Puppy Kisses

by Lucy Gilmore

  She dropped a hand to the puppy’s head and ran her fingers over her silken ears.

  “Then tell us,” Lila said. “Please.”

  If that one word wasn’t persuasive enough, Sophie only added fuel to the fire. “I can’t think of a single time in my life when you didn’t give up everything to come running to my aid. No matter what you had going on in your life, no matter what you had going on in here.” She leaned across the table and tapped her temple. “Won’t you tell us what’s going on? Just this once?”

  There were lots of ways Dawn could have fulfilled Sophie’s request. Adam Dearborn was one of the things going on, taking up way more room in her heart than she appeared to be taking in his. Bea Benson was there, too, all her grumbling and cackling intended to hide how lonely she was. Then there was Zeke and his inability to talk to his brother about how much he hated the ranch; Gigi and the fact that it was wrong to take her away from Uncle, even if Adam didn’t want her anymore; even the puppies at the kennel, who would soon find much more joy in the company of a little girl than they’d ever found with her.

  But of all those things, the person who loomed largest and took up the most space was herself.

  “It’s easier to deal with other people’s problems than it is to deal with my own,” she said. There. It was out now—the dark truth, the deep secret behind it all. “A smile, a laugh, a party, a mad plan to steal a puppy—I know how to fix things. I’m good at fixing things. Sometimes it’s pictures of a quarterback’s abs; sometimes it’s a flourless chocolate cake and a case of wine. In fact, when Sophie needed help figuring out how to break down Harrison’s walls, I knew just what to do. Remember?”

  Sophie tilted her head thoughtfully, the sway of one dangling earring touching her shoulder. “Show a little skin, drive him a little crazy. Of course I remember.”

  Dawn’s lips lifted in a slight smile. That had been a fun problem to fix. Sophie had been able to get that man eating out of the palm of her hand within days. “And when Lila was trying to figure out what to do about Ford, it was easy for me to jump in and help with that, too,” she added.

  “Dressing me up as a princess and spinning plates like a circus clown. Emily still talks about that. She thinks you’re the most talented person in the world. Come to think of it, I do too.” Despite the laughter in her voice, Lila’s brows came down in a tight line over her eyes. “So what’s wrong? You don’t know how to fix your own problem?”

  Oh, she knew how to fix it, all right. Re-creating the poker game that had gotten Dearborn Ranch started was just the kind of far-fetched plot Dawn specialized in. It was unexpected and ridiculous and would most likely end in tears, laughter, or explosive bursts of anger—just as all her plots did.

  “I do have an idea,” she admitted. Gigi decided that a head on the knee wasn’t enough comfort, so she pawed at Dawn until she gave in and lifted the puppy to her lap. “And it’s right up there with partial nudity and princess role-play. But…”

  Her sisters watched her without blinking or breathing, the air of expectation heavy enough to touch. There was nothing Dawn could do with it except reach out and grab with both hands.

  “But I’m terrified of what will happen if it doesn’t work,” she said. The words came out so rushed and soft, it was a wonder they heard her. But the looks of wide-eyed sympathy from both told her there would be no turning back now. She’d cracked open the deepest recesses of her heart, and there would be no shoving everything back inside again. “I’ve come up with a way to make Adam face me, but I’m afraid he might not want me. It might not be enough. I might not be enough. What happens if I put myself—the real myself—out there, and he says no?”

  She pulled her lower lip between her teeth and held on to Gigi as if she’d never held on to a puppy before. Of everyone at this table, Gigi alone knew what it meant to be rejected by Adam Dearborn, to give one hundred percent of herself to that man and have the door slammed in her face because of it.

  “Then you figure out a way to live without him,” Lila said as though it were the easiest thing in the world. Considering how happy she was with her own soul mate, the response seemed a little callous. “Your heart breaks and your world falls apart, and it sucks more than anything has ever sucked before. Maybe you grow old and bitter and lonely because of it, or maybe you reinvent yourself by scaling mountains or opening a great essential-oil scented-candle shop on the beach.”

