“That’s good,” Brady said, nodding. “Funny. Warm. Makes the place seem welcome and readily inviting. None of you?”

“Nah,” Dell said. “I like the idea of just the animals. You can put one in Jade’s reading glasses behind her desk. One with my stethoscope sitting on this table, maybe.”

Brady had spent the day cataloging all that was wrong with the Bell 47, in a hurry to get that renovation on track. He’d spent the hours alone with his own thoughts, and they hadn’t always been good ones. At least ten times he’d started to go in search of Adam and Dell to tell them he didn’t want to stay for another twenty-nine days. He couldn’t handle the thinking.

But he hadn’t.

Now all he wanted to do was grab a shower and hit the sack, but he’d promised to take these pictures. He’d been dreading this, knowing the only time he liked being behind the camera was on his own terms. It was, after all, a creative release for him, not a chore. But he found himself liking Dell’s ideas for the pictures and felt an energetic creative surge. “Yeah,” he said. “We can do that. But are you going to materialize your patients? Because you sent them all home.”

“I’ve got that handled,” Dell said, just as the sounds of a wild stampede sounded from down the hall.

Brady poked his head out of the examination room in time to see Lilah appear, both hands occupied with myriad leashes. In one hand she had one, two, three dogs. No. Two dogs and a lamb. In her other hand she held Abigail’s leash. And Brady couldn’t help it-he felt the smile crack his face.

“I’ve got two cats and a bunny available as well,” she called out, blowing a few strands of hair from her eyes. “Where do you want us?”

Brady didn’t give a shit about where the animals went, but he knew exactly where he wanted her.

Beneath him, panting his name.

A little unsettled at that thought, he shoved a hand through his hair and shrugged at Dell. “You’re the director.”

“Um,” Dell said, looking guilty as he pulled his keys out of his pocket. “Actually, you are. I’ve got a date.”

“What?”

“Now don’t let the lamb scare you. Lulu’s really very sweet. Just don’t let her get her nose in the family jewels, man. She’s been known to take an unexpected bite.”

It wasn’t Lulu he was afraid of, and something of that must have shown on his face.

Dell studied him a moment, brow drawn. “I can trust you with her, right?”

“The lamb? Sure.”

When Dell only looked at him, Brady glanced at Lilah as she moved toward them and slowly shook his head. “Definitely not.”

“Christ,” Dell muttered, and swiped a hand down his face. “I’m going to hope to God you’re kidding.” And with that, he met Lilah halfway, kissed her cheek, shot one last long warning glance in Brady’s direction, and was gone.

Lilah came to a stop before Brady. “What was that?”

“Nothing.”

“You told him you couldn’t be trusted with me.”

Brady arched a brow. “So if you overheard, why did you ask?”

“Because I wanted to see what you would say. What kind of an answer was that?”

“What did you want me to say?” Brady asked her.

“Not that.”

He shrugged. “It was the truth.”

She stared up at him, looking a little flummoxed at that. “Oh,” she breathed.

Yeah, oh. Just being near her like this-she smelled like mangoes tonight-drained some of the tension in him, in spite of himself. No matter what she thought, she was a sight for sore eyes, that was for damn sure. She wore snug, hip-hugging jeans and a lacy white T-shirt that was sheer enough to reveal the white cami beneath it and a faint hint of an equally white bra.

Which he found ridiculously, inexplicably hot. The past few nights he’d fantasized about Lilah. He’d told himself that he was an ass, but his self seemed completely unconcerned.

The lamb-Lulu, he presumed-stepped forward and tried to shove her face into his crotch, but duly warned by Dell, Brady backed up.

“Don’t be afraid. She’s sweet.”

At Lilah’s words, Lulu appeared to smile, pulling back her lips to show her teeth, which didn’t look sweet to Brady.

“She just wants to catch your scent,” Lilah assured him.

Pushing aside images of dropping to his knees and pressing his face to Lilah’s crotch to catch her scent, he grabbed the dogs’ leashes from Lilah. Given the unstableness of his brain tonight, it was best to get this over with.

Two hours later, he got the last shot of the night, a cat sitting on Jade’s desk daintily washing her face with the computer opened on the schedule behind her.

Lilah gathered up all the animals while Brady slipped his camera back into its case. “Think you have everything you need?”

He knew he didn’t. Not even close. She looked up from wrapping a leash around her wrist, caught his expression, and went still. “Are you going to kiss me again?”

