CHAPTER THREE
FISTS CURLING, SHOHN got furious all over again. If Bob hadn’t mellowed into a decent enough guy he’d be tempted to go whip his ass all over again.
Amber deliberately elbowed him as she walked past with the box, saying, “Nadine is the one.”
The one what? He snatched up a box and her suitcase and followed her to the porch. “So you like her?”
“A lot. She’s supersmart and really compassionate.” Using her foot, Amber got the door open, and then suddenly Morgan was there.
“Give me that.” He took the box from her, bent to kiss her forehead and said, “Your mom is waiting in the kitchen with pie and coffee.”
“Love you, Dad,” Amber said sweetly.
Shohn shook his head. Only with Morgan was Amber ever that sugary. “Move so I can set this stuff down.”
She did, but because Morgan had only gone as far as the living room, she leaned in again to whisper, “Go after her, Shohn. You’ll regret it if you don’t.”
“How?” he whispered back while keeping an eye on his uncle. “She wasn’t exactly receptive.”
“Well, duh. She knows your rep, whether she buys into it or not, and as I already said, she’s not a dummy.”
Done with being insulted, Shohn turned to go. “A lot of help you are.”
She followed him out. “Get a dog.”
He stopped midstep. That was…ingenious. “Yeah.” He nodded while thinking it through. “I could do that.” Hell, he loved animals. Most everyone in the family had pets. And he could use the excuse of having Nadine watch the dog for him when he worked. She wasn’t overly expensive, dogs loved her and then he’d have a reason to visit her.
Often.
“This is why you come to me,” Amber announced with great fanfare. “Go to the shelter. There are a lot of dogs there looking for a home.”
He saluted her, and now, with a plan in mind, he felt better. Less unsettled. Tomorrow, on his way to work, he’d get a dog. Something easy and friendly. A mature dog that wouldn’t need to be trained.
Then he’d have all the reason in the world to hang around Nadine, and maybe, just maybe, he’d be able to figure out what it was about her that suddenly pushed all the right buttons.
* * *
IT WAS JUST after 9:00 a.m., but the sun blazed in a bright blue sky, promising a scorcher. Suffocating humidity left the air dense, but Fred had mowed the yard an hour earlier and the freshly cut grass smelled oh-so-sweet.
As she did every morning, Nadine faced the new day with a sense of promise, never mind the sleepless night spent mooning over Shohn Hudson.
For years, she’d done her best to block him from her thoughts. She was a realist, and she knew anything more than a shallow friendship wasn’t meant to be. Shohn seemed to see her as an asexual being.
Or at least, he used to.
Last night…what a difference. But she could probably chalk that up to boredom or a full moon or some other fleeting happenstance that would never again occur.
Still, that kiss had kept her awake long into the night, making her think about “what ifs” and keeping her too hot and achy and hungry.
As she came in from bathing a dog, she again shoved thoughts of Shohn and his awesome bod and well-deserved confidence from her mind. Because she’d been sluggish that morning, she’d put her hair in sloppy braids down her back. Somehow the ends had gotten soaked along with her T-shirt and shorts. She had mud on her nose, dog hair stuck to her cheek and her feet were bare. Sadie, an older German shepherd, loved her baths so much that she bounded and splashed and played and made it almost impossible to get her clean.
So sweet, and so much fun. Nadine was lucky to have a job she enjoyed that also paid well enough for her to keep her independence. And if the hours kept her single for the entirety of her life, well, that one kiss with Shohn would have to suffice for a fantasy life.
Her thoughts had gone full-circle to him yet again. “Just stop it,” she told herself.
“Stop what?”
Oh, no, no, no. Trying not to grimace, she looked up, and there stood Shohn.
Her heart threatened to punch out of her chest. Her bare toes curled on the linoleum floor, and a vise closed around her lungs.
Oh, for heaven’s sake. The memory of his kiss, of being pressed to that tall muscular body, was good, sure, but it didn’t warrant all that.
Liar.
Shohn looked down at his lap. “Is my fly open or something?”
“What?”
“You’re staring.”
“Oh. Sorry.” She straightened her shirt and used a wrist to try to swipe away the mud on her nose. “What are you doing here?”
Rather than answer, he gave her that cocky, crooked and endearing smile. “What have you been up to? Mud wrestling?”
“No.” She felt a little slow and stupid, but ho boy, he looked good first thing in the morning. He was freshly shaved, his uniform shirt opened at the throat, showing off a little peek of chest hair. He had his hat pushed back, his thick utility belt hanging around his lean hips.