  “I would absolutely invest in your essential-oil scented-candle shop on the beach,” Sophie promised.

  Dawn knew she was supposed to laugh and accept this gesture in the same vein it was being offered—cheerfully and without tears—but her stupid eyeballs weren’t paying attention. A hot stinging behind her eyes made her hug Gigi even tighter.

  “But I don’t want to open a candle shop,” she said, her voice thick.

  Lila had the audacity to smile at this. To smile. “Then don’t. It was only a suggestion. All I meant was that whatever happens, you’re still going to be you. Beautiful, talented, generous, fun, resourceful, adventurous—”

  “Don’t forget softhearted,” Sophie interjected. She started to smile, too. Dawn had never felt so betrayed in all her life. How dare they look so ridiculously gleeful at the thought of her heart being crushed in one of Adam’s large, work-worn hands?

  “Definitely softhearted,” Lila said. “Dawn, please don’t cry. Or do, actually. Open those tear ducts and let it all come pouring out. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you cry before. Not even when we watch Legends of the Fall, and that movie makes me sob for days afterward.”

  “Even thinking about it is making me misty,” Sophie agreed.

  The waitress stopped by with their food before either of them could say more. Dawn had never been so happy to see a cheeseburger and fries in her life, and there had been times when months of no-carb dieting made for some serious competition.

  Unfortunately, the waitress was one they knew well. They’d even thrown her a baby shower a few months back when her sister had been stuck in a layover from hell and couldn’t make it in time to get everything set up.

  “Uh-oh,” she said, whisking the tray of food up out of their reach before Dawn could touch so much as the parsley decorating the plate. “I can see that there’s some serious girl talk happening here. Want me to put this under the heater until you’re ready?”

  “Yes, please,” Sophie and Lila said in unison.

  “Don’t you dare,” Dawn warned. “They’re ganging up on me. I need sustenance.”

  “Five minutes should do it,” Lila said without regard for either Dawn’s feelings or her stomach. Her air of authority was such that the waitress took her word as law. “We’re just trying to convince Dawn that she’s the most amazing person in the world.”

  The waitress blinked down at Dawn. “You mean she doesn’t know it already? Damn, honey. And here I thought you had all your shit figured out. If you’re having doubts, then what are the rest of us supposed to do?”

  “See?” Sophie demanded as the waitress whisked herself off—and took all their food with her. “Even Wendy knows what you’re worth, and she’s seen you pick lettuce out of your teeth and eat cookies that have fallen on the floor.”

  “I only did that one time, and it was the macadamia-nut kind!” Dawn’s protest was offered through a haze of half-shed tears and a bubbling laugh that was building up in the back of her throat. It was too much—an emotional confrontation in the middle of Maple Street Grill during a dinner rush, her sisters cracking jokes about floor cookies, a puppy trying to lick her ear, the waitress stealing her food and holding it for ransom. Didn’t they know she was supposed to be miserable over here? “And I don’t see what that has to do with anything. We’re supposed to be talking about my future life’s happiness.”

  Lila extended her arms over the top of the table and held them there until Dawn placed Gigi in them. The puppy h
ad no problem with this high-handed approach to her care. In fact, she made a quick dive for the cracker packets on the side of the table, sending an accusing look at Dawn when Sophie swooped them out of her reach at the last second.

  “We are talking about your future life’s happiness,” Lila said. “Look—you’re laughing.”

  “I am not. I’m crying.” She yanked a cracker packet out of Sophie’s hands. “And I’m hungry.”

  “You’re also getting a taste of your own medicine for once,” Sophie pointed out. “It’s not so easy, is it? Being forced to laugh when you feel like crying? Being surrounded by sisters who know how to make you smile even when you’re breaking apart inside?”

  “I don’t do that.”

  “You always do that,” Sophie said. “You always have. No matter how dark things get for us, no matter how fast the world is slipping out of control, you’ve always been ready to lift us back up again. God, I used to curse you something fierce for it. There’s nothing worse than someone who denies you a really good wallow.”

