Forever Home Page 9

  “Some dogs definitely don’t like the competition,” Brad agreed. “But we have a lot of dogs who need homes here, so if you know of anyone who’s looking, send them over.”

  Debbie rubbed Shep with the bottom of her foot. “How do you get notified of strays or dogs that need to be rescued? Won’t most people call the county shelter?”

  “I hope not.” Brad cocked a hip against the corner of the desk. “They try their best, but they still destroy certain animals that they feel aren’t adoptable. I want Forever Friends to be people’s first call if they see a stray.”

  “You need an app, where people can snap a picture of a stray and it sends you the location information immediately.” Debbie crunched on another cheese puff. “Maybe set up a sort of doggy dollar reward system to encourage its use.”

  “He’s still using Windows XP.” Eugenie shook her head. “I think the app can wait until the boy catches up to the twenty-first century with the basics.”

  “It wouldn’t take long to develop,” Debbie said. “We can do both.”

  “You two can develop apps?” Brad blinked at the septuagenarians. Debbie had orange stains on her polyester pants and Eugenie had a weird round hat pinned to her hair. And they wrote code.

  “You can’t?” Eugenie sniffed. “I thought you were an engineer.”

  “A mechanical engineer.” He shrugged. “If you need someone to build a dam or a chairlift, I’m your guy.”

  “That sounds really useful right now.” Debbie rolled her eyes. “Okay, you buy a new web host, probably you’ll need a new computer, too, and we’ll design you a kick-ass website. And then we’ll write a Forever Friends app. Sound good?”

  “Uh, yeah.” Rubbing the back of his neck, he thought about the balance on his business credit card. “How much do you think all this will run me?”

  Eugenie named a number for the computer and web hosting plan. It would stretch his credit limit but not tear it. “I’ll let you know when I’ve bought it. What about for your services?”

  Debbie and Eugenie glanced at each other. “We want full credit for our work at the banquet, in the program,” Eugenie said. “A personal thank-you when you give a speech, and our names at the bottom of your new website. We’re starting a consulting business, and we’ll work for you for free in exchange for the publicity.”

  Of course they were starting their own business. Why wouldn’t two old ladies launch an IT company? He kneaded the back of his neck. “You got it. You’ll have my undying, and vocal, praise and gratitude.”

  “We’ll work on setting up your social media accounts.” Debbie crumpled up the cheese puff bag and tossed it toward the garbage can. It missed by a foot. “I can’t believe you don’t have any. Post a dog pic each day. It’s not that hard.”

  Yeah, he’d heard the same thing from Izzy. Her message had been loud and long.

  “You know what would really drive people in here.” Eugenie scanned him up and down, the look appraising and slightly…lewd. Brad shifted, resisting the urge to shield his private bits with his hands. “Pictures of the men who run this place. Shep’s vet, Dr. Moretti, works here, right?”

  Brad nodded. “Yes, but—”

  “Ooh, he is cute.” Debbie snapped a picture of Brad with her phone. She squinted at the result. “And this one here’s pretty darn photogenic.”

  “And Dax Cannon works here now, too, right?”

  “Yes, but—”

  “I thought you didn’t like gingers?” Debbie asked her friend.

  “That young man’s hair is auburn. And even if it was Ronald McDonald orange, it wouldn’t matter.” Eugenie sucked on her lower lip, and Brad couldn’t be sure, but it looked as though her dentures slipped. “He is one hot potato.”

  Okay, he couldn’t hear any more. “I don’t know where your minds are heading, but no.”

  Debbie narrowed her eyes. “You do want people to come through your front door, don’t you? Well, pictures of the three of you on your website and social media will bring the women flocking.”

  “No,” he said. Eugenie opened her mouth, and Brad cut her off. “And when I say no, I mean hell no. Not going to happen.”

  “What about a calendar?” Debbie snapped another shot of him.

  He leveled his most serious “I’d rather burn in the flames of one thousand hells” look on the women, and it must have worked. They shut up about it.

  “How did you know Dax was working here?” he asked.

