When he first met her a few years ago, it was on a professional level. He and his partner had brought in a teenage girl who’d been the victim of a hit-and-run. The seriously injured teen had been in severe pain and was screaming for her mom, who’d yet to be identified or notified.
Simone had begun talking softly to her at first, soothing the teen’s fears, while doing her job and getting a name and number for the mother.
Mike had walked away from the E.R. that night with a great deal of respect for her. Respect had given way to admiration, and over the course of the year, Mike had taken a long, hard fall for her.
There’d even been a time or two when he’d caught her looking at him, passion clearly brewing in those soulful brown eyes. A guy didn’t misread something like that.
Yet even though he knew she felt something for him too, she’d turned down each of his attempts to date her.
Then came the cocktail party that Dr. Peter Wilder had hosted.
Simone had been a warm and sexy woman that night, her walls and her legion of defense mechanisms down for the count.
But she’d soon grown distant, claiming it had all been a mistake and referring to what they’d experienced as a one-night stand.
As soft footsteps sounded, he glanced up and smiled.
But she didn’t return the friendly greeting. Instead, she seemed nervous, agitated and slightly unbalanced.
Of course, she’d been acting that way around him ever since they’d slept together. So maybe he shouldn’t read too much into it.
She nodded at the box he held. “What do you have in there?”
He untucked the lid and pulled out a sleepy puppy, its black-and-white coat soft and curly. It didn’t take a blood test to determine that it had various quantities of cocker spaniel, poodle and terrier DNA.
“Oh my gosh. He’s darling.” Simone started toward Mike, then stiffened and froze. “Wait a minute. You said you brought me something. I hope you’re not thinking that I’d consider taking in another dog.”
“Well, I didn’t exactly plan to give little Wags to you permanently, but he and I really do need your help.”
She tilted her head slightly to the side. “What’s going on?”
He held the puppy close, and it nuzzled against him, then gave him a lick. “I was out jogging yesterday and found this poor little guy wandering on the dirt trail near the river. He’s too young to be alone like that. And since we weren’t near any neighborhoods, it was obvious that he’d been abandoned. So I couldn’t just leave him there.”
Her stance softened—just a bit.
“I ended my run right there, then took him home. I even checked with the animal shelter, but so far, no one has reported him missing.”
She looked at the puppy, which was squirming to get down and start checking out its new surroundings.
“Poor little guy.” Simone reached out and scratched its head. “I wonder who would abandon him like that.”
“That’s why I decided to keep him,” Mike admitted.
She looked up and caught his gaze. “Then why is he here?”
“Because right now, I’m sharing a house with Leif, and when I took Wags home, I found out that Leif is allergic to pet dander. So if I’m going to keep him, I’ll have to find another place to live sooner than I anticipated. I’ll also need someone to keep him for me until then.”
“And that someone is me?” She stroked one of the puppy’s ears.
Good, she was beginning to warm and, hopefully, to bond. “Leif’s sister is a real estate agent, and she’s going to search the MLS listing for something in my price range.”
Of course, even if the agent found something that Mike liked, escrows took time. So he was hoping Simone wouldn’t mind puppy-sitting for quite a while.
“Here.” Mike handed Wags to Simone. “What do you think? My options are limited, and I can’t just dump him at a pet-boarding place when he’s so young.”
Okay, so that wasn’t entirely true. Mike did have other options. He could find the puppy another home, maybe with one of the firefighters at the department. Surely someone would want him. After all, a puppy as cute as Wags stood a heck of a lot better chance at being adopted than Woofer. But there was no need to mention that to Simone. Not when Mike was hoping she’d take the fluffy, black-and-white pup and allow him to visit her regularly.
Wags gave Simone a wet, loving lick on the chin, softening her even more.
“All right,” she finally said. “He can stay. But only until you find another place. I have no idea how Woofer is going to feel about having him here, and I could be making a big mistake.”
“You said Woofer doesn’t even know that he’s a dog,” Mike said. “He thinks he’s human. And all kids need a pet. Woofer will probably love having this little guy to pal around with.”
“I hope so.”
Mike knew so. Finding Wags hadn’t been an accident. Fate had stepped in to give him and Simone another helping hand.
“Where are his things?” Simone asked.
“His things?”
“You know, puppy food, toys…”
Simone’s pretty brown eyes grew large and luminous. “All you brought is a puppy and an empty cardboard box?”
Oops. He’d been in such a hurry to bring Wags to Simone that he hadn’t thought about her not having everything the puppy would need. Last night, he’d knotted up an old sock for him to chew on, although he’d left it at home. And then he’d fed him some leftover steak that had been chopped up. This morning, he’d given Wags scrambled eggs and bacon. So it wasn’t as if he’d neglected to take care of him. But a shopping trip was definitely in order.
He could do it on his own, but maybe it would be in his best interests to feign ignorance. “I’ll be happy to purchase whatever he needs, but you’d better come with me. I’m not sure what to buy.”
She looked at him in disbelief, and he suspected she might decline to go with him.
But then again, fate seemed to be working in his favor when she handed Wags back to him. “All right. You take the puppy to the car and I’ll meet you there.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I need to go to the bathroom and grab my purse.”
“Your purse is in the bathroom?”
She shot him a frown that suggested she didn’t find his joke funny. “Just give me a minute, will you?”
Sure. He’d give her all the time she needed.
At thirty-two, he was ready to get married. And if it took her a bit longer to get used to the idea, then so be it.
Her arguments would soon go by the wayside.
So what if she was older than he was? Or if she wasn’t used to big, happy families?
And so what if she wasn’t ready to settle down?
Mike was a focused competitor and believed that there wasn’t anything he couldn’t do or have—once he set his mind to it.
And he’d set his mind—and his heart—on Simone.
Chapter Two
Simone handed little Wags back to Mike. She hoped and prayed he wouldn’t ask to use her bathroom before she got rid of the testing apparatus. If he did, she’d have to race him