She’d seen sheriffs and cops and military men, but not until Shohn became a ranger had she truly gotten the appeal of a man in uniform.
“No?” he asked. “That’s it?”
“What?”
His smile widened, became intimate and knowing. “Having trouble keeping up today, huh? Me, too.” He reached out to tweak one of her braids. “I asked how you got so messy.”
“Dog bath.”
His attention went to the front of her shirt and a brow lifted. “Did the dog bathe you, or vice versa?”
“Little of both.”
He nodded at her chest. “Nice shirt.”
Remembering the shirt she’d chosen sent heat into Nadine’s face. It read I Like Tiny Wieners and came with a picture of a dachshund.
With a load of suggestiveness, Shohn said, “I hope that doesn’t take me out of the running.”
The running for what? He didn’t want her, not for anything more than a joke or a way to kill time or some equally repugnant motive. She had to remember that.
Trying to switch the topic to something less stimulating than his size, she gestured at the carrier he held in one hand. “What do you have there?”
He twisted his mouth. “Well, see, after being here with you, around all the animals, I mean, I kept thinking about getting a dog.”
“Really?” Her heart swelled with pride. If nothing else, she’d been a positive influence.
“I went to the shelter first thing this morning.”
“Perfect!” Adopting a rescue was always better than buying some fancy little dog with a pedigree or, God forbid, paying a puppy mill.
“The thing is—”
She leaned down to look in the carrier—and a distinct “Meorwwwww” came out.
Nadine straightened. “Funny sounding dog.”
“Yeah, see, I was looking at the dogs…”
She took the carrier from him and moved to the counter, where she could better see. She looked in. Yup. “That’s a cat, Shohn.”
“I know it’s a cat, smart-ass.” He braced a hand on his gun. “His name is Louie.”
She’d noticed that was a familiar stance for him. “Friendly?”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “Superfriendly, actually.”
“Come on.” Curiosity got the better of her. She loved animals, all of them, and she wanted to meet this wonderful cat that had won over Shohn Hudson.
“Where are we going?”
“To a private room so I can let him out.”
“You’re not going to coax me in there and then lock the door on me, are you?” He followed her in. “I need to head to work soon.”
“Don’t be dumb.” She closed the door to a small waiting room—not the storage closet—and set the carrier on a table. Leaning down again, she looked in and said, “Hi, Louie.”
“Meorrrwww.”
“Yeah, baby, you want out of there, don’t you?” She reached a finger in through the opening, and Louie rubbed his square head against her knuckle. “Very sweet.”
“Yeah,” Shohn said with clear doubt. “Sweet.”
“He looks older.”
“Ancient, even.” He dropped into a chair. “The shelter wasn’t sure of his age, though. They just know he’s mature and kind of set in his ways.”
“That’s okay, isn’t it, Louie? Pets, like people, have their preferences.” She opened the front of the carrier and Louie, who was built like a small scruffy bulldog, shot out. For a thick, older cat, he moved with incredibly agility, darting right past her, down to the floor, up Shohn’s pants leg and to his chest.
Wow. She’d never seen a cat move so fast.
With a great throaty purr, Louie crawled up and over one thick shoulder so that his tail circled Shohn’s neck.
For his part, Shohn didn’t move, he just sighed.
Amused, Nadine crossed her arms and leaned a shoulder on the wall. “Friendly, huh?”
“He freaking loves me.” Shohn held perfectly still, his hands at his sides, his head tipped a little away from where the cat nuzzled against him.
Nadine smothered a laugh. It was just too precious. “What’s the matter, Shohn? You don’t like him?”
“He’s…fine.” Still straining away from the cat, Shohn said, “It’s just that I went into the shelter to look at the dogs, but Louie spotted me and apparently decided I was his or he was mine or whatever. He’s been really clingy.”
The cat purred and turned so that his tail slid just under Shohn’s nose.
That got him moving real fast. Face twisting away, Shohn tried to pry Louie loose, but the cat wasn’t budging. He managed to wrestle down Louie’s butt so that it wasn’t right in his face, then scowled at Nadine for laughing. “The guy that runs the shelter said he’d never seen anything like it.”
“He adores you.”
“I guess. But why me?”
“Who knows. Maybe he realizes you’ll take good care of him.”
“I will, but I wasn’t counting on a cat, you know?”
“In many ways, cats are easier.” She snickered as she said, “They need less attention.”
“That’s not funny.”
But it was, because at that moment the cat was trying to crawl inside the neckline of his shirt.
