Kate beamed. “I know right? How cute is that? We swung by Fur De Leash and I saw it hanging there and it reminded me of Cora Lee’s outfit so I had to have it.”
“You took Cora into the dog place? I said you couldn’t do that.” He backed away, then lurched forward. “Give her to me.” He skirted away from the dog’s face and snatched Cora. “I’m paying you good money to do what I say. No dogs allowed. And she’s not to go back to that place again. Ever! Non-negotiable.”
She held her dog up to her face and frowned. “Inconceivable!”
“What?”
Kate huffed. “I spent all day and night here. I can’t expect Briley to take care of Westley all the time. Besides, he’ll be sad without me and I’ll miss him too much.”
“Briley?”
“My cousin I told you about. She’s the wedding planner. I live with her. Now who has short term memory?” She cuddled the dog to her chest and stroked his head.
“He looks like a pirate.”
“I know, which is why I named him Westley. From the ‘Princess Bride’.”
“Never seen it.”
“You don’t like dogs and you’ve never seen a classic movie. What is wrong with you?” She breezed by Griffin and he did his best not to flinch.
What was wrong with him? He wasn’t the one dressing animals like people. If he made her leave with the dog, that would leave him here with Cora. Alone. And he wasn’t ready for that. She might cry or something.
“You…you can shut him up in the bathroom or the laundry room until you leave. But I’m not having a dog run around my house.” End of story. This should be the one place he was safe. And yeah he could punt that thing over a goal post. He shouldn’t be terrified of a seven pound pooch.
But he was.
She narrowed her eyes and grimaced but she’d do it. He knew she would. The money talked. It always did. “Fine, but if you got to know him…”
“No.”
She growled and stomped into the laundry room. “Sorry, buddy. Mr. Noble is a class-A dog jerk.” She kissed his nose and shut the door. He yipped a few minutes before quieting down. “Happy?”
“I’d be happier if he was never here,” he muttered.
“Why don’t you like dogs?” she asked and opened the oven, pulling out a huge cast iron skillet.
“I just don’t. Where did you get that skillet?”
“You can’t cook properly without cast iron. Especially chicken fried steak. So I brought it back with me.” She brought the food to the table. The settings had already been laid down. “Will you put Cora Lee in her high chair, please? So you know, she loved Westley. She was very gentle with him.”
He’d liked dogs once too. Kate continued to pile food on the table. Fried okra, fried potatoes and onions. “Good night, woman. Is there one thing here that hasn’t been fried?”
“I baked the biscuits and boiled the corn.” She tossed him a smart-alec smile and went to work cleaning up the counters. “This is southern cooking at its finest. Eat it.”
Cora banged on her high chair and tried to grab Griffin’s plate. “Can she eat any of this?”
“No…well maybe a bite of biscuit.” Kate scrubbed the counters a little too hard. Guess she was ticked.
“I’m sorry.”
“For?” She cocked her head.
“Being a class-A dog jerk?” He caught her smirk. He had her. “Come eat.”
She tossed the rag in the sink. Her pony tail was about nonexistent. She had stains all over her oversized T-shirt and her sweet brown eyes looked tired but she was still pretty.
“You gonna let Westley out?” she asked.
“No.” There was no arguing about that.
She sighed dramatically but came and sat beside him, scooping a hefty piece of fried steak onto her plate. “I didn’t make salad. I bet you’re a salad guy. And protein shakes. You have more protein powder than I’ve seen in my life.” She stuck out her tongue and gagged. “But it clearly pays off.” She slid an appreciative glance over him and it shifted something inside.
He focused on his artery clogging cuisine. There went his workout regimen. “You don’t like salad?”
“Lettuce has no flavor. The okra’s green.” She shoved a big bite in her mouth and closed her eyes. “I’m sure your type eats salad, though, and she’d so be missing out.”
Griffin ignored the statement. “I can’t eat this. This is terrible for your body.” He could enjoy watching her eat it though—slightly sensual without meaning to be.