  “Herbie told me over dinner. It wasn’t confidential information,” Eugenie assured him. “The sentencing is public record.”

  “Herbie?”

  “Judge Herbert Nichols,” Debbie explained. Her mouth twisted up tight. “They’re dating.”

  And on that note, Brad picked the cheese puff bag up off the floor and dropped it in the trash. He needed this whole conversation to be over.

  God must have taken pity, because the bell on the front door rang. “Thanks, ladies. Let me know if you need anything.” He strode out of the office and down the hall. Ana was dropping her backpack behind the empty front desk. Using her foot, she shoved it deep in the well where the receptionist would normally sit. When he had money to pay for one.

  “Ana, what are you doing here?”

  Her eyebrows drew down. “You said I could come here after school. I came.”

  “Of course you can come.” He yanked on her ponytail. “I just thought since you had two new dogs at home, you’d want to spend time with them.”

  “Mom says I made a c’mmitment.” She rolled her eyes. “But I would like to see Jasmine’s brothers and sisters. Are they still here? Have they been adopted yet?” She bounced on her toes like an oscillating spring.

  “They’re still here.” Instead of taking her back down the hall and through the exam room, he opened the door that led directly from the waiting room to the kennels. Leg-blocking three dogs to keep them from charging out, he herded Ana inside.

  “You do know your puppy is a boy, right, Ana?”

  “’Course.” She beelined for the bucket full of dog toys. “He’s got boy parts.”

  Brad’s eye twitched. He wasn’t sure, but he had a feeling he shouldn’t be discussing the boy parts of any animal with a nine-year-old girl. “Right. So, uh, why’d you give him a girl’s name?”

  “Boys have girls’ names all the time.” She rolled her eyes as she shoved one end of a rope down the front of her pants, and grabbed two squeaky toys. “A lot of them wear makeup now, and dress like girls, and do other stuff, too.”

  “What other stuff?” he asked in a horrified whisper.

  Ana shifted. “Well, Katie wasn’t so clear on that part. But she was watching this TV show where a dad became a mom, but Katie’s dad turned it off and told her to go to her room before she figured out how he did that.”

  Brad’s eye twitch turned into a full-blown tic. Good God. Was this what Izzy had to go through on a daily basis? Raising kids today was like walking through a minefield.

  He cleared his throat and tried to steer the ship into safer waters. “Dax is out walking six of the dogs. When he gets back, maybe you can go out with him and the next batch, help keep an eye on them.” And on Dax. This morning the man had taken a group of dogs on a ten-mile hike out in the woods. Said they’d needed the adventure. And they’d all come back, Dax included, sopping wet and covered in mud. Ana could be his chaperone.

  “For now, the puppies are playing with Hercule over on the couch.” Brad crouched next to her. “Hercule is an older dog, and a bit of a grump, so why don’t you take some toys over to him and see if you can make him smile.”

  “Dogs don’t smile.”

  “Sure they do. Just not how you and I do it.” He pointed at the French bulldog. “See how his ears are tucked back, how he’s facing away from the puppies?” The puppies ignored their dismissal and merely
crawled over or around Hercule to get his attention. “When a dog is happy, his ears and mouth will relax and he’ll wag his tail. That’s how they smile.”

  She squared her shoulders. “I’ll get him to smile.” And she marched off, a mini-Izzy when it came to determination. His heart melted.

  “We need your credit card.” Debbie leaned over the half door to the exam room. “Eugenie wants to buy your hosting platform now so she can get started on building the website.” Her gaze drifted past Brad to Ana and the puppies. “Who’s that?”

  “That is my newest volunteer, Ana Lopez. She’s taken a special interest in the puppies.”

  “I can see why,” the older woman murmured, opening the bottom door and stepping through. She jerked her head back toward the office. “Genie’s waiting.”

  “Right.” Because why shouldn’t he take orders in his own shelter? Sometime today it felt like he had definitely lost control.