Again Shohn tried to gently wrestle him back. It wasn’t easy. He’d get one paw loose and Louie would hold on with the other three.
“You could help, you know. This is your forte, right?”
Grinning, Nadine went over to assist in getting the cat loose. Louie wasn’t happy about it. He panicked and grabbed for Shohn even more.
When Nadine finally got Louie free, she cuddled him close and stroked him to calm him down and let him know it was okay. In the process, she noticed he had part of an ear missing, and a distinct kink in his tail. “He looks a little worse for wear.”
Shohn left his chair and came over to them. “Spent too many years tomcattin’ around, fighting for the ladies, didn’t you, boy?”
The way he stood right behind her, reaching around to pet Louie, was almost like being hugged. She felt Shohn’s chest on her back, and hopefully that was his holster nudging her hip. “Maybe,” Nadine said in a croak.
Shohn’s jaw brushed the top of her head. “I know just how you feel, buddy.”
Nadine snorted. “Like you’ve ever had to fight for a girl.”
“Just you—or don’t you remember Bob?”
It wasn’t easy to remember anything with him so close, stirring up the memory of his kiss and the expanded fantasies she’d indulged all night long. “Bob who?” she asked while continuing to soothe the cat.
“The idiot who teased you when we were kids.” He leaned closer and said near her ear, “He pushed you in the lake, and you got all…wet.”
Nadine stepped away from him so quickly, Louie protested. She tried a laugh that fell flat, but the incident he mentioned was still painful to her. When all the other girls had been tiny and cute, just starting to mature, she’d already been…thick. It wasn’t until she turned twenty that she decided she no longer cared. She was not, and never would be, a skinny person. Not only wasn’t it part of her genetic makeup, but it was just plain too much work to always be exercising and dieting and fretting about it.
She liked herself, abundance of curves and all. And she loved her life, a life filled with activities that made her happy.
Shohn watched her closely. “I didn’t think it was funny.”
No, she hadn’t, either. For three days she’d hidden away and cried. Twelve-year-old girls could be so melodramatic and tenderhearted. “Well, it wasn’t then, no. I was so embarrassed.” More like humiliated beyond endurance. “The lake made my shirt all but transparent and Bob started poking fun at me for being chubby.”
Shohn strolled closer again. “Bob was an immature jerk.”
“We were all immature, you included, Shohn. You were only, what, fourteen?”
“Yeah. Fourteen and eternally horny. When you came out of that lake, I thought my knees would give out.” He smiled and teased a finger along her braid. “You’re right about the shirt. I remember it was so wet that I could even see your nipples. I about swallowed my tongue.”
Nadine could only stare at him. His memory of the day was vastly different from hers. “I’m surprised you noticed that, given how you were eyeing all the girls in their bathing suits.”
“That wet T-shirt on you was far more interesting than any bathing suit could ever be.” He stroked down to her chin then lifted her face. “I wouldn’t mind seeing it again, now that we’re not kids anymore.”
“I’m still chubby.”
His eyes darkened even more. “You are so damn curvy it’s making me nuts thinking about it.” He started to lean down to kiss her.
Nadine started to let him.
Then with a protesting “Meowrrr…” Louie wriggled free from her hold and butted the top of his head on Shohn’s chin.
Nadine ended up with the cat’s tail in her face.
Talk about ruining the mood.
Relinquishing the cat to Shohn, she grabbed a wall for support and asked, “So what are we doing here?”
“I was trying to seduce you.” He frowned. “That wasn’t obvious?” He shifted the cat down to his chest and cradled him like a baby. Louie approved, given his rumbling purr.
“No, I mean… Yes, it was. But why are you here?”
“To see you.”
“With a cat?”
“Oh, yeah.” He checked the time and cursed low. “I need to get to work. I was hoping you could watch Louie for me until the end of my shift. I get off at six then I’d need an hour or so to get out of the park and drive here.”
Nadine eyed Louie. He stared back, his big yellow eyes unblinking. On the one hand, cats didn’t always mix well with dogs. But on the other hand, it’d be a terrific reason to get to see Shohn again.
Shohn shifted. “If you tell me which part of the question is throwing you, I might be able to help.”
“Just weighing the pros and cons.” The con being, of course, that she wanted to see Shohn again and it wasn’t a great idea. “It might be tough to keep Louie separated from the dogs.”
“That shouldn’t be a problem. He had the run of the shelter and got along great with all the other animals, dogs included.”
“Really? That’s unusual.”
