Animal Attraction Read online

  hand on his arm.

  “Thanks,” she said. “For not pushing.”

  He looked down at her fingers on his. “You’re safe here, you know that, right?”

  She nodded, and for a second, neither of them moved as that something new zinged between them. Smarter than him, and also faster, Jade pulled free and stared at him.

  “Boner,” Peanut said.

  Six

  As Dell walked away, Jade drew a deep breath and attempted to shrug off her tension. Only it didn’t shrug off. Her shoulders were so tense they felt like pins and needles were stabbing into them, and now there was something odd going on low in her belly as well.

  You could be halfway to somewhere new by now, said a little voice in her head. She told the cowardly weasel to zip it and held her chin high.

  She wasn’t going anywhere. So she’d had a minor setback yesterday, she could recover. She could go back to burying the past.

  She could.

  She would.

  Her cell phone rang. Normally she’d ignore it at work, but she pounced on that sucker.

  “Just looked at the calendar.” It was Sam, her cousin. “And guess what, J? It’s the first of October.”

  “Happens every month,” Jade agreed, ignoring the significance. “What are you doing calling so early, is everything okay?”

  “I was going to ask you the same thing.”

  She glanced at her watch and added an hour for Chicago time. “Wow, so you no longer sleep late?”

  “Haven’t slept more than five hours straight since med school. And then, to make it worse, a certain cousin of mine skipped out on her job and left us all in the lurch. I’m working my ass off.”

  “Poor baby. And that fat paycheck doesn’t help at all?”

  Sam blew out a breath and softened his voice. “Okay, truth, J. How are you doing really?”

  “Fantastic.” But they’d grown up together and were as close as family got. She couldn’t bullshit him, she didn’t even try. “I’ve been better.”

  “Goddammit,” he said quietly. “Tell me you’re still on track to be here by November first as promised. And if you say you need more time, I’m coming out there to drag you back here myself.”

  “I’m on track.”

  “Good,” he said. “Because your town house misses you.”

  “My town house misses me?”

  “Yeah. And the office misses you.”

  “Now that I believe,” she said, thinking if all that missed her in Chicago was inanimate objects, why go back?

  “Things are going downhill, Jade. Sandy’s not on top of everything like you always were. We’re suffering without you.”

  Guilt washed over her. “That can’t be true.”

  “Believe it. I hate to ask anything of you, but . . .”

  “But you’re going to, anyway?” Jade asked dryly.

  “Can you call in and talk to Sandy? She came from running just the Urgent Care, she’s not used to this. She’s got some computer problems and—”

  “Sam, Sandy’s good. She knows what to do.” Jade had made sure of it.

  “Yes but she’s not you. The office management has gone to hell. We’re losing patients, babe. People are tired of the long wait at the front desk. Phone calls are getting routed to our service in the middle of the day. We’re losing out on business.”

  “You’re not—”

  Sam laughed mirthlessly. “It’s a ‘we,’ Jade. We’re a ‘we,’ in business and in family. In everything.”

  She pinched the bridge of her nose. “I’m working on it, Sam.”

  “I know.”

  The worry in his voice made her want to try to reassure him. She’d spent most of her life being the center of the family, the go-to girl. When she’d bailed from Chicago, she’d left a lot more than the city behind. “I keep thinking I’m working my way back to myself,” she admitted. “But the truth is I’m not. I don’t think I’m who I thought I was.”

  “You’re still our Jade,” he said firmly. “You are.”

  She wished she was as sure.

  Sam blew out a breath. “Listen, don’t worry about us right now. Tell me what’s going on with you. I woke up with this need to talk to you and there’s something in your voice.”

  “It’s nothing. I just had a little setback, that’s all.”

  “Flashbacks? Nightmares?”

  “Some.”

  “Fuck, I hate this. I’m caught between that stupid promise I never should have made and—”

  “Not a stupid promise,” she interrupted. “I’m going to be okay, Sam. Really.”

  “You’ve been saying that for eighteen months.” His voice softened. “Everyone got counseling but you.”

  “I wasn’t hurt.”

  “Bullshit, you weren’t. Now get your ass back here so we can take care of you. We have the best of the best, and you know it. Come home now.”

  There were built-in stakes to that plan, of course. Her parents. Sam. A business she’d been born to run. A town house she’d bought and loved . . . It was hard to say no.

  It’d always been hard to say no. She hadn’t been bred for the no. She’d been a pleaser. And that deep-seated instilled need she had to make people happy had nearly killed her. She glanced around her at the animal center that she’d made her life for now.

  For now . . .

  A temporary haven, that’s all she’d expected it to be. But Sunshine had opened its arms for her, taken her in, given her refuge. She’d made connections here, deep ones. And through those connections she’d discovered a different side of herself. A side that believed no was a full sentence. A side that was beginning to have her own hopes and dreams, not the ones she’d been born into.

  Her eyes locked onto a pair of warm, curious brown ones.

  Dell’s.

  “I’ll be there by the first, as promised.”

  “Jade—”

  “Bye, Sam.” She closed her phone.

  “Problem?” Dell asked.

  “Yes, but not yours.” She paused, then felt compelled by the sheer force of his personality to say more. “My old job.”

  He arched a brow. “You didn’t list any past jobs on your app.”

  No, she hadn’t.

  “You going back to that same job when you go home?”

  “Yes.”

  He nodded and she paused, trying to decide how best to handle this. “I didn’t list the job on my résumé because I didn’t have any vet experience.”

  “But you have office experience,” he said softly. “Big office experience. You were more than a receptionist.”

  “Yes.”

  “What were you, Jade?”

  The gig was up a long time ago, she reminded herself. “Chief operating officer of a medical center. It’s really just a fancy title for office manager and full-charge bookkeeper.” She braced herself for the questions. Like why was she a thousand miles from home working a job she was obviously way overqualified for? And why had she given up that job in the first place, and did it have anything to do with whatever the hell had given her a near mental breakdown in the parking lot the night before?

  But Dell didn’t ask her any of those questions. He didn’t ask her anything. He merely nodded and slid his hands into his pockets. Totally at ease.

  “I should have told you,” she said.

  “You didn’t have to.” He walked back into her work space, Gertie so close on his heels that when Dell stopped, the dog bumped into him.

  Gertie slid Dell a reproachful look.

  Dell ruffled the top of her head, and Gertie’s expression softened with unconditional love. “Down, Gert.”

  “Down, Gert,” Peanut said, and Gertie plopped to the floor, the ground shaking under her graceless descent.

  “I like hearing about you, Jade,” Dell said. “I’d like to hear more.”

  “Trust me, you don’t.”

  He gave her a small smile. “Not for you to decide, is it?” He leaned over her