  It was enough to set Dawn cry-laughing again, but Lila had more to heap on top of Sophie’s words. “Does Adam love you? I don’t know. I’ve never met the man. Is he going to break your heart? Maybe. Men do that sometimes. But we’ll be here, Dawn, no matter what and for as long as you need us.”

  “That’s why we know you’ll be okay,” Sophie added, her eyes crinkling around the edges. “We won’t let you be anything else.”

  As if on cue, Wendy swooped back in with the tray and their plates of food. The parsley was a little wilted from the heat, and the cheese on her burger was starting to curdle at the edges, but Dawn didn’t care. She’d never seen anything so wonderful—and not just because she was starving. Those three plates—plus the small breast of chicken for Gigi—represented the Vasquez sisters at their best. Eating food they didn’t cook themselves, chatting over their woes and pleasures, figuring out what was next in the life they all shared.

  Laughing. Crying. Sometimes both at once.

  “Now.” Lila leaned across the table and stole one of Dawn’s fries. “Tell us about this plan. I don’t know about Sophie, but I’m ready to meet this cowboy of yours.”

  Sophie—small and petite and looking more ferocious than Dawn had ever seen her—added, “And if he doesn’t know how good he’s got it, I’ll personally kick his ass.”

  Chapter 16

  “Adam, we’re not asking you to join us on a trip around the world. It’s one night, for crying out loud.” Phoebe’s voice was filled with impatience, the tap of her foot keeping a steady beat from the hallway. Adam had hoped, with his door shut and a pair of headphones on, that his siblings would take the hint and go away.

  They hadn’t.

  “I can’t,” he said as he pressed Pause on the audiobook he was listening to. It was a thriller—dark and twisty and perfectly suited to his mood—but he’d already figured out who the bad guy was.

  The older brother, naturally. The one who’d spent his whole life taking care of an ungrateful family.

  “Why not?”

  He racked his brains trying to think of a reasonable excuse. For the first time, he regretted that he didn’t have more of a social life. It was impossible to pretend he had a prior engagement. No one knew better than Phoebe and Zeke what a lie that was.

  “Uncle is sick” was the best he could come up with. It had the benefit of being a believable lie, considering how heavy and morose the puppy felt on top of his feet. It was the exact location where Gigi used to sleep. Uncle had been cruising all her favorite spots over the past few days, holding on to her scent for as long as he could.

  “Uncle isn’t sick; he’s sad,” Phoebe countered with alarming accuracy. “You gave away the love of his life. He needs an evening out as much as you do.”

  “No one needs an evening out as much as Adam,” Zeke muttered. Adam wasn’t sure if he was supposed to have heard that, because his brother raised his voice and added, “Bea promised to make it worth our while, so you might as well suck it up and come. She hinted that there might be some papers to look over.”

  For the first time in days, Adam’s interest perked. He’d been living in daily expectation of hearing the news that Dawn had purchased Bea’s property and planned on installing herself next to him for the rest of her life. The prospect both thrilled and terrified him, and not just because of what it would mean for his expansion plans.

  A lifetime of Dawn was everything he wanted—and exactly what he’d been trying to avoid in the first place.

  “Papers?” he asked. “But I thought we gave up on that plan.”

  Phoebe laughed and pushed open the door, unwilling to leave him to his privacy any longer. “You gave up on it, not me. There’s still a chance we can beat the Smithwoods at their own game. We might as well take her that coconut cream pie you made yesterday and see if it doesn’t do the final trick.”

  “How do I know this isn’t a plot to lure me out of the house?”

  Phoebe’s response to this was to yank the phone out of his hand and toss it aside. She grabbed one of his hands and pulled, helped along by Zeke, who took hold of the other one and did the same. Decades of ranch work made them both far too strong to resist.

  “You don’t,” Phoebe answered as they hoisted him up off the bed. Uncle went too, leaping up and stationing himself at attention. Despite his morose state, he was too much like Adam to let anything stand in the way of what needed to be done. “But you also don’t know if we’re telling the truth—and the only way you’re going to find out is if you come with us.”

