years-until Estelle had committed the ultimate faux pas and gone to the Big Bridge Game in the sky. Alone.
Lilah accepted Celia’s check and wrote up a receipt.
Celia was the approximate size and shape of an Oompa-Loompa, and thanks to the new tanning salon in town, she had the same skin tone as one, too. “Can you book me for next Thursday, dear? Oh, and also tell me about the new sexy hunk working at Belle Haven. What’s his name?”
“Brady,” Lilah said without thinking, making Celia grin. “What?”
“I hear you’re seeing him.”
“What? No. No. I’m not, I only-”
“Someone told me you’d been seen in his truck.”
Lilah sighed. “I hit it. I was tired and-”
“You work too hard. Listen, dear. Your grandmother-bless her ornery soul-agreed with me on one thing.”
“Are you sure? Because I never knew you two to agree on anything.”
Celia waggled a finger. “We agreed on this. You only get one life. So you need to find the right man. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
“Do you?”
“Listen to you,” Celia chided. “You have a mouth on you, just like Estelle did.”
Lilah thought about her beloved grandma, who for all intents and purposes had been her mom, her dad, her everything, and smiled even though her chest felt too tight. “You miss her.”
“She drove me crazy.” Celia sighed. “But yes, I miss her. She was my last friend. The rest are all dead. Since I’m planning on living forever, it’s going to be lonely. Now stop changing the subject. I’m old, not stupid. We all know how much you gave up to care for her in the end, but she’s gone, Lilah. It’s your turn to live.”
“I am.”
“Then stop wasting time talking to old ladies. Go back to kissing the hunk.”
Lilah stared at her. “How did you know?”
“Well, honey, if you want to keep a man a secret, you don’t kiss him out in front of the bakery on Main.”
Later, Lilah was in the middle of an online lecture for her animal biology class when she got a call from Dell.
“Got a check for you,” he said. “For last week when you boarded those two beagles for us.”
Belle Haven didn’t keep overnight guests; they paid the kennels to do that for them. “My favorite kind of call,” she said.
“And here I thought just hearing my voice was your favorite kind of call.”
“That, too.”
“Oh no, it’s too late. You’ve given yourself away. You only want the money.”
“Yes, it’s ridiculous how fond of eating I’ve become.”
Dell was silent for a beat. “You were supposed to tell me if you need help.”
And wasn’t that just the problem. She hated needing help. Always had. “I’m fine, I was kidding.”
Mostly.
“I’ll bring the check over with dinner,” he said. “We’ll talk.”
Oh great. A talk. Where he’d try to butt in and she’d dance around her money problems. “No, I’ll come to you. I have some files for you, anyway. And I’m busy for dinner.”
She had a date with a very healthy, very green salad, followed by a little ice cream-or the whole pint, depending on how her studying went.
A few minutes later, Lilah walked to the center, eyeing the dark clouds drifting down from the peaks, turning into shreds of mist that gave substance to the raw wind. She zipped up her sweatshirt and picked up the pace. Either Mother Nature had forgotten it was summer, or she needed some Midol.
At Belle Haven, she went straight to the reception desk. Jade sat behind the counter working the phone and the computer at the same time with her usual calm, implacable efficiency, with a kitten sleeping in her lap. Behind her chair on the floor lay a 150-pound St. Bernard dog, snoring with shocking volume.
Jade had glorious strawberry blonde hair that she kept perfectly twisted on top of her head and sharp green eyes that didn’t take shit from anyone. Her clothes looked straight out of a magazine, some sort of belted shirt dress, bangles up one arm, and shoes to die for. She’d moved to Sunshine a few years ago from Chicago so she could ski her way through the winters. She and Lilah had since become good friends, so Lilah knew the real story, that Jade’s move hadn’t so much been a desire to ski as it’d been a need for some space from a tough situation.
“Check it out,” Jade whispered, nudging her chin in the direction of the windows.
Lilah’s attention was first caught by the very full waiting room and the women whose noses were practically glued to the windows leading to the side yard. “What’s going on?”
“That’s what I’m trying to show you. It’s our newest attraction.” Jade pointed outside, off to the right where the Bell had been parked for weeks now, ever since it had been delivered from Smitty’s airport across the meadow. From the hood the lower half of a male body stuck out. Scuffed work boots and long legs that led to-
“The best ass I’ve ever seen,” Jade whispered.
It was true. Brady absolutely had the best ass ever seen. Lilah took a minute to admire it.
“Don’t you think?” Jade asked.
“Well… he sure looks good in cargo pants,” she said carefully. “All those pockets for his stuff.”
“And you just know that not all of his… stuff is in his pockets.” Jade slid her a look. “You kiss him again?”
“What?” Lilah started guiltily. How the hell did everyone know this? “I don’t… I haven’t…”
“Main Street, Lilah,” Jade said patiently. “You might as well have sent a clip to You Tube yourself.”
Oh, good grief. “Dell said there was a check…?”
Jade laughed, but took mercy on her. “In his office.”
Lilah made her way through the crowded reception area to the offices. Dell wasn’t behind his big desk, but there was an envelope leaning up against his computer with her name on it. In it was the check for services rendered, plus three hundred bucks in cash. “Oh, hell no.”
“Not enough?” he asked, coming into the room. He was wearing scrubs and a white lab coat, both emphasizing his tall, lean form in a favorable way. His charming smile only added to his appeal. It was the smile of a man who knew it rendered most females stupid.
“Don’t you smile at me.” She pulled out the three hundred dollar bills and slapped them down on his desk. “I don’t take pity cash.”
“Noted, but that’s not what that is. It’s a loan.” Clearly seeing the ready denial on her face, he added softly, “We just want to help, Lilah.”
Damn if that didn’t melt her. “You can. By believing in me.”
“I do.”
She sighed and hugged him hard. “The kennels are doing better this year, really. I’m going to be fine.”
Hopefully.
He held her a minute, cheek pressed to the top of her head as he let out a long breath, a good indicator that she was being a pain in his ass. With a sigh of her own, she patted his chest, took the check, and left him. She was back at the main counter saying good-bye to Jade when the front door opened.
Brady strode inside, moving with that easy economical grace that spoke of a lifetime of discipline and military training. His T-shirt was snug around his broad chest and biceps, loose over his flat abs. He was streaked with grease and looking hot enough to be on the cover of
Lilah took a look at the small brown dog, though its color might have been due more to the dirt and mud that was stuck to its tangled and matted fur. His floppy ears nearly covered his sweet soulful eyes. He sneezed once, hard, and then the ears did cover his eyes. With a violent shake of his head, they fell back into place.
“It was sitting in front of my truck,” Brady said, frowning.
“It’s a dog,” Jade said.
Brady lifted the scrawny, clearly neglected dog up a little higher and inspected it. It licked his chin.
“Aw,” Jade said. “He likes you.”
