my knowledge, no,” Dawn said. “But you can’t always tell if someone is a cult leader right away. They’re very charismatic, you know. That’s how they lure people in.”

  The response had been meant as a joke—the only way to respond when someone who shared your blood knew all of your darkest dating secrets—but Sophie’s expression grew thoughtful. “Huh. I guess I never thought of it that way.”

  Most people didn’t. That was the one benefit of experience as vast and scattered as hers. You learned that charisma wasn’t a trustworthy trait and sisters rarely said what they were really thinking.

  Dawn decided to save Sophie the trouble. “Besides, you know very well that I’ve been sleeping with Adam Dearborn. There’s no way Lila didn’t call you the second she got off the phone with me the other day.” She poked her sister in the arm. “Admit it. You guys gossiped about it for hours.”

  “Not hours,” Sophie admitted, her brow lightening a little. “It was twenty minutes at the most. Unless you count the ten minutes after that spent trying to finding a picture of him online.”

  That made Dawn laugh. It was no less than what she would have done in similar circumstances—had done countless times before, in fact. She was quite good at Google stalking her sisters’ former beaux.

  “And did you?” she asked.

  “Yes. His brother and sister both have public Facebook profiles. Adam appeared in a few of the pictures they’d posted. He’s very, um, nice-looking.”

  Nice-looking was one way to put it. Dawn would have said something more along the lines of stern, striking, or sexy as all hell…but some things didn’t need to be explained.

  “Okay, but if you aren’t dating a cult leader, have you broken any federal laws lately?” Sophie cast an anxious look into the rearview mirror. “This is going to sound silly, but I could almost swear we’re being followed.”

  “Oh balls,” Dawn said, choosing a milder oath than she normally would have. She didn’t want to send Sophie—or that hot pizza—into a flutter. “Is it a big truck that was once blue but is now mostly rust? Looks like it probably has Confederate flag stickers in the back window and a pair of fake testicles dangling from the hitch?”

  Sophie peered closer at the mirror. “Yeah, that sounds about right. Friend of yours?”

  “I wouldn’t exactly call him a friend. He’s the guy I stole Gigi from.”

  “Dawn!” Sophie’s eyes widened.

  “I know. But he can’t go very fast in that thing. I’ve already outrun him twice. Well, Zeke did it the first time, but you know what I mean.” She made a quick survey of the highway before stepping down on the gas. “Sorry, Soph. This might not be very fun for you.”

  “But it is fun for you?”

  Dawn laughed, though the sound was shaky around the edges. This wasn’t the same part of the highway where No-Pants had followed her before, which was a worrisome development. Either he was covering more extensive ground in his search, or he was learning which routes she was most likely to be on. She couldn’t decide which option was worse.

  “I’ll head in the direction of the sheriff’s office. He won’t follow me there.” She paused, thinking of the audacity of a man who’d chase a woman in the broad light of day, and amended her statement. “Well, he might follow me there, but he won’t kill me there. At least, I hope not. Cult leaders I’m familiar with, but rural psychopaths are a new one for me.”

  Sophie offered the shaky laugh this time. “I don’t know why I find that comforting, but I do.”

  “It’s because it shows how resourceful I am,” Dawn said with confidence she was far from feeling. “This isn’t my first time running away from an angry man, and I’m sure it won’t be my last.”

  Concentrating on the road took up most of her energy, so she didn’t spend too much time chatting with Sophie after that. Fortunately, it was a sunny and clear Saturday afternoon, which meant there were lots of families heading out to enjoy the weather. No-Pants might be scary, what with the way he was gunning his engine at her and weaving on and off the graveled edge of the road, but she wasn’t the only one who objected to his style of driving. Several cars honked warnings at him, and one oversized SUV even moved to the middle of the highway to prevent him from passing.

  “God bless giant cars and the people who drive them,” Dawn said as No-Pants got caught behind a truck with wheels so big they belonged on a semi. She caught sight of an opening in the passing lane and zipped neatly toward it. She had to push her car up past eighty, but she managed to put several car lengths behind them. Either No-Pants gave up after that, or his truck decided it could no longer maintain such high speeds, because he dropped from sight.

  Dawn waited only until she was sure he was gone before she let up on the gas. “One of these days, No-Pants is going to learn that I don’t give in that easily.”

  “No-Pants? His name is No-Pants?”

  “Technically, I’ve been calling him No-Pants Shotgun, but I didn’t want to scare you with that last bit.”

  Dawn glanced over to make sure Sophie wasn’t going to fall into a maidenly swoon. Far from showing signs of collapse, her younger sister was sitting bolt upright in her seat, her hands clutching the pizza as though she were prepared to hit someone over the head with it.

  “And he’s really done this more than once? Chased you down? Tried to run you off the road?”

  “I mean, he’s never gotten close enough to do more than alarm me, but yes. I’m not sure what his endgame is. Does he think I have Gigi in the car with me at all times? Or that I’d let him come within five feet of her after what he did?”