  Two hundred and forty dollars later, Brad was sitting on Gabe’s side of the desk while Eugenie worked on his computer. He was going over the schedule of vaccinations when Debbie returned, a chestnut brown puppy in her arms.

  “I want this one.”

  Ana stepped from behind her. “I convinced her to get a dog. Be sure to tell my mom I made a sale.”

  “We don’t sell the dogs here,” Brad said. “Although donations are always appreciated.”

  “You’re getting a dog?” Eugenie blinked over the computer screen. “But what about Shep?”

  “Shep’s your dog, and I love him.” Debbie brought the puppy toward the mop of hair and lowered him for Shep to sniff. Shep cocked his head, then rested it back on his paws, a doggy version of a shrug. “I want my own pet. It’s time.”

  Brad stood and gestured for Debbie to take his chair. He found the adoption forms buried under a stack of bills on his desk and leaned back against the wall. He clicked the top of his pen. “I just have a couple questions to see if a boxer mix is the best dog for you, and then we can get the paperwork started.” He gave Ana a thumbs-up, and she skipped back to the kennels.

  Thirty minutes later, Debbie Garcia was the proud owner of her new best friend. Brad loaded up a crate, bed, and dog food into the back of Debbie’s car and slammed the door shut. “Call if you have any problems. And be sure to bring him back for his next round of vaccinations in three weeks.” Debbie nodded and settled her new puppy in the backseat with Shep. She and Eugenie climbed in the front. He waved the women off, pulling out his cell phone as he walked back to the shelter.

  “You’ll never guess what just happened.”

  A moment of silence. Then, “Brad?” Izzy asked.

  “Yup. And your daughter is a ringer.”

  She sighed. “What did she do now? You didn’t play poker against her, did you?”

  He paused in the open front door. “No. Ana plays poker?”

  “Extremely well. You’ve been warned.” The sound of a car door unlocking came through the phone. “So, what’s up?”

  “She got one of your puppies adopted.” He looked through the glass wall into the kennels. Dax had returned, and he and Ana were running in a big circle with twelve dogs scrambling after them. “And she was with Debbie and the dogs for only twenty minutes. I think sales must run in her blood.”

  “They’re not my dogs!”

  “Uh-oh. What happened with you?” Turning, he made for the hall and the privacy of his office. He shut the door and sat down at his desk.

  “I’m just leaving my house now. I came to check on Vi and Jasmine.” Frustration laced her voice. A car engine started, and she said, “Hold on a sec. My phone has to link up.” A pause. “Can you still hear me?”

  “Loud and clear.” Tossing one foot up on his desk, he leaned back in his chair. It was comfortable talking to Izzy about her day. Listening to her complain. “Did Jasmine pee on your floor?”

  “No, the puppy is fine. It’s Vi.” Izzy huffed. “She opened the bottom cabinet and got into the big box of Goldfish crackers. She ate every single one, and some cardboard, I think. But she didn’t eat any of the dog food I left out. I thought you said this dog wasn’t eating,” she said, her voice accusing.

  “That’s great news.” He rocked onto the chair’s back legs. “She must be getting more comfortable in her surroundings if she’s exploring. Trusting that you won’t get mad at her for making a mess.”

  “Or she doesn’t trust me not to poison her food and is hunting for it elsewhere.”

  He chuckled. “I think you’re giving her a little more credit for complex thought than you should. But was she feeling okay after eating the crackers? No throwing up?”

  “Oh God. They throw up, too?”

  “I’ll make you a deal,” he said. “Anytime one of your dogs throws up, give me a call and I’ll come over and clean it.”

  She paused. “That sounds like a sneaky way to get an invitation to my house.”

  “Vi’s not the only one with a suspicious mind,” he teased. “But since you mentioned it, how about I grab some take-out for the three of us and bring it over tonight when I take Ana home.”

  “I’m picking up Ana, and I’ll get us dinner.”

  “Great! I like everything except pork.” Based on the cute little growl that came over the line, Brad figured he might have gone a little too far. But it was fun pushing Izzy’s buttons.

  He settled deeper into his chair and ran his palm over his thigh. There were a lot of her buttons he wanted to push.

