Chapter Three
Pilates at dawn. A few minutes of yoga after her first appointment. An hour on the elliptical during a mid-day break back at her house a few blocks off the town square.
Cara was almost willing to try meditation, but that be-calm-and-zen approach never worked for her. She wasn’t prone to relaxation, and she definitely wasn’t mellow enough to meditate. She gripped the handles of the elliptical machine in her guest bedroom, zeroed in on the TV screen, and rolled her eyes in delight along with Giada on the Food Network as the hostess bit into another delicious piece of food.
Maybe tonight she’d try that new pasta primavera recipe that Giada had raved about in today’s episode. Invite Jamie, Megan, and Kaitlyn over for a girls’ night in. No men allowed.
From the moment she’d let the doors to the club fall shut behind her and hailed a cab to take her on an hour-long drive back to Hidden Oaks, she’d done her best to steer her brain onto a new path, as if she could reroute all her neural pathways. Once at home and in bed, she’d reread her favorite passages from Inside of a Dog, figuring that would keep her mind trained on other matters. Like how pissed off her body was for not taking Travis up on his offer. Her leave-him-in-the-lurch plan had done nothing to eradicate him from her brain. How could it? Travis had shown yet again why he was the yardstick by which she measured every other guy. She didn’t know if the man had some kind of magic touch or if it was simply that the two of them together were combustible, a fiery combination of heat and desire that ignited whenever they collided.
As the closing credits of the TV show rolled, she reached for the remote on the dashboard of her elliptical machine and turned off the cable. She hopped off the machine, her heart beating hard from the workout, and headed down the hallway, where she was greeted by her black and white lab-border collie mix, who’d been taking a dog nap while she worked out.
Violet wagged her tail and lifted her chin for petting. Cara happily obliged, then grabbed her phone to check her afternoon agenda. She’d already logged two training sessions this morning, one with a nervous terrier in a nearby town and his equally nervous owner, and another with the coffee shop proprietor and her stubborn min pin who’d proven to be quite a handful. She had a free hour that afternoon, and then she was leading her advanced training class for dog agility later today.
Since she had a break before her next client, she decided to reward her four-legged best friend. After a fast shower, she yanked her hair into a simple ponytail, then tugged on shorts, a tank top, and sneakers, and walked to the neighborhood park with an off-leash section.
Along the way, Cara tossed a tennis ball up and down in her hand, which made Violet heel even more perfectly by her side, since the pooch was craving that green ball. “At least one of us can get what she wants,” Cara said to her dog. Sometimes she liked to pretend that Violet understood her, as she shared her thoughts about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness—and oftentimes about the pursuit of love.
That had been a challenging one lately, though her friend Kaitlyn mentioned a few days ago that she had a new guy she wanted to set her up with. His name was Joe, he built furniture, loved dogs, and was an avid hiker. Like her, he was eager to settle down. “Joe’s not a play-the-field type of guy. He’s handsome and he’s ready for Ms. Right, so naturally I thought of you,” Kaitlyn had said when she set up the date. Sounded good to Cara, so she’d be seeing him later that week for dinner.
She pushed her sunglasses against the bridge of her nose as the hot June sun of a Wine Country summer beat down on her, warming her bare skin. The weather was one of the many reasons she’d moved back to Hidden Oaks a year ago, since the temperatures here were much more pleasant than in the City by the Bay. Living in San Francisco for the last several years was akin to residing in a wind tunnel. The other reason she’d returned home was her family. Cara was the youngest of three girls by many years, though she was decidedly not an “oops” baby. Her parents adopted her when she was born to a teenage mom, and they gave her as much love and affection as they did her two older sisters. Now she simply wanted to be able to spend as much time with her family as she could, especially since her sister Stacy, who lived in town, was due to have her second child soon. Her parents were in South Carolina for a few weeks, visiting her other sister, Sofie, whose husband’s company had sent him there for a year.
So it had made sense to relocate her training business here and start building it locally. There was no other place where she wanted to put down roots.