  “That miserable rat bastard.”

  Dawn blinked at her sister’s vehemence. “Thanks, Soph. I’m glad you’re on my side.”

  “How dare he try to scare you?”

  “I know, right?”

  “Who does he think he is, coming after my big sister like that?”

  Dawn chuckled and laid a restraining hand on Sophie’s leg. She doubted No-Pants would look at the five-foot-two woman and feel a qualm of fear, but he should. No one was more terrifying once she put her mind to something—Sophie was the fiercest, most tenacious person Dawn knew.

  “Easy there, tiger. He’s not worth the energy. There are much worse bad guys out there.”

  As before, the adrenaline of the chase had given way to a shakier, less exciting sensation that left Dawn feeling drained. Drained and guilty. It was one thing to emb
roil Zeke in the theft of Gigi, since he’d known what he was getting into ahead of time and had the kind of physique that would cause a man like No-Pants to think twice before confronting him. Sophie, however, hadn’t asked for any of this.

  “Look, Soph,” Dawn began, choosing her words carefully. “I never would have invited you to come with me if I’d have known No-Pants might show up. I mean, I should have considered the possibility, obviously, but, well…”

  There was no good way to put it. She hadn’t been thinking. In true Dawn Vasquez style, she’d barreled into action without considering all the repercussions first.

  “Don’t worry. I won’t tell Lila.” Sophie made the motion of a zipper over her lips. “It’ll be our little secret. Just you and me and this stuffed crust with double pepperoni. And this guy will soon be in our bellies, so he barely counts.”

  “That’s not what I was going to say! I don’t care if Lila knows about that part.” She considered her older sister’s displeasure and winced. “To be fair, it’s probably better if we downplay the danger factor an eensy-weensy bit, but that’s not what I’m worried about.”

  “Oh?”

  Dawn struggled to find a way to put her feelings into words. She’d never been the sort of woman to regret her mistakes or even to worry too much about making them in the first place. Part of being alive was just that—being alive. Puppies needed to be saved sometimes. So did lonely old women who lived alone in ramshackle farmhouses. Not to mention tall, gorgeous cowboy types with the most magical hands known to mankind.

  It was just that for once, it would have been nice to not have to defend herself—not to Lila or to Sophie, not to Bea or to Adam. For once, she wanted someone to take in all the parts of her—the good and the bad, the recklessness and the honorable intentions behind it—and say, “You know what? This is exactly what I want.”

  She must have taken too long to answer because a sympathetic smile crossed Sophie’s face. “Poor Dawn.”

  “Poor Dawn?” she echoed. “What are you talking about? I’m the one leading you on a dangerous car chase, not the other way around.”

  “It’s making you crazy, isn’t it, being cooped up in that house all day?”

  It was on the tip of Dawn’s tongue to tell her sister that she wasn’t cooped up in the Dearborn house all day—that life on a working ranch was turning out to be exactly the constant whirl of activity and adventure she craved—but Sophie’s voice softened. “It wasn’t very nice of us to abandon you to the sole care of the kennel, was it? Of all of us, you’re the last one anyone expected to stick around holding the mop bucket.”

  Dawn turned off on the road that would lead them back to Spokane, her attention on the asphalt leading off in the distance. It had to be. Otherwise, she’d be forced to give Sophie her full focus, and there was nothing she wanted less right now.

  “You know I don’t mind being in charge of the kennel,” Dawn said. “I like the puppies. I like that they need me.”

  “Yes, but you also like being able to come and go at your leisure—and don’t sit all stiff like that. It’s not a judgment. Anyone would.” Sophie paused in a considering way. “Mom was saying something along those lines just the other day. Do you know, this is the longest you’ve ever lived in one place?”

  “Oh, great. Mom is keeping track of me now?”

  Sophie laughed. “I’m pretty sure she has records of everything you’ve ever said or done. She has one for each of us. It makes her happy. It’s the longest you’ve gone without one of your emergency dating texts, too, in case you’re wondering.”

  Dawn glanced over at her sister so quickly that the car gave a lurch.

  That just made Sophie laugh more. “Oh, don’t worry. Mom doesn’t keep track of those.”

  “But you do?”

  “Not officially, no,” Sophie said. “But I used to get one of those texts at least once a month, if not once a week. You haven’t been going out.”

  They’d reached a red light by then, so Dawn had nothing to distract her except the tap of her fingers on the steering wheel. “I go out,” she protested.

  “I’m sure you do. What I mean is, you’re not going out with the kind of men who require your sister to come up with a last-minute emergency so you can make a safe escape.” Sophie sighed playfully. “I miss them. I was getting really good at coming up with new ones. The next one was going to be an outbreak of listeria. Harrison and I watched an exposé a few months ago. It’s scary, how often people get poisoned from restaurants that way. Most of the time, you don’t even know that’s what caused it.”

