Chapter 19

She looked up, joy alive in her face. In the moment.

She was so absolutely present with the dog that all he could do was stare.

And Ryker, just like him, was taken with her. Had she flipped a switch or something?

“He likes liver.” She rubbed his butt, and Ryker wiggled, flipped onto his back.

He nodded, aware an odd time-warp seemed to have descended on them. Or a cone of silence, one just encompassing the three of them. “He does. And sausages. But what dog doesn’t?”

“Prince is crazy for both of those. And curiously—corn. Whenever I eat corn, I swear that dog shows up. Slaps one paw on the cob, gnaws at it.” She grinned, and wow. That expression had never looked more natural on anyone else. Her face relaxed into it, like she lived there a lot.

“Prince?”

“My German Shepherd. Two years old, but what an animal. Protects me like crazy but the sweetest soul you’d ever want to meet. Just a big kid.”

He felt confused. “You guys have a Shepherd already?”

She let Ryker continue puppy-attacking her hand and arm, while she sat back on her heels and surveyed him. “I have the craziest feeling you’re mistaking me for someone else. I have a German Shepherd, and his name is Prince. There’s no ‘you guys’. My family in Jack’s Bay does have a quite a collection of canines, some cats, and other animals too. But Prince is mine.”

He pressed three fingers to his forehead. “Your family?”

“Yeah.” She sounded lightly irritated. “The St. James?”

Crap almighty. That’s why she looked vaguely familiar. He’d seen her picture in the Journal back issues, at town events.

The woman rolling in the dirt in a fancy, cream-colored suit caked with mud and grit with his little backwoods pup was one of them. The rich St. James.

Suddenly his throat felt like sandpaper. How had this whole thing happened? “I thought you were…”

And, oh hell. “Sorry. I know who you are now.”

She looked at him quizzically, but oddly, he sensed that the look held no judgment. And when he didn’t add to his statement, she just nodded. Grabbed a little stick from at her feet and threw it for Ryker who ran off after it, thrilled with his new mission. She took that brief chance to scramble up from the dirt.

“Well, listen. I’m interrupting your day. It looked like you had a plan when you were carrying this crazy little bag of fur,” —and here her voice got a touch thick though she recovered— “back to your home a few minutes ago. I should get going.”

“Sure.” He nodded. “But I am kinda wondering.” He scanned her outfit up and down. “What were you doing?”

She shook her head, cast her eyes downward briefly, and a captivating flush rose to her face. For a woman who’d held her ground and wore…that outfit…effortlessly, he didn’t expect embarrassment.

“I do look like a severe Kate Spade reject, don’t I?” She paused. “To be honest, I don’t know how you’ll take this, and if you’re angry, I’ll accept it. But…I was a bit worried. I’d been by once before and Ryker hadn’t looked too happy. I just thought I’d check on…things.”

And he remembered. The other day, the woman, crouching at his door, talking soothing baby-talk to Ryker.

It was her.

And it made the way she was treating him all the more remarkable. The honesty was…surprising. Painful, but…clean. She was upfront with him.

Most people weren’t. But there had to be more to the story.

“In that get-up?”

She shrugged, and her face held a rueful expression. “I know. I was on my way to a meeting, and I just wanted to check.” She scraped at the mud with a grimace. “Obviously, this wasn’t part of the plan. I actually was just going to turn back, but when I heard Ryker cry out …well, you know the rest.”

“The whole guerrilla hiding-in-the-underbrush thing.”

A faint smile flashed on her face. “That.”

And suddenly, it was very important to him that she understand. “There was someone here, just a few minutes ago, that didn’t treat him too well.”

“Ahh. That’s when he cried out.”

Nathan felt his face go into a hard mask again. “Yeah.”

The realization dawned in her face. “And you thought I was somehow connected? Hence the tough guy act?”

“Yeah. Sorry about that. But I sent them packing.”

“Gotcha.” She nodded matter-of-factly, and with that, he got an unexpected warm and fuzzy feeling. The foregone conclusion that of course he, Mr. Responsible Dog Owner, would send them packing.

It felt good.

But she was picking away at the mud that was drying on her suit. He smiled. “Under the circumstances, the addition of that stuff was brilliant. Just looks like camouflage, you know?”

She grinned. “It does. Maybe a few more twigs in my hair. I’d be perfect then.”

You’re pretty perfect now. And he clamped down on that thought.

But she looked so cute, picking dirt off what looked to be a hellaciously expensive designer suit and doing so as if it was the most normal thing in the world, that all he could do was grin back at her. Her in her fancy mud-splattered suit, him in his old clothes, kibitzing like it was the most normal thing in the world.

“Well listen, I’ve taken too much of your time already. I’ll be on my way.” She reached down and tickled the adoring dog under the chin, then flashed him a smile. “He looks just fine.”

And suddenly, call him insane, but he didn’t want her to go. Not just yet.

“Hold on. You don’t have to go yet. Why don’t you…” At a loss for words, he was unusually appreciative when the little whirling dervish of tan fur came barreling toward him. “…come back to the cabin and help me feed him?”

She lit up. “Oh, I’d love that. I mean…I’m not interrupting? I’ve got to message someone and reschedule a thing but after that I’ve got a bit of time.”

“Well, come on then.”

Suddenly, Ryker stopped. Opened his mouth, and howled.

“Oh man. Here, Ryker.” Nathan scooped up the pup, held him to his chest and he swore he caught a sheen in the young woman’s eyes. He smiled at her over the top of Ryker’s head, jerked his head. “Let’s go. This way. Party of three.”