Simply Irresistible

exchange sugar.”

“He’s stopped shaking.” Lexie rubbed her cheek against the clog’s face and he licked her ear.

“You’ll have to give him back now.”

“But he loves me, and I love him. Can’t I keep him?”

“Oh, no. Your mother would kill me.”

“She won’t mind.”

John heard the catch in Lexie’s voice and knelt down beside her. He felt his other engine die with the ground rushing up at him. He had to think up something fast before he crashed. “Yes, she will, but I’ll tell you what. I’ll buy you a turtle and you can keep him at my house, and every time you come over, you can play with him.”

With the dog curled up happily in her arms, Lexie leaned into John’s chest. “I don’t want a turtle. I want little Pongo.”

“Little Pongo? You can’t name him, Lexie. He’s not yours.”

Tears welled up in Lexie’s eyes and her chin trembled. “But I love him, and he loves me.”

“Wouldn’t you rather have a real dog? We can look at real dogs next weekend.”

She shook her head. “He is a real dog. He’s just really little. He doesn’t have a mommy, and if I leave him here, he’ll miss me really bad.” Her tears spilled over her bottom lashes and she sobbed, “Please, Daddy, let me keep Pongo.”

John’s heart collided with his ribs and surged up into his throat. He looked into his daughter’s pitifully sad face, and he crashed. He burned. No chance of a reprieve. He was a sucker. She’d called him “Daddy.” He reached for his wallet and surrendered his Visa to the happy saleslady.

“Okay,” he said, and put his arms around Lexie and pulled her closer. “But your mom is going to kill us.”

“Really? I can keep Pongo?”

“I guess so.”

Her tears increased and she buried her face in his neck. “You’re the best daddy in the whole world,” she wailed, and he felt moisture against his skin. “I’ll be a good girl forever and ever.” Her shoulders shook and the dog shook and John was afraid that he would start shaking, too. “I love you, Daddy,” she whispered.

If he didn’t do something quick, he’d start bawling like Lexie. He’d start bawling like a girl right there in front of the saleswoman. “I love you, too,” he said, then cleared his throat. “We better buy some food.”

“And you’ll probably need a crate,” the saleslady informed him as she took off with his credit card. “And since he has very little hair, a sweater, too.”

By the time John loaded Lexie and Pongo and the dog’s accoutrements into the Range Rover, he was almost a thousand dollars lighter. On the way across town toward Bellevue, Lexie chattered up a blue streak and sang lullabies to her dog. But the closer they got to her street, the quieter she became. When John pulled to a stop beside the curb, silence filled the car.

John helped Lexie out of the vehicle, and neither spoke as they headed up the sidewalk. They stopped beneath the porch light, both staring at the closed door, postponing the moment when they would have to face Georgeanne with the shivering rat in Lexie’s arms.

“She’s going to be real mad,” Lexie informed him barely above a whisper.

John felt her small hand grasp his. “Yep. Shit’s gonna hit the fan.”

Lexie didn’t correct his language. She just nodded and said, “Yep.”

You can have your career with the Chinooks, or you can have Georgeanne. You can’t have both. He almost laughed. Even if he were to suddenly fall madly in love with Georgeanne, he figured that after tonight, his career was as secure as Fort Knox.

The door opened and John’s prediction about the fan came to fruition. Georgeanne looked from John to Lexie, then to the shaking dog in Lexie’s arms. “What is that?”

Lexie kept quiet and let John do the talking. “Uh, we went into a pet store and-”

“Oh no!” Georgeanne wailed. “You took her to a pet store? She’s not allowed in pet stores. The last time she cried so hard she threw up.”

“Well, look on the bright side, she didn’t get sick this time.”

“Bright side?” She pointed to Lexie’s arms and shrieked, “Is that a dawg?”

“That’s what the saleslady said, but I’m still not convinced.”

“Take it back.”

“No, Mommy. Pongo’s mine.”

“Pongo? You named it already?” She looked at John and her eyes narrowed. “Fine. Pongo can live with John.”

“I don’t have a yard.”

“You have a deck. That’s good enough.”

“He can’t live with Daddy ‘cause I’d only get to see him on the weekends, then I wouldn’t get to train him not to potty on the carpet.”

“Train whom? Pongo or your daddy.”

“That’s not funny, Georgie.”

“I know. Take it back, John.”

“I wish I could. But the sign by the cash register said all sales are final. I can’t take Pongo back.” He looked at Georgeanne standing there looking as beautiful as always and mad as hell. But for the first time since Cannon Beach, he didn’t want to fight with her. He didn’t want to provoke her any more than he had already. “I’m sorry about this, but Lexie started crying and I couldn’t say no. She named him and cried on my neck and I handed the saleslady my credit card.”

“Alexandra Mae, get in the house.”

“Uh-oh,” Lexie said, then tucked her dog, ducked her head, and ran past her mother.

John moved to follow, but Georgeanne blocked his way. “I have told that child for five years now that she can’t have a pet until she is ten. You take her out for a few hours and she comes home with a hairless dawg.”

He raised his right hand. “I know, and I’m sorry. I promise I’ll buy all his food, and Lexie and I will take him to all of his puppy obedience classes.”

“I can pay for his darn food!” Georgeanne raised her palms and pressed her fingers to her brows. She felt as if her head were about to explode. “I’m so angry I can’t see straight.”

“Would it help if I told you that I bought a puppy book for you to read?”

“No, John,” she sighed, and dropped her hands. “It wouldn’t help.”

“I have a little kennel, too.” He took ahold of her wrist and pulled her after him. “I bought a bunch of stuff for him.”

Georgeanne tried to ignore the leap in her pulse as he towed her along. “What kind of stuff?”

He opened the back passenger door to the Range Rover and handed her a dog crate about the size of a deep dresser drawer.

“He’s supposed to stay in that at night so he doesn’t crap on the floor,” he told her, then reached inside the vehicle again. “Here’s a book on training, another on Chihuahuas, and one more”-he paused to read the title-“How to Raise a Dog You Can Live With. I have food, biscuits for his teeth, chew toys, a collar and leash, and a little sweater.”

“Sweater? Did you buy everything in the store?”

“Close.” He turned and ducked his head into the car.

Over the top of the kennel, Georgeanne glanced at John’s rear pockets pointed in her direction. His jeans were faded a light blue in places, and a woven leather belt was threaded though the loops.

“I know it’s here somewhere,” he said, and she quickly switched her gaze to the back of the four-wheel-drive vehicle. It was filled with huge toy-store bags and a big box labeled Ultimate Hockey.

“What’s all that?” she asked, motioning toward the back with her head.

John looked over his shoulder at her. “Just some things Lexie picked out. I don’t have anything for her to do when she comes over to my house, so we bought a few things. I can’t believe how much Barbies cost. I had no idea they were sixty dollars apiece.” He straightened and handed her a tube. “That’s Pongo’s toothpaste.”

Georgeanne was appalled. “You paid sixty dollars for a Barbie?”

He shrugged. “Well, when you figure that one came with a poodle, the other with a zebra-print jacket and