Page 32 of Wicked Healing

She’d only had one renter in the time that she’d owned the ranch, and it had been an older woman boarding with her horse, Coco. Teresa had been working her way across the country, from ranch to ranch. They’d stayed for a few months before Teresa had taken a job in Montana. Since then the apartment had been empty.

Mom had been excited about the prospect of having a man on the ranch to protect her. Erin had laughed because it was so typical. Yes, she’d been living on her own for years, had her own business, but of course everything would be better with a man nearby. Erin didn’t know how her mother had stayed single for so many years with that kind of attitude.

“Is he cute,” Linda had demanded.

“Yes, he’s cute, Mom, but the guy has a lot on his plate. He’s not going to be jumping into a relationship in the near future, so just cool your hopes.”

Secretly, though, she was thrilled that he was coming to stay with her. Even recovering from injuries, Luca Carmichael was dangerously sexy.

As soon as she exited the elevator, Luca was there to greet her, and his dog. He surprised her when he leaned down and pressed a kiss to her cheek, sending her pulse racing before he stepped back and leaned down to rub on Wicked. Erin breathed through her nose, inhaling the scent of freshly showered man, and wondered how she was going to leave him behind.

“Do you mind if we go upstairs for a minute?” he asked her, his dark eyes dancing with excitement. “I made a new friend yesterday and she would love to meet Wicked.”

“That’s fine by me,” she said quickly, pushing the button to call the elevator. Were they going to meet some woman? Is that why he looked so excited?

They stepped onto the elevator and he punched the sixth-floor button. “I met Hope yesterday and she’s a real sweetheart. I think Boss will love her.”

The dog looked up at his nickname and wagged his tail. At the sixth floor, Luca stepped off the elevator with Wicked at heel. He crossed the hallway to the small waiting room off the elevator lobby, but there was no one inside. Frowning, he headed down the hallway, peering into offices as he went. This floor appeared to be administrative, but there were also open spaces, like they were still renovating and hadn’t decided what to allocate the space to yet.

Luca rounded a corner and stopped. Erin tried to stop as well but still managed to bump into him. Luca caught her with a strong arm wrapped beneath hers. She grinned up at him. “Thank you. I didn’t expect you to stop so quick.”

“My bad,” he grinned. “Didn’t want to run her over.”

Erin looked down at one of the most beautiful little girls she’d ever seen. The child had long dark hair, almost black, drawn back into a sloppy braid and bright blue eyes with thick dark lashes. Her cheeks were pink with excitement as she looked at Wicked, but her hands were clasped in front of her like she’d been warned many times not to reach out to dogs. Erin could appreciate whoever had taught her that.

Wicked reached out his long nose, nudging at her hands and a gentle smile spread the girl’s mouth.

Luca must have sensed her reserve because he leaned down to her. “He loves kids. They were the least dangerous humans when we were deployed, and he remembers.”

The little girl stroked the dog and Wicked sat so that he could look up at her. She knelt on the floor to look at the dog’s prosthetic, but the dog didn’t care.

“It’s not as big as yours,” she whispered, looking up at Luca.

“No,” he agreed. “Mine goes all the way up over my knee. Wicked’s is just for his foot.”

“Wicked,” she repeated, leaning into him.

Wicked seemed completely unperturbed, relaxed even, as the little girl rubbed down his body and head. She avoided his mouth, but touched everything else, and Wicked just rolled with it.

“Wow,” Erin breathed, impressed all over again with the animal.

“Wow, is right,” Paul said, joining them. The hospital director leaned against the doorjamb of an office. The hand of his prosthetic was hooked on the pocket of his khakis. The other held a stack of files. “Hope hasn’t responded to anyone like that for a long time,” he told them softly.

There was sadness in the blue eyes so like his daughter’s and Erin wondered what their story was.

“She told me we had to be here this morning because Luca’s dog was coming,” Paul said, grinning at them. “It’s all she’s talked about since you found her yesterday.”

The child was fascinated with the animal, running her fingers through his coat and looking at the pads of his feet. A week ago Erin would never have imagined that the dog would be this amenable to being handled by a child, but again it just spoke to the confidence Wicked had in Luca’s support and encouragement. He’d turned into a completely different dog. They stood there for several minutes before Paul asked them into his office. Luca took a chair in front of the desk and Erin took the second, curious how the events had unfolded. “You found her yesterday?”

Luca shrugged and he gave her a slight smile, watched as Wicked led the little girl into the office and over to a spot on the floor. “She was bored and down in the atrium lobby. She helped me up when I fell.” He gave her a quick wink, meaning the girl hadn’t really helped, but Luca had allowed her to think she had.

Erin grinned and nodded. “Ah,” she said softly.

Paul caught the exchange as well. “We’ve both had to adapt recently,” he said slowly. “Hope’s mother and I weren’t together and a month ago she was killed in a car crash.”

Erin’s inhaled sharply. “Oh, I’m so sorry,” she breathed.

“Yes, I am too, Paul. I had no idea.”

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