“Yeah,” he said, surprising himself as he moved in. With two dogs, a duck, a lamb, and a cat between them, he cupped her face and kissed her. A brush of his lips to hers, once, twice. Unable to pull away without more, he settled in against her mouth, their lips the only points of their body touching. He’d meant it to be short and sweet, but she made a sound that went straight through him and the kiss deepened, a hot, intense tangle of tongues that ended abruptly when one of the dogs at their feet barked.

She let out a shaky breath and backed to the door. “I don’t know what that means.”

He did. It meant he was fucked. “It means good night.”

She nodded and turned away but not before he caught the quick flash of disappointment and hurt.

“Lilah-”

But she was gone.


For two days Lilah worked and avoided going to Belle Haven, and for two days all she thought about was Brady. She knew from Adam that Brady had started uploading pics for their website and brochures. She knew from Jade that he was also working on the Bell, and apparently upping foot traffic to the center because he was looking good while doing it.

A part of Lilah had wanted to go see but she’d been busy. Busy thinking about her growing restlessness and what she needed. She was pretty sure that what she needed was Brady, but she wasn’t sure he was on board with the program.

“You okay?” Cruz asked after they worked the midday shift together.

“Yeah. Why?”

“We’ve had three customers mention the new guy”-Cruz put air quotes around new guy -“and you’ve gotten a look on your face each and every time.” He gave her an exaggerated look of dazed lust, complete with dopey eyes and tongue hanging out.

“I never look like that,” she said, and shoved him. They were in the back, organizing outside playtime. They had two of the dogs separated from the others because they were elderly and liked sedate, quiet playtime, which they’d just had. They were now lying happily on the floor at Lilah’s feet, cooling down, and she took a moment to hug each of them.

“You do so get that look. When it’s been a while since you got laid.”

“Bite me, Cruz.”

“I’d love to bite you,” he said as they escorted the older dogs back to their area and took out their three other guests; Lulu and two rambunctious dogs. “But been there, done that. And you bit back, remember?”

She laughed and, not for the first time, felt grateful that they’d realized that they were so much better together like this, bicker-buddies. It’d have been awful if they couldn’t make this work because she cared about him so very much and knew the feeling was mutual. “Kissing and telling, Cruz?”

“Biting and telling.”

They took the rest of the animals outside for supervised playtime in the sunshine and fresh air. Later, when they were back inside, Cruz administered meds and Lilah moved to the kitchen to do the dishes and general cleaning. Afterward, she worked on paperwork until it was pickup and drop-off time.

Celia came in for Lulu. Celia Ayala had been Lilah’s grandma Estelle’s frenemy and bridge partner for fifty years-until Estelle had committed the ultimate faux pas and gone to the Big Bridge Game in the sky. Alone.

Lilah accepted Celia’s check and wrote up a receipt.

Celia was the approximate size and shape of an Oompa-Loompa, and thanks to the new tanning salon in town, she had the same skin tone as one, too. “Can you book me for next Thursday, dear? Oh, and also tell me about the new sexy hunk working at Belle Haven. What’s his name?”

“Brady,” Lilah said without thinking, making Celia grin. “What?”

“I hear you’re seeing him.”

“What? No. No. I’m not, I only-” Kiss him every chance I get… “No,” she said again weakly.

“Someone told me you’d been seen in his truck.”

Lilah sighed. “I hit it. I was tired and-”

“You work too hard. Listen, dear. Your grandmother-bless her ornery soul-agreed with me on one thing.”

“Are you sure? Because I never knew you two to agree on anything.”

Celia waggled a finger. “We agreed on this. You only get one life. So you need to find the right man. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“Do you?”

“Listen to you,” Celia chided. “You have a mouth on you, just like Estelle did.”

Lilah thought about her beloved grandma, who for all intents and purposes had been her mom, her dad, her everything, and smiled even though her chest felt too tight. “You miss her.”

“She drove me crazy.” Celia sighed. “But yes, I miss her. She was my last friend. The rest are all dead. Since I’m planning on living forever, it’s going to be lonely. Now stop changing the subject. I’m old, not stupid. We all know how much you gave up to care for her in the end, but she’s gone, Lilah. It’s your turn to live.”

“I am.”

“Then stop wasting time talking to old ladies. Go back to kissing the hunk.”

Lilah stared at her. “How did you know?”