She cut into her fried steak, ran it through the thick white gravy.
“I mean it’s…I—” She shoved the bite of steak in his mouth, gravy dripping off his chin.
“I what?” She studied him.
I’ve died and gone to heaven. Crispy breading, rich spices, pepper. “Concede,” he said through the mouthful and wiped his chin. “Ooooh, Kate.” Workouts be cursed.
She snickered. “Yeah. It’ll do that to ya.”
He cut into his own steak and ate another bite. Sampled the fried okra, potatoes, and biscuit while purposely avoiding her smug smile. This meal was genius. “So what did you two do all day?”
“We played. Read books. Walked in the park. Girl stuff.” She winked. “What did you do all day? Wheel and deal, build buildings…boy stuff?”
He chuckled and snagged another biscuit. This joker wasn’t from a can. “Something like that.”
Most nights he came home stressed to the max and worked it off on the treadmill. Minus the dog freak-show, he was relaxed. He’d still have to hit the treadmill thanks to the dinner. “I worked on the pitch and blue prints for the family-friendly resort contract I’m trying to secure. It’s coming along but I’m not sure it’s perfect. I feel like I’m missing something.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know. I’m second-guessing myself. It’s imperative I get this. My dad is counting on it. It’ll provide a lot of jobs for people.”
“Tell me what you have so far.”
He told her about the resort and his ideas.
“Those are all good. You should add a Saturday Tea for the little girls. They can bring their dolls with them. I used to love Saturday Tea with my Honey.”
“You mean honey in your tea?” A tea party on Saturdays. Not a bad idea.
“No, my Honey is my grandma. She has Saturday teas with a group of women. Me and my sisters used to go. My sisters still do. Floppy hats. Pearls. The real southern deal.”
He chuckled. “Giselle liked tea parties.”
“So do it in her honor. Nothing more family oriented than creating a special day for little girls to celebrate your sister. Open a doll and accessory shop and call it Giselle’s.”
Griffin pushed his plate away, marveling. He choked back the raw emotion. “Giselle would have loved that.” Kate continued with a few more ideas. Brilliant ideas. Why was she wasting her life walking dogs? She could be using that mind in the marketing field or something. “Have you always wanted to be a dog-walker?”
“I do more than that. But no. I was going to go to business school. Open up my own groom shop and kennel service. Dog walking included.”
“Why didn’t you?”
She pushed a few potatoes around her plate. “I did a few online courses after I graduated high school.”
Kate didn’t look like a quitter. She had spunk and fight. “Why didn’t you go the distance?”
She sighed. “I moved here to Chicago.”
Griffin leaned forward on the table. “Why?” The woman fascinated him.
Her cheeks turned pink and she wouldn’t meet his eyes.
“Kate?”
“I was engaged to my high school sweetheart. The plan was for me to work and help put him through vet school, then when he came home and the practice was established, I’d go to school. We’d be debt free.”
Griffin had a sick feeling Kate had pulled the short end of the stick. “What happened?”
She finally looked at
him and shrugged. “It didn’t work out.”
“He pay you back the money you invested in his education?” He couldn’t help the hard tone. What a selfish jerk this guy must have been. The idea wouldn’t have been so bad if he’d have committed to Kate in marriage first, but she’d blindly trusted him and he flew the coop on her.
“Can’t say that he did.” She shrugged again. “What are ya gonna do, right? He’s now running a thriving practice with the woman he dumped me for. In our hometown.” She sighed and wadded up her napkin. “So I left, humiliated and broke. Briley took me in and I got a job at Fur De Leash.”
This ex needed a throat punch. “Do you still want to go to school?”
“I think about it some.”
“You should.” She was smart enough. Behind her shrugs of indifference, he saw it. Her desire to go. To chase her dream.
“Maybe one day.” She blinked a few times. Time hadn’t healed her pain.
“The guy’s an idiot by the way. Did he even know you could cook like this?” he teased hoping to lighten her heavy mood.