  “Okay, I’ll invite myself over another time. But, Izzy, I’m giving you fair warning.”

  “Yeah?” she asked. “And what’s that?”

  “It’s going to take a hell of a lot more shoot-downs before I stop asking.” As long as she kept glancing at him out of the corner of her eye like he was a fun puzzle she couldn’t quite figure out, as long as she let her heart talk her into doing things like taking home two dogs even though her mind was dead set against it, he would keep wanting this woman.

  And he was a very determined man when it came to getting what he wanted.

  * * * *

  Brad’s words stayed in her head the entire drive to Tannert Winery. He was a presumptuous, annoying man, with no respect for her boundaries.

  He was also the first man ever to work for her attention. And that feeling, that she was someone worth the effort, was, well, it was pretty damn nice. Not that it would change anything. She didn’t have the time or inclination to date, and even if she did, it wouldn’t be with a man who had more smiles in his arsenal than he did dollars in the bank.

  Although each and every one of his smiles had been pretty damn great. Even the one he gave her when he was laughing at her, the one where the corners of his eyes crinkled and the edges of his lips tugged up as he shook his head.

  But a profusion of smiles, and the way each and every one of them stole her breath, didn’t compensate for the fact that he was half-assing his way through life without a thought for the future.

  She turned off the highway onto the winding dirt driveway up to the tasting room. An antique piece of wine-making equipment had been placed at each turn, a little history tour without having to leave her car. She passed a huge wood wine press, turned at the old oak champagne bottle holder Izzy knew Kevin had picked up in Provence, before pulling into the dirt parking lot in front of the unassuming tasting room. It was a cottage of unfinished wood, and a wood trellis overhung its front patio, grape vines covering it like a canopy. Large clay tubs and wine barrels sawed in half surrounded the building, an explosion of brightly colored flowers springing from each makeshift planter. The production center was in a large barn to the left, and several acres of green vines stretched out behind the buildings.

  Izzy climbed out of her SUV with her portfolio and headed to the tasting room. She passed through the outdoor patio. Two couples sat on the low bench sofas
enjoying a glass and the afternoon sun.

  Izzy pushed through the heavy wooden door into the air-conditioned tasting room. A long bar ran the length of the room at the back, with large casks stacked behind it. Several tall tables surrounded by stools filled the area, and Izzy dropped her portfolio on a table in the corner to claim it. Her appointment hadn’t arrived yet, so she headed to the bar.

  “Hi, Lydia.” Only one couple was getting a tasting flight, and Kevin was helping them, leaving her friend available to chat.

  “Hey, sweetie.” She filled a glass with their two-year-old sauvignon blanc, Izzy’s favorite, and pulled a bottle of water from the small fridge behind the counter.

  Izzy unscrewed the top and took a sip. “We still on for tonight? Chinese at my place?” If she hadn’t already had plans with Lydia, would it have been so easy to say no to Brad? She bounced her foot on the stool’s rung. Thank goodness she’d already had plans.

  “You bet. I can’t wait to meet your new dogs.” Lydia shook her head, and her bangs fell across her eyes. She pushed them aside. “I can’t believe you got dogs. Two of them!”

  “You and me both.” She twisted on her stool. “My four o’clock hasn’t arrived yet?”

  Lydia shook her head. Izzy had set up meetings with two parties who’d expressed interest in the anonymous lots. And for such an early stage meeting, Izzy preferred chatting them up out of the office, in a more casual environment. The free-flowing wine didn’t hurt, either.

  Kevin strolled their way after pouring a taste of red into the couple’s glasses. He stopped next to Lydia and rested his elbows on the reclaimed wood bar. “Hey, Rockstar. Can I get your autograph?” He batted his eyes and dipped his chin to his chest.

  “What are you talking about?” Izzy looked at Lydia, but she looked just as baffled as Izzy felt.

  “Well, it’s not every day one of my friends has her picture in the paper.”

  “What picture?” Lydia asked. “And why didn’t you tell me about this?”