“He’s an unusual cat.” After opening the door, Shohn put a hand to the small of her back. “Let’s see how it goes before I take off.”
Nadine let herself be ushered to the indoor play area. They had just entered the hallway when Louie heard the dogs. He lifted his head, his ears forward, then leaped from Shohn’s arms and loped forward as if excited to join in.
In one agile move he launched up to sit on the gate, surveying the dogs from his perch. The dogs, somewhat stupefied, stopped to stare.
“Huh.”
Shohn asked, “What?”
“They’re not barking.”
“Maybe they know Louie wouldn’t like it.”
Could be, she decided, when en masse the dogs approached, their noses sniffing the air. Louie was so unconcerned that he lifted one rear leg straight into the air and started to groom himself.
Shohn rubbed his face. “I told him that if he does that too often, it no longer counts as a bath.”
Nadine snickered.
One dog reared back on his haunches and barked. Another turned a circle. Another jumped. Louie gave up his ablutions and instead jumped down to run and play with them.
“I’ll be.” She turned to Shohn. “Any dog that’s aggressive is kept separate from the others, so these are all social animals. I’m not worried if you’re not.”
“So you’ll keep him for me?”
“Sure, why not?”
He surprised her by grabbing her upper arms, lifting her to her tiptoes and planting a firm kiss on her parted lips. “Thank you.”
No, thank you. Resisting the urge to grab him back for a better taste, Nadine cleared her throat. “Sure. No problem.”
“Give me your number and I’ll check on Louie later just to make sure everything is okay.”
Turnabout seemed fair. “All right, but I also have some papers for you to fill out, including with your number, just in case I need to reach you.”
It was another five minutes before Shohn was finally able to head out. She walked him to the door, wondering if he’d maybe steal another kiss, but a couple was on their way in with their new puppy, so he only thanked her with a smile before jogging out to his Jeep.
This time, telling him goodbye was different.
Because this time, she knew he’d be back.
* * *
SHOHN WAS MORE than a half hour late, and Nadine began to wonder if something had happened. He had her number, so why didn’t he call if he had a problem? Roxi and Fred went home for the evening, all the dogs settled down to sleep, but Louie watched her with his big yellow eyes as if in accusation.
“I know, sweetie, but he will be here eventually.”
The cat paced the front room, probably wondering why all his friends had been taken away.
All day, Louie had run with the dogs inside, and occasionally in a fenced area outside. She had open runs for the bigger dogs, but the little ones that might look like hawk food were kept in the contained areas, well protected from predators.
Louie went to the door and scratched.
“Sorry, bud. No can do.” She tried to pet him, but he had other ideas—like meowing loudly, which stirred a few dogs. Nadine knew well enough that if one dog started barking, they’d all soon join in.
“Tell you what,” she said to Louie. “We’ll go over to my house to wait for him.” Which meant she also needed to tote over the cat box and bed and a food and water dish… What a bother.
Where was he?
She decided to make two trips, taking Louie over first so he wouldn’t get the dogs riled, and then coming back for all the other stuff. She was loaded down and crossing the yard when a vehicle pulled in.
She paused to look, and Amber hopped out of her big truck, Rookie with her.
“Amber?” Nadine stood there until Amber spotted her. Rookie ran over first to greet her.
“Hey there,” Amber said, already reaching for half of Nadine’s load. “Everything is fine, but Shohn’s held up at the park.”
Bummer. “For how long?”
“Right now he doesn’t know. Could be all night.” She looked from Nadine’s house to the office. “Where is this stuff going?”
“My house.” She started that way. “So what happened? Is anyone hurt?”
Amber shook her head. “Some idiot got lost. A group of guys were drinking too much and they got into an argument and one of the knuckleheads wandered off. Now they can’t find him.”
“It’ll be getting dark soon.” She peered in through the screen, didn’t see Louie anywhere, so she held it open with her shoulder while Amber went in first, followed by Rookie.
“I know. I hate when stuff like this happens.” She lifted the cat bed stacked with a food dish and a bag of food. “You got a cat?”
“No, Shohn did.”
Incomprehension filled Amber’s bright blue eyes before she grinned. “A cat, huh?”
“A very unusual cat.” Nadine looked around. “He must be hiding somewhere.” She nodded at Rookie. “Does he like cats okay?”
“Rook likes everyone, don’t you, buddy?”
Alert, the dog thumped his tail hard on the floor, his expression hopeful. Amber smiled. “You want to find the cat?”
Ears up, Rookie gave a loud, positive “woof!”