As she neared the park, her dog began to pick up the pace, ready to chase balls. Such a simple but satisfying activity, and that’s what made it rewarding for the both of them. Cara unhooked Violet from her leather leash and tossed her the ball.
Soon, the rote action and the dog’s eager response settled her overactive mind, veering it away from that too-sexy fireman for a moment. At some point, she’d have to woman up and let him know why she’d walked off. But since he hadn’t chased her down, or even called, she was in no rush to clear the air.
Besides, she didn’t know what to say.
Violet scampered to her for probably the hundredth time, her tongue lolling out of her mouth as she dropped the ball at her feet, panting hard and ready for more. As Cara chucked the ball across the wide expanse of green grass in this quiet patch of the park, a flurry of white and brown fur rushed past her, like a sports car racing down the highway. Violet had an accomplice in play. And oh holy hell, Cara’s dog recognition radar went off. Violet’s new canine playmate belonged to none other than the perpetrator of last night’s epic, toe-curling, star-seeing orgasm.
She gulped. Womaning up might be happening sooner than she expected. Damn small town.
“Come, Violet!” Cara called, even though her dog no longer needed the command to return to her. Even so, Cara rewarded her with praise when Violet arrived at her side.
She steeled herself, taking a deep, fueling breath and turning around when she heard footsteps. Her heart beat faster just from the sight of him. Travis walked toward her, wearing jeans, a white T-shirt, and an unreadable expression—unreadable because he wore dark sunglasses—as he called out to his dog in an exasperated tone.
“Henry, c’mon boy. Come on back.”
In a corner of the park, Henry was preoccupied with chasing a squirrel that had hightailed it up a tree. Travis’s dog leapt in the air over and over again, looking a bit like a circus performer on his tiny little legs.
“C’mon Henry,” Travis tried again, then muttered, “He’s been like this all morning. He’s not listening.”
Cara glanced at him as she threw the ball to Violet, who shot off like a rocket to chase it. “You have to give him a reason to come back to you.”
“Oh,” he said, arching an eyebrow. “Is that how it’s done?”
She nodded, glad to be able to answer his question about dogs, a subject she was well-versed in, and much more comfortable discussing without getting hot and bothered and ready to jump him. “Yes. Give him something he wants.”
“What do you think he wants?” Travis asked, cocking his head to the side as he gestured to his dog, who was fixated on reaching the squirrel high up on a branch.
“A treat perhaps. Or some affection,” she answered.
“So that’s your strategy?”
“Yes.”
His lips quirked up. “Did you use that last night with me?”
She rolled her eyes and laughed when she realized she’d walked right into the flirty trap he’d been setting. “No.”
He shot her a look that said he didn’t believe her. “I’m not sure I agree with you. You gave me a whole lot of reasons to come back.” He turned to the dog once more and tried again. “Henry, come.”
The dog ignored him, yapping at the tree trunk.
“Let’s get your dog.” She clapped her hands, then shouted, “Violet, come,” even though her dog was already on the return path. When her mutt arrived at her heels, parking herself in a proper sit, Cara called Henry’s name next, and the little dog glanced in her direction as she reached into a plastic bag full of small dog treats. She held one up and handed it to Violet as a reward.
Food in the mouth—that’s what Henry saw happening, and it was enough to send him into motion.
He took off running, barreling across the grass, and skidding at her feet. Cara fed him a treat then patted him on the head. “Good dog, Henry. You’re such a good little boy.”
She turned to Travis. “See? We’re getting ahead of ourselves in the lesson department, but all you have to do is give him some positive reinforcement when he does what you want.”
Travis nodded a few times, as if she made all the sense in the world. She loved making quick progress with dog and owner. “Positive reinforcement,” he repeated. “That makes sense.”
He kneeled and petted his dog, telling him he was good. When he stood up, he tugged off his sunglasses and looked her square in the eyes. “But I’m confused on something else, so maybe you can explain your training methods with me. You see, I got a hell of a lot of positive reinforcement last night when you cried out my name and left bite marks on my shoulder from coming so hard. But then you took off.”
Cara narrowed her eyes and parked her hands on her hips. “Perhaps that’s because I’m not a dog.”