entire mess. But since this wasn’t the Savages’ fault, Kate took care to be super polite.
Myrna ushered them into the living room, where Ed stood waiting with a dog’s travel crate at his feet. Kate caught a glimpse of Stella’s ginger coat and her heart began to drum. She wouldn’t be able to breathe properly until this was done and she had her poodle back.
“If you don’t mind, I’d like to propose a few guidelines,” she said to the couple. “How about if you’re on one side of the room, and I’m on the other? Matt can put Stella-”
Myrna stood her ground. “Bitsy.”
“The poodle,” Matt suggested.
Kate pressed her lips together. “Matt can put
“How do I know you’re not cheating?” Myrna said, suspiciously sniffing Kate. “You smell like bacon.”
Kate emptied her pockets onto the table. No bacon. Myrna sniffed again. “I think you still smell like bacon.”
Matt picked up a can of Febreze from beside the couch. He generously sprayed both the women and stepped back. “Okay, then. Let’s do it,” Kate said, wiping her sweaty palms on her pants legs.
Matt retrieved the travel crate from Ed while Myrna moved to her husband’s side.
Matt placed himself in the middle of the room. “Everybody ready?”
“Yes.”
Matt opened the crate and withdrew Stella, who emerged with an obvious show of stubbornness. She didn’t care that she weighed five pounds. She was mistress of her own domain.
Stella looked healthy, though she probably felt a little embarrassed by the hokey haircut-aircat she we pom on the end of her tail and balls on each hip, just as Kate had suspected.
Stella looked around, her brown eyes bright with curiosity, and Kate focused on her poodle, willing her to look her way.
Matt set Stella down.
Myrna clapped her hands and made some kissy noises. “Bitsy-kins. Come to Mommy.”
Stella looked Myrna’s way once, then took a casual sniff at Matt’s shoe before turning away from him, too. Kate smiled. Who wouldn’t love a poodle that played hard to get?
“Come on, Bitsy… Be a good precious babykins,” Myrna cooed.
Kate figured that even in the time Stella and she had been apart, her dog couldn’t have had a personality transplant. And that being the case, Kate knew just what to do. She plopped herself down on the beige carpet, her back to the beige wall, and feigned total disinterest.
Stella grew a tad miffed at Kate’s nonchalance. She took one step, then another toward Kate, just as Kate had hoped. Now was the time for a little girl talk, Stella-style.
“Hey, Stella,” Kate said. “You’re looking pretty good. How have you been doing? Scare any Dobermans lately?”
Stella’s ears perked up, and she ran to Kate and settled in her lap.
Kate nestled her cheek against Stella’s soft fur. “You’re the Best Dog Ever. I missed you so much.”
And Matt was the Best Man Ever, Kate thought. He’d brought her back together with her Stella.
FOURTEEN
Stella must have been royalty in a prior life. Kate could find no other reason for the dog to be so unimpressed with the hotel Matt had chosen. Kate, on the other hand, was wowed by the Townley Inn. Her room looked like something out of an English country manor-all dark woods, plush carpets, and rich upholstery. And her bed was a fantasy-worthy, feather-down dream made for lovers. At the moment, though, she shared it with a cranky poodle.
Kate sat alongside the dog at the end of the mattress. Matt sat opposite them in a desk chair he’d pulled up to their white-linen-covered room service cart. “They must have been feeding her from the table,” Kate said. “Look at the way she’s turning up her nose at the food I bought her. It’s going to be tough getting her back on regular dog food.”
Stella was eyeing the final bite of tenderloin on Matt’s plate. He speared the meat with his fork, and the poodle huffed out a sigh as her last shot at prime beef disappeared down Matt’s throat.
Chicken breast with roasted autumn vegetables demolished, Kate set her fork aside. “Have I thanked you for Stella in the last ten minutes?”
Matt’s expression was a cross between amusement and resignation. “I just did what any other guy would have.”
“Not Richard.”
“No, not Richard.”
There were a lot of things about her ex she could have shared with Matt, but none of them really mattered.
“Luckily, he’s not my problem anymore,” she said.
Matt smiled at her, his eyes softened, and the room grew warmer as those big bed fantasies charged to the front of Kate’s mind.
“I’ll clear the cart to the hall,” Matt said.
Kate watched him push the cart out the door. This was it, she thought. Here they were in a romantic hotel room. Just the two of them… and Stella. Perfect, right? Wrong. Not perfect. For starters, she was wearing a T-shirt that advertised beer. Plus, she suspected her lipstick had gotten gnawed off at Myrna’s, and her hair was a wreck. He, on the other hand, was hot. His T-shirt molded suggestively to his gorgeous body. His butt looked great in his jeans. His hair was tousled just enough to be sexy, and he had a manly five o’clock shadow going.
Okay, don’t panic, she told herself. Get a grip. Should she stand? Should she sit? Should she lounge back onto the bed? Should she get undressed? No, definitely no undressing. She wasn’t ready for undressing.
Matt returned to the room, closed the door, and Kate jumped up from the bed.
“Well?” Kate said.
Their eyes met and held for a moment, and Matt glanced over his shoulder at the door.
Either he was checking to make sure it was locked, or else he was planning on leaving, Kate thought. Best not to take any chances on him leaving, she decided. It was now or never, so she moved in and kissed him. Definitely not her best work, but then in her defense, she was a little rusty.
He tilted his head and looked at her. “What was that?”
She stepped back while finding some way to hedge her poor move. “A good-night kiss between friends?”
“Really?”
“More or less.”
He looked at her with the same hot intensity he’d shown the night she’d sung in the karaoke contest. But this time she wasn’t scared. At least not much.
“I thought we were closer friends than that.”
“How close of friends?” she asked.
Matt didn’t answer with words. Instead, he kissed her deeply. Intimately. Kate could swear she heard herself moan as his hand moved to the small of her back. She’d been starving for this.
There was no point in fighting it. Her willpower was shot. He was too sexy. Too near. Too perfect. She wanted his body heat and the feel of him taking her to that place she’d missed so much.
“Hang on, sweetheart,” he said.
No problem, because she’d already wrapped her arms around his neck.
He scooped her up and settled her on the bed. He switched off the bedside lamp, and Kate reached for him. His weight settled over her, pushing her deep into the heavenly soft comforter.
She let her fingers flex into the muscles on the back of his shoulders as he claimed her mouth with his once again.
