Animal Magnetism Read online

  “I’m not suffering from anything.”

  “Except an inability to connect.”

  Brady snorted. “Look at you, not letting your psych degree go to waste.”

  Dell smiled. “It was only my minor.”

  Brady turned back to the window.

  “We’re updating the center’s website, which has really taken off. Appointments, self-help with animals, training— it’s all going on there. Adam took pictures of our clients, both the owners and the animals. People love to see themselves on the site. Or they would, except Adam has this tendency to cut heads off. Think you could do better?”

  Brady sighed. “Dell—”

  “I just thought while you’re here . . . ”

  Fuck. “Yeah. I can take pictures that include heads.”

  “I was hoping you’d say that.”

  There were framed pictures on the windowsill. Adam in full search-and-rescue gear surrounded by four beautiful golden retrievers, all wearing red rescue totes. Lilah and a guy he didn’t recognize, both seated on a tailgate of a truck mugging for the camera. Dell on a horse. “You’re happy here,” Brady said.

  “Very. Maybe you’ll feel the same.”

  Brady shook his head. “Why does it matter so much to you?”

  “Sol gave us this land. All of us. But Adam and I have gotten all the benefits.”

  “You guys built this place. It’s yours.”

  “You know, once we meant something to each other.”

  Surprised by the vehemence in Dell’s voice, Brady looked at him. “Yes.”

  At that, Del seemed to relax marginally. “We came from nothing—less than nothing—the three of us. And we forged a family. Your family, you stubborn ass, whether you like it or not.”

  Brady’s eyes locked on the last picture. A lone man, head shaved, built like a tree trunk, staring into the camera with fierce intensity, and just looking at him made Brady’s chest ache like hell. Sol. “I know,” he said very quietly.

  Besides him, Dell let out a breath. “I was beginning to wonder if I was going to have to kick your ass to remind you.”

  Brady let out a rare smile. Because it was true that Dell had kicked Brady’s ass, exactly once. Of course Brady had been drunk as a skunk at the time and already down for the count. They’d been teenagers, and once Sol had gotten hold of them, they’d all been down for the count because Sol had made them drink the rest of the stolen vodka, watching in stoic silence as each of them had puked up their guts. Probably not a condoned method of parenting, but it’d worked.

  Brady had never overindulged again.

  “I could have taken you even without the vodka,” Dell said, reading Brady’s mind.

  “Hey, whatever helps you sleep at night.”

  They both laughed softly, the tension gone. “When the Bell came into our possession,” Dell said, “I knew we had you.”

  Brady blew out a breath. What the hell. No use denying that. He was here in the States with nowhere else pressing to be, and it was a sweet old chopper. “Yeah.”

  “You going to stick, then?”

  Chances were he’d stick all right. He’d stick out like a sore thumb. But he was used to that. And what the hell. He watched as below Lilah carefully picked back up her precious bundle, loving him up as she did so.

  He wouldn’t mind being loved up by those arms, that was for damn sure. “For a month,” he heard himself say. “Just a month.”

  Five

  Lilah took Toby back to the kennels. Actually, she had no idea what the dog’s name was since he hadn’t come with a collar, but he was an adorable mass of tangled fluff and looked like a Toby to her. He was also in desperate need of a bath, but getting him cleaned up turned out to be tricky since he told her he was deathly afraid of water.

  Loudly.

  She sweet-talked him into calming down and carefully soaped him up, working around the stitches from his surgery, and ended up wearing more of the soap than he did. Keeping up a steady stream of soft cooing and baby talk seemed to soothe his concerns quite a bit.

  “There,” she murmured. “Doesn’t that feel better, to be clean?” Giving him a final rinse, she wrapped him in a towel.

  He watched her solemnly from the most adorable, soul-searching eyes she’d ever seen, then very carefully licked her face.

  “My second kiss of the day,” she said.

  “And the first?” Cruz asked, coming into the back, leading Lulu the lamb to her pen.

  “Not telling,” Lilah said.

  Lulu stretched her neck and tried to take a nip out of Cruz’s tush, and Lilah burst out laughing.

  “That’s okay,” Cruz told the lamb. “All the ladies want to bite my ass. You can’t help yourself.”

  Lilah rolled her eyes. “You leaving for your gig?”

  “Yes. Unless you want to take a bite out of my ass. No?” he asked, grinning when Lilah just gave him a shove to the door. “Okay, but you’re missing out. I taste better than the jelly filling you have on your right boob.”

  Lilah looked down. Strawberry jelly, from her toast. “Balls!”

  “Balls?”

  She sighed. “I can’t afford to say ‘Goddammit.’ I’m out of cash for the swear jar. And stop looking at my boob!”

  He fished a five out of his pocket and slapped it into her hand for her swear jar. “Even though I don’t like to hear a woman talk disparagingly about my second favorite body part,” he said on a laugh as he left.

  Alone, Lilah began the afternoon routine of cleaning out cages, changing blankets, changing water bowls, and starting laundry. She fed everyone and administered any medicines required. Then she cleaned and disinfected the entire kennel.

  After that, she dealt with all the animal pickups and drop-offs for the day, which they had scheduled for certain hours only to make the running of the place go a little smoother. Then she took their overnight guests—all dogs today, plus Abigail—for one last walk before tucking everyone in for the night.

  With that done, she faced her desk. She was behind in the paperwork and needed to type up their monthly news-letter and file, not to mention a little thing called study.

  It used to stress her out how much endless work there always seemed to be, but it piled up in the best of times and she’d learned to let some of the little stuff go.

  She gave Toby an extra treat, and while he wolfed it down, she went to her computer and pulled up the database of people in town who were willing to foster animals and had already been thoroughly checked out and approved. She ran through the list, calling potential candidates and hitting bingo on the third try. A woman named Shelly who worked at the rec center had lost her dog to a coyote earlier in the year. Lilah didn’t know Shelly personally, just in passing, but she was relieved to find her so ecstatic about Toby. Shelly said she could get him first thing in the morning if Lilah wouldn’t mind meeting her in town since the roads out to the kennels were still bad from the rains and Shelly only had a VW Beetle. They arranged to meet at the bakery, which worked for Lilah. Two birds with one stone and all that.

  She’d have to eat a bag of carrots tonight to make up for the donuts she’d consume in the morning but it would be worth it.

  With that accomplished, Lilah broke her own rules by taking Toby home with her, letting him sleep on a soft blanket next to her bed.

  Sadie hopped up onto the mattress to look disdainfully down at the rumpled, tired dog.

  “You were a stray, too,” Lilah reminded her.

  Sadie gave her a banal stare.

  “Stop. It’s just for the night. And you will not smack him around.”

  Sadie lifted her nose in the air, turned in a circle, and daintily sat with her back to Toby, as if to drive the point home that he wasn’t even worth watching.

  Sighing, Lilah pulled open her books to study, but she had trouble concentrating. Her mind was on the new strays. Toby, of course, but also the six foot, blue-eyed, badass stray who’d kissed like heaven on earth.

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