“Go on, then.”
He took off like a shot, running from the main room and down the hall. At Nadine’s bedroom he slid to a sudden halt that sent his tail past his head. His nails wheeled on the floor until he grabbed some traction, then he launched into the bedroom.
In a fast walk, the ladies followed and found the dog sitting at the ready beside Nadine’s full-size bed, staring at where Louie curled up, nose to butt, on her bed pillow.
Rookie seemed very pleased that he’d so easily located the cat. For his part, Louie lifted his head, seemed to give a mental shrug, and after a long stretch and toothy yawn, he lazily got up to greet Rookie.
Amber and Nadine both stood in the doorway.
At almost the same time, Amber said, “That’s Shohn’s cat?” while Nadine said, “Looks like they’ll get along just fine.”
Slowly Amber went in and sat on the edge of the mattress. Louie glanced at her, sniffed her outstretched hand and jumped down to play with Rookie.
“His reaction to Shohn is very different.”
“How so?” Amber rejoined her and they followed the animals back to the main room.
“He adores Shohn. It’s something to see.”
With a coy look, Amber said, “Everyone adores Shohn. Why should a cat be any different?”
“Speaking of Shohn…” As she arranged the cat’s stuff on the floor, she asked, “If he could call you, why didn’t he just call me?”
“He didn’t call. Adam was at the park for a field trip. They were just wrapping up the school activities when Shohn got word that the guy was missing. He told Adam to tell me that if I didn’t hear from him before eight-thirty, I should let you know what’s going on.”
Adam was Shohn’s cousin by marriage. His uncle Jordan, the town vet, had married Georgia, who already had Adam and Lisa. But if you asked anyone in the family, they were as much related as if Jordan had fathered Lisa and Adam himself. “I thought he was a gym teacher. Why would he be on a field trip?”
“One of the other teachers got sick last minute, so he filled in.” Amber pulled out a chair at her little table, the same chair that Shohn had used the night before. “Am I keeping you from anything?”
“Not at all.” Looked as if Amber planned to stay and visit. From one animal lover to another, she liked Amber a lot.
Plus, she was Shohn’s cousin.
“Can I get you something to drink?”
“Sure. Anything cold.”
After pouring them both colas, Nadine joined her at the table.
She’d just taken a big drink when Amber said, “I’m kind of glad we have a chance to talk.”
Nadine slowly lowered the can. Amber had a way of dropping bombshells on people. She always stated things so boldly, without any reserve at all. Nadine had learned to be cautious, so she hedged, saying, “I always enjoy visiting with you. You know that.”
“Yeah, yeah, same here,” Amber said, moving right along. “But that’s not what I meant.”
“No?”
“I think you should give Shohn a chance.”
Dreading the answer, Nadine asked, “A chance to do what?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe…sleep with you?”
Yup, a bombshell. Nadine rolled her eyes. “I can always expect the unexpected from you.”
“So will you?”
In many ways, Amber was as pushy—maybe more so—as Shohn. “What makes you think he even wants to?”
She crossed her arms over the table and leaned in. “He’s wanted to forever. He just didn’t realize it until recently.”
Nadine had to laugh. “You’re nuts.” Shohn was the most straightforward, on-track person she’d ever met. He always knew what he wanted, and he always went after it. “I remember when he was sixteen and decided he wanted to be a park ranger. A bunch of us were at your uncle Sawyer’s house. I think it was your brother Garrett’s birthday.”
“Probably,” Amber said. “Garrett’s only a year older than you.”
“Anyway, your uncle Jordan showed us a baby hawk that had gotten injured by some idiot campers.”
“Uncle Jordan probably crooned it back to good health.” Amber grinned. “He has such a knack for helping animals.”
“Shohn was pretty furious about it.” And since Shohn had such a congenial, easygoing nature, it was rare to see him fired-up. Usually it only happened when he was defending someone or something else—like injured baby birds, or chubby girls. “He announced he was going to be a park ranger, as if that’d keep anyone from ever injuring a baby animal again.”
“And here he is, a ranger,” Amber said. “And I’m willing to bet few dare go in the hills with the intent of tormenting a poor animal, not when they have to deal with Shohn.”
“Your pride is showing,” Nadine teased. “But my point is that if Shohn had feelings for me, he’d have known it.”
“He probably did on some level, and that’s why he hasn’t come on to you before now.”
That was so absurd, Nadine choked on it.