She half-smiled. “You want to rethink paying me for dinners?”
He laughed. “How much are you asking?”
“Twenty five hundred?” She crinkled her cute, perky nose.
“A week?”
She coughed. “I was thinking additional. Total. And I was mostly teasing. Are you?”
“Kate. Kate.” He tsked and shook his head. “You should really think bigger. And I never joke about money.” He winked. “Twenty-five hundred. Additional. Done.” Hopefully, she’d use it for business school. If she’d accept, he’d offer right now to pay for it. But she wouldn’t. So he’d have to find another way. Kate was too bright to let some jerk keep her from her dreams of opening her own business—even if it did involve canines.
“You’re nuts.” She grinned. A genuine smile. Good. He liked her smile best.
“So do you regret moving away?” he asked.
“We’re a tight knit family. My mom’s three sisters and brother all stayed in Sweet Gum, and I was raised alongside my cousins as siblings. We had Sunday dinner together, camping trips, Saturday baseball, basketball, and football games. We fished. Went to church together. I’ve always dreamed that one day, I’d get married and raise my family the same way. Alongside my sisters.”
Her life sounded like something out of a book. Like something he’d dreamed of having when he was a kid. The kind of life Cora deserved.
“But you won’t go back because of the ex. So what? Don’t let him rob you of that, Kate.” While he said it, the thought of her moving back to her small town sent a twinge in his chest.
She squawked her sentiment and reached for his plate. He grabbed hers instead. “Sit. Talk. I got this.” He rinsed plates and loaded the dishwasher while she explained why she couldn’t go back home.
She was the oldest girl out of four.
Unmarried. No relationship.
No career.
“Do you know how that would look, Griffin?”
Ah. She cared what people thought about her. He related.
Did she care what the ex thought? The scumbag shouldn’t matter. “How would it look?”
“Like…like I’m nothing without Travis. Like I couldn’t get my life together. I don’t want to come home to all my younger sisters married, getting married, having babies and me still single with no explanation of why. I get sick to death of being hounded about having a man in my life, and being asked when I’m going to find someone and settle down.”
He almost asked the same question. Why wasn’t she involved with someone? Granted her love of dogs was a bit fanatical, and she had a smart mouth ninety percent of the time, but other than that she was pretty, smart, and funny. “Do you date?”
She sighed. “Of course I date. No one’s ever done it for me.”
Was she comparing men to her ex? “Why do you think that is? What’s your perfect man?”
She frowned. “No man is perfect.”
“What’s your type, I mean.”
She folded her arms. “A Christian. Family man. Someone who loves small-town life as much as me. A dog lover.” She pinned him with playful glare. “A man who would…”
Not steal her college money.
“…storm the castle for me. Who could kiss me and make me forget my name.” Her cheeks turned pink and she giggled. “I got carried away.”
“By a man who can really kiss, apparently.” He chuckled. “That’s a lot of pressure to put on one man.”
“What about you?”
“I’d like to remember my name after a kiss.”
She shook her head, grinning. “Why aren’t you married?”
Talking about her was much more entertaining. “I am. To my job.” And he didn’t even come close to her dream man. Not that he wanted to be, but something like a splinter wiggled into his side. He glanced over. Cora had gotten awfully quiet.
She was knocked out in the high chair. He chuckled and motioned Kate. “You wore her out.”
“More like she wore out wearing me out.” She cocked her head. “She really is a beautiful baby, Griffin.”
“She is that.” His stomach clenched.
“I’ll put her to bed and see myself home.”
“Thanks. Take my car. I don’t like you hailing cabs or taking a bus this late.”
“You might need it if—God forbid—an emergency arises. But thanks for the generosity.”
“I didn’t mean the jag. Take the Vanquish.”
She dropped her jaw. “Uh…no.”
“I trust you, Kate.” More than he trusted anyone and in such a short time. Felt like he’d known her forever.
“I don’t trust me. If I get a scratch—”
“I’ll have it buffed out. Take the car. Non-negotiable.”