  He wanted to ask if Dawn would be there so he could prepare himself, steeling his heart against the pain that would inevitably accompany such a meeting. But he couldn’t. To do so would be to admit out loud just how deeply he’d fallen in love with her.

  “Fine,” he said, resigned to his fate and the fact that he was going to eventually have to get used to this new relationship with Dawn. Things might have ended between them, but she was still Zeke’s friend, and there was still technically about a week of puppy training left to do. There would be meetings and chance run-ins, the occasional moment when they were left in a room alone together. The bandage would have to be ripped off and the wound cauterized with burning steel sooner or later. “But I’d better come home with a hundred acres in my pocket, or I’m holding you both accountable.”

  * * *

  Adam realized something was off the moment he walked through Bea Benson’s front door.

  For starters, the air hung heavily with the scent of expensive cigars and Dawn’s nonsmell. If someone had offered him a million dollars to explain how a room could smell like both smoke and nothing, he’d have walked away without a penny more to his name. But there it was—and so was she. It was almost as though Dawn moved through a bubble of her own making, a force field against the things that normal people dealt with on a daily basis.

  There was none of the house’s usual mustiness or the stifling feeling of being closed off, either. As Adam walked through the front door, he expected to find the same side table on his right that had been there the last time.

  It was gone. As he made further explorations under Uncle’s gentle guidance, he discovered that so were the couch, the overstuffed chair by the fireplace, and the stack of old newspapers that had contributed so strongly to the smell.

  She’s done it.

  That was the only thought to leap to Adam’s mind, the only explanation that made sense. Dawn had found the papers and convinced Bea to move. This was a house being emptied for its new tenant.

  “Uncanny, isn’t it?” The sarcastic male voice that sounded at Adam’s elbow caused him to jerk. Poor Uncle grunted as Adam gave the harness a hard yank. “I did the same thing when I got here. I have no idea what your girlfriend did to Bea, but the house looks amazing.”

  “She’s not my girlfrien
d,” Adam said. It was a stupid thing to say in light of everything else, but it was the only thing he could think of when hit from the side by Charlie Smithwood. A Charlie Smithwood who, it seemed, had deeper powers of perception than he’d ever given him credit for. In an attempt at recovery, he added, “What are you doing here, anyway?”

  “They didn’t tell you?” The sarcasm in Charlie’s voice was replaced by genuine amusement. “I should have guessed. I thought it was odd that you’d have agreed to this.”

  It was on the tip of Adam’s tongue to demand an explanation, but he held himself stiff. As much as he disliked not knowing what was going on, he disliked even more to be at a disadvantage.

  A thing his siblings knew full well. A thing Dawn knew full well.

  “Cigar?” asked a voice at his other side. It was feminine and familiar in a distant way—almost as though he remembered it from a dream. “I also have every kind of whiskey known to mankind, actual legitimate moonshine, and butterscotch schnapps.” There was a slightly breathless pause full of withheld laughter. “Dawn warned me about your deplorable taste, so I promise not to judge you for that last one. I swiped a swig earlier. It’s not the worst thing I ever tasted, but I wouldn’t want to wake up to a hangover full of that stuff.”

  Recognition clicked almost at once. “You’re Sophie.”

  “And you’re Adam. Well? What’ll it be?”

  “He’s going to pretend to consider it for twenty seconds and then get the schnapps.” Phoebe’s voice was just as amused as Sophie’s—a thing that was seriously starting to get on his nerves. Was everyone in on this weird party except him? “Here, Adam. You’d better give me Uncle. Gigi is out back, and she’s getting frantic about being here without him.”

  He handed over the harness without question. “Gigi’s here?”

  “Yes,” Sophie answered as she placed a glass in his hand. The ice tinkled and sent up a waft of butterscotch. “In addition to Charlie, so are both my sisters, your brother, a nice veterinarian named Marcia, and the grumpy old lady who owns this place. It should be a lot of fun.”