Amber narrowed her bright blue eyes. It was a fact that everyone in Buckhorn had noted: those extraordinary eyes of hers packed a lot of punch. When she looked at people, they felt it.
When she looked at the guys…well, she had as much impact with them as Shohn had with the ladies.
Nadine fidgeted. “Dial it down, okay?”
Confusion stole Amber’s intensity. “What’s that?”
“All that laserlike focus. You’re trying to intimidate me, but it’s not working.” Ha. It worked all too well.
“I wasn’t,” Amber objected.
“Baloney. You do it to everyone, and I’m sure most cave under your resolve. Especially anyone possessing testosterone.”
Grinning, Amber shrugged. “My point is that Shohn had a lot of wild oats to sow and now, at twenty-five, he wants more.”
More…what? No, Nadine wouldn’t buy into any of it. She gulped down more Coke then shook her head. “Does Shohn have any idea that you’re meddling like this?”
“Are you kidding? No way.”
Thank God. “Then let’s make a promise not to ever tell him, and we can forget all about it.”
Amber’s determined stare returned. “You know he wants you, Nadine.”
She turned her Coke can, turned it again and traced the wet circle on the table… “He did sort of come on to me.”
“Sort of?” Amber laughed. “He must be slipping if you’re not sure. God knows every other girl in town thinks he’s making moves even when he isn’t. Do you know how many times I’ve had to save his butt? Too many times, that’s how many. But you’re different.”
Yeah, didn’t she know it. “Well, if he is interested, that’d be why—because I’m a challenge. If we ever got together, then he’d be over me real quick.”
“I don’t think so.” Amber got a text before she could expound on that. She pulled out her phone, read the message with a smile and sent back a reply. “He’ll be here in another ten minutes.”
“They found the missing camper?”
“He didn’t say, but I assume so, otherwise he’d still be there looking.” She finished off her Coke and stood. “I’m supposed to get lost, though.”
“Oh.”
Walking to the kitchen to rinse out her can, Amber said, “Look at it this way. If Shohn only sees you as a challenge, then isn’t it better to find it out now before you fall hopelessly in love with him?”
“Hopelessly, huh? How dramatic.” Nadine tried to infuse the right amount of sarcasm, because God knew, she’d been hung up on Shohn Hudson since they were in their early teens.
“It is dramatic,” Amber said with a sigh, “the way the ladies all swoon over him. As his cousin, I can testify to how nauseating it is. But you don’t swoon…yet.” She put her can in the recycling bin and turned, forearms braced back on the counter, her pose relaxed. “So, what do you think?”
“About what? Swooning?” Just the thought of him showing up made her feel light-headed. A swoon could very well be imminent.
“No, about giving in to see how things go.”
This was not a conversation she’d ever thought to have with one of Shohn’s relatives. “He doesn’t need your help, Amber.”
“Ha! Of course he does.” She looked toward Louie, who was busy walking up Rookie’s back while Rookie laid perfectly still except for the tail he had thumping. “He even got that mangled old cat for you.”
“Not so.” Nadine smiled as she shared the wonderful truth. “He went to the shelter to get a dog, but Louie claimed him, and Shohn was too sweet to turn him away.”
“There you go!” Straightening in a rush, Amber walked from the kitchen. “Sweet on top of being passably handsome.”
Nadine snorted. Even a close cousin could be objective enough to know Shohn was the epitome of hotness.
“Though he’s a wiseass, he has his moments of humor, too.”
“You don’t have to sell me on him,” Nadine told her. “I already know he’s funny and smart, generous and loyal, hardworking and—”
“Yeah,” Amber interrupted, her tone wry, “let’s not saint him, okay? He’s a great guy, but still a guy, so he needs to have things made clear to him.”
“Those things being?”
“Just do me a favor,” Amber said, suddenly all business and ready to go. “Put on a shirt that shows a little cleavage, brush the dog hair off your shorts and when he makes his move, try being a little receptive. What’s the worst that could happen?”
Her heart could get irrevocably broken, that’s what.
But pride had saved her many times over the years, so maybe she could do this and then, with her pride, hold it all together—no matter how things went after.
Amber headed to the door. “She looks convinced, Rookie. Our work here is done.”
Shaking her head, Nadine picked up Louie to ensure the cat wouldn’t get out the door. “Thanks again for stopping by.” She would not thank her for pimping Shohn.
“You betcha,” Amber said. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” And with that, she left.
Nadine didn’t bother replying. When it came to Shohn there wasn’t much she didn’t want to do. If Shohn was willing, well then, better not to make promises she wouldn’t want to keep.