  “Soph, it’s not like that. I—”

  Sophie reached over and put a hand on Dawn’s leg. Her palm was warm from where it had been holding the pizza. It was weirdly comforting, that residual heat, a mixture of pepperoni and sisterly love. “It’s that Adam guy, isn’t it?”

  Dawn stared at the red light, trying her best not to cause her sister unnecessary worry. Part of it was a lingering habit from childhood, when it had been their family’s sole mission to save Sophie from any and all pain. The leukemia Sophie had battled for most of her youth had been more than enough for her to bear already.

  But it was more than that, too. The truth was, there was nothing to worry about. Dawn was doing the same thing she’d always done—seeing a man she liked, sleeping with him when the mood struck, enjoying the fun and flirtation that came with it. This was no different than dating the cult leader or the quasi-FBI agent or any of the other men who’d caught her fancy over the years.

  Except it was different. She didn’t know how or why, but this thing she had with Adam was unlike anything she’d experienced before—and had been from the start. There’d been no expensive dates or hours of clubbing. No drunken public sexcapades or late nights of partying. Not even a fake FBI job or a circus ring hiding in the background.

  There’d been only him: Adam Dearborn, solid and stalwart, honest and real. He was the first man to offer her that—not some flashy lifestyle designed to charm her out of her panties, but just himself.

  “He’s the one you can’t win over with a laugh and a smile, isn’t he?” Sophie prodded softly.

  Dawn took Sophie’s hand and didn’t let go, clutching those fingers with a grip that felt strangely unlike her.

  “You really can’t tell Lila about this,” she said. “Promise me. I don’t care if you divulge every detail of the No-Pants road chase, but I need you to keep this one between you and me. Please.”

  Sophie returned the press of her fingers. “Of course.”

  And that was it. She didn’t ask any prying questions, the way Lila would have, and she didn’t crack any hot cowboy jokes, the way Dawn herself would have. The one thing Sophie had always been great at was her quiet, unassuming strength.

  “Just remember that I’m here to talk if you ever need to, okay?”

  “There’s nothing to talk about,” Dawn said with stark truthfulness. “It’s exactly the way you guessed. We’re sleeping together. It’s fun. That’s all there is to it—and it’s probably all there will ever be.”

  Sophie must have sensed that Dawn had reached her limit of openhearted girl chat, because she released her hand and placed it reverentially on top of the pizza box. “If that’s the case, then we need to get somewhere where this pizza and I can get better acquainted. When Harrison’s out of the house, there’s no one to cook for me. I’m starving.”

  That was all Dawn needed to hear to set her foot heavily on the gas pedal. She might not be any closer to deciding what she planned to do regarding No-Pants Shotgun or Adam Dearborn, but she was close to dinner.

  For now, that had to be enough.

  Chapter 10

  “Today is harness training day,” Dawn announced as she entered the kitchen. She spoke with the air of one carrying an executioner’s ax over her shoulder and a golden retriever puppy in her arms.
“You know what that means… It’s also Adam-has-to-go-with-me-into-town day.”

  “I can’t. The irrigation system on the south field is having problems.” Adam held out the coffee mug he’d just finished filling, keeping it there until Dawn took it with a murmur of thanks. Like him, she took her coffee black. No muss, no fuss—all she asked was that it was hot. He reached for a second cup and began pouring himself one.

  “No, it’s not.” Zeke took the coffee from his hand before Adam had a chance to finish pouring. “I took a look at it this morning. The pressure tank was off, but I added some air. It’s working just fine now. Ugh. Didn’t you use the flavored kind?”

  “Of course not. I’m not a heathen.” Adam paused before filling a third cup of coffee. “And what do you mean, you took a look at it this morning? It is morning.”

  He knew before Phoebe plucked the last cup from his hand that there was no way he was going to be able to enjoy this pot of coffee in peace. His siblings were merciless. Didn’t they realize how little sleep he’d gotten last night, staying up well past his bedtime listening to American Horror Story?

  Dawn hadn’t been kidding about that show. It was terrifying. He was pretty sure there was a ghost in his basement now.

  “He means that we were up before the sun, doing every possible chore that might be on your list today,” Phoebe said. “So there’s no excuse.”

  “No excuse for what?” The pot in his hand sloshed with the tiny bit of coffee left. He’d have to make do with the dregs. “Harness training can’t possibly take all day.”

  “It can and does take weeks, actually,” Dawn said. “But I think they’re referring to Zeke’s race.”

  Oh. Oh. “Shit, Zeke. I forgot. The Trailblazer Tri, right?”

  His brother shifted slightly, the rustle of his athletic pants carrying new meaning now that Adam remembered what day it was. His brother had been competing in the triathlon around nearby Medical Lake for years—and he usually won. It wasn’t a very big race, and it didn’t come with any prize money, but Zeke entering it had become something of a tradition.