She lifted Cora from the high chair. “Fine. But if feels weird.”
“Living with me feels weird. Driving my car feels weird…” he teased. Oddly, none of that felt weird to him.
Emma Kate wanted her bed, to snuggle with Westley and grab a few hours of precious sleep. Griffin’s car smelled like leather and him—sandalwood, balsam, something sleek and elegantly masculine. Maybe she’d sleep in the car tonight.
Their earlier conversation had brought back all her old dreams. Could she go back home, go back to school and open up her own business? Griffin seemed to think so and the encouragement warmed her heart.
Briley had mentioned returning to school a few times, but Emma Kate always had an excuse. Now that she was coming into a lot of money the possibility was tangible. If she could get past the humiliation that still haunted her.
She parked on the street and prayed nothing happened to Griffin’s car. The man had given her the keys to his home, his car. Good heavens. He had a lot of faith in her. She hauled it upstairs to her apartment. After a shower, she slipped into bed and drifted to sleep.
The phone woke her up.
Griffin.
Two a.m.
Seriously? She answered. “What’s going on?”
“She’s crying.”
“So make her the bottle on the kitchen counter. Add the eight ounces of water, shake it real good, and put her back to sleep. Also, you may need to change her diaper.”
“I did all of that, Kate. The whole front to back wipe thing for girls and everything.”
She held in a laugh. “What are you doing right now? You’re not letting her cry while you talk to me are you?”
Silence.
“Go get her! She might be afraid. It’s a new environment. I’m on my way.”
“Thank you, Kate. Thank you!” He hung up.
She groaned and threw on some clothes. Twenty minutes later she used the key he’d given her and stepped inside.
Griffin stood wide eyed, a bottle in Cora Lee’s mouth. She gazed up at him while grasping his fingers that held the bottle. Emma Kate melted a little. “See,” she whispered, “you got this.”
“I figu
red maybe she was still hungry.”
Bless him.
Emma Kate cut the lights and switched on a lamp. “Low light. Maybe she’ll drift back to sleep.”
“You want to finish this bottle?”
“Nope. You have to get used to this, unless the permanent nanny is going to live here? Is she?”
“No one is living here.”
Emma Kate studied them together. Once he realized this was his new normal, things would get easier. She had a month to help prep him and surely whoever came next would slip into the routine.
He cuddled Cora Lee up against him and finished feeding her while Emma Kate sat on the couch scrolling through her phone. When the bottle was empty he held it up. “She’s not asleep.”
Emma Kate hated to put her back in her play pen. Didn’t want to put her in the crib to cry it out. Everything was too new for the baby. “Well, so much for sleep.” She took her from Griffin and placed her in the new swing. “Okay, Miss Cora Lee, let’s see how you like your new swing.” She turned it on and tiny butterflies lit up and danced above her. Cora Lee reached for them and squealed.
“Success!”
Griffin nodded. “Well, I’m going to bed.”
“What?”
“You’re the nanny. I have a seven a.m. breakfast with our architects. So I have to sleep at least three hours.”
She was being paid twenty grand. For a week. “Okay. Take the monitor. Once I put her down, I’m going home. Even for two hours.”
“Fair enough. Night, Kate.” He bounded up the stairs, leaving her, Cora Lee, and the empty bottle and wet diaper alone in the living room. Twenty grand she repeated.
She called Briley to let her know she wasn’t home.
“Emma Kate,” Briley answered. “You okay?”
“Yes, I wanted to fill you in on my day and let you know why I’m not at home.”
“You’re not home?” A door opening sounded. “Why aren’t you here? Mr. Money need you again?”
“Yes, and for twenty large I’m not going to complain.”
“I hear that. Emma Kate, have you thought about what you’ll do with that kind of money? You could go back to business school, or open up your own pet business. I bet we could find some great rental space.”
Love at First Laugh: Eight Romantic Novellas Filled with Love, Laughter, and Happily Ever After Page 41