Rescue My Heart Read online

  “I’m not with Adam.”

  Her father gave her a long look. “Heard you come in at three this morning. What were you doing, hanging out at the library?”

  Well, hell. And actually, it had been three thirty. And the night before that, four thirty.

  She had no idea what she and Adam were doing, but it had involved lots of orgasms, and her body was A-OK with that.

  But actually, she knew exactly what she was doing. She knew how Adam looked at her. She knew how his touch felt, and what it meant. He was falling for her. She was just waiting for him to realize it, was all. “If Derek calls you again, please don’t talk to him.”

  “I told him if he calls here again, I’ll get a restraining order.”

  “I don’t think you can really—”

  Her dad pointed at her. “I told you from the very beginning that he was a bad idea. Didn’t I tell you that?”

  “So this is an ‘I told you so’?”

  “Hell no,” he said. “It’s a fix your damn problems, or I’ll fix them for you.”

  Good Lord. What was it with the alpha men in her life? “Stay out of it, Dad.”

  “Hmph.”

  “I mean it.”

  He eyed her steadily with his ruthless business eyes over his hot coffee. “I will if you will.”

  Crap.

  He nodded to his dogs. “I’ll take them to class tonight.”

  “But I…” She trailed off when he just looked at her. “What’s important here is continuity,” she said. “You go only sometimes and then send Red the other times. With me going all the time, they get consistency.”

  “Consistency,” he repeated.

  “That’s right. You have too much on your plate. I’m just doing what I can. You can thank me later.”

  “Can I,” he said dryly.

  “Yes.” She took her coffee and escaped to the office, where she kept herself busy until lunch.

  She met Kate at the bakery in town, where they sat at a tiny table and inhaled ham-and-cheese croissants, then shared a huge, fresh, warm brownie. Because everyone knew that sharing a brownie meant that the calories didn’t count.

  Kate looked out the window at the sleet free-falling from the sky. “If I hadn’t just used the last of my meager savings to pay my sister’s tuition, I’d be going to Costa Rica over winter break,” she said. “I’m tired of being all work and no play. I need an adventure. A warm adventure.”

  “They have big bugs in Costa Rica,” Holly said. Kate was adamantly opposed to bugs. She’d once called Holly in the middle of the night to come get the spider in her bathroom.

  “Well, if there are big bugs…” Kate sighed. “But God, I really need to get out of Sunshine. Not all of us get to find our adventure right here, with the hottest guy this side of the Continental Divide, you know.”

  “You are not talking about me.”

  “Uh, yeah, I am.” Kate used the opportunity to grab the last of the brownie. “You and Adam are doing the nasty. Bumping uglies. Getting jiggy with it—”

  “Stop.” Holly would have laughed, but she was horrified. “And please, for the love of God, stop watching cable TV.”

  “You two would make gorgeous babies, you know that? With his skin and eyes and your…”

  Holly choked on her tea. “My what?”

  “Sunny, sweet nature.” Kate flashed a smile.

  “Funny. But we’re not having kids. The man is relationship phobic, remember? We’re just…”

  Kate’s smile faded. “You’re just what?”

  “Taking it slow.”

  “Honey.” Kate squeezed her hand. “Tell me that you know that you deserve everything your heart desires, whether that turns out to be a Costa Rica zip-line adventure or a diamond ring.”

  Holly let out a breath and her deepest, darkest fear right along with it. “But what if the very thing that my heart desires can’t be had?” she whispered.

  “Then, maybe,” Kate said softly, gently, “it’s time to take a big step back and reevaluate. Go in another direction.”

  Ninety percent of Holly didn’t want to go in another direction. She liked this direction. But that last niggling ten percent could admit to wanting to shake an understandably emotionally gun-shy Adam and ask him—wasn’t she worth the risk?

  Adam had his hands full that night at his dog obedience class. A warm front storm had moved in, bringing rain by the buckets instead of the usual snow. It made things dangerous and had the entire county on flood watch.

  He held the class in the reception area of the vet center. It was a big reception room, but things were still tight. Actually, not things. Not even the dogs, all of whom were well behaved.

  It was the people.

  Gayle was still having trouble being in charge. Liza spent much of the hour making a play for his attention. And then there was Holly. On the surface, she was taking the obedience training very seriously. But there was an undercurrent between them that had the air crackling around them.

  When the class was over, everyone but Holly had filed out. She dallied, caught up in Thing One’s and Thing Two’s leashes.

  Jade was still behind her desk, her fingers clicking over her keyboard with authority as she spoke quietly into her ear set on the phone, but she still managed to give Adam a jerk of her chin indicating he should go help Holly.

  He did just that, moving up behind her, reaching around to grab the leashes from her.

  “She wants in your pants,” she said.

  “Thing One?”

  “Liza!”

  He went brows up, then leaned in close, brushing his jaw against hers. “And here I thought it was you who wanted in my pants.”

  Bessie came in through the back, pushing her ever-present broom. She grimaced. “Gonna pretend I didn’t hear that.”

  Holly blushed and glared at Adam as Bessie swept around their feet. The minute she moved away, Holly hissed, “And I’ve already been in your pants. Remember?”

  He wasn’t likely to ever forget. “And?”

  She crossed her arms. “Are you fishing for compliments? Does the self-made, self-assured, cocky-as-hell Adam Connelly need stroking?”

  “Well, I do like stroking.”

  She gave him a shove and he laughed.

  “I’m serious,” she said.

  “About the stroking?” He ran a hand down her back, gratified to feel a shiver wrack her body. “God, I hope so.”

  “I’m serious about this class,” she said, and elbowed him when his hand drifted south to her ass.

  “Uh-huh.”

  “I am! And it’s especially annoying because there are certain others who aren’t.”

  “I charge an arm and a leg for the training,” he said. “I’m pretty sure everyone’s taking it seriously.”

  “Everyone?”

  Both their gazes slid to the window. Outside in the pouring rain, Liza was loading her dog into her truck. She was in a clear rain poncho over her very interesting sweater, which had lots of cutouts. The sweater went with her high-heeled thigh-high black rubber boots. Sort of. Either she enjoyed BDSM or she was going to a costume party later as a dominatrix. She climbed into her truck, managing to flash the world what she had on under her miniskirt—a thong.

  “Who wears a miniskirt to a dog training class?” Holly murmured.

  “She says all the exercise during class makes her warm, so she dresses accordingly.”

  “Well, you gotta give her props for creativity.” She paused. “I got more flowers.”

  He frowned. Who the hell was sending her flowers?

  She took in his reaction. “And they’re still not from you.”

  He opened his mouth, but she beat him to the punch. “No, it’s okay,” she said. “I don’t even like flowers. I mean sure, they smell good and they’re pretty and lighten up a room, but I’d rather have candy, anyway…”

  He didn’t know what to do with the embarrassment and unhappiness in her gaze—or the fact that he felt like the b