Page 64 of Housebroke

We were one dog down anyway. Hazel shuddered in a breath at Linc’s words.

He’d made it sound like they were a pack. All of them.

Okay, then. She took a seat at the table outside and tried to get her wayward heartbeat under control. In the meantime, Linc resurfaced from the guesthouse holding two beers, all five dogs following behind him, Mitzi pulling up the rear. She made a mental note to get Mitzi involved with daily walks right away and schedule a vet appointment tomorrow.

He handed her a beer. “Thanks.”

“No problem. So, you ended up having a surprising day.”

She nodded. “Definitely unexpected, but that’s how it often goes in the foster business.”

“I assume there’s a limit to how many dogs you can take on.”

“Oh, definitely. Fortunately, I have a few small dogs so thatmakes it more manageable. And they’re all well behaved, plus the homeowners on either side of this house don’t mind the occasional barking. When I relocate it might be a different matter.”

He took a long swallow of his beer, then nodded. “I guess you’ll have to be super picky about where you live next.”

“I will definitely have to do that. Of course, ideally, I’d love to have some land, plus a pool. But you know I’m not exactly in a financial position to dictate that.”

“Someday you might be.”

She laughed. “Yeah, as soon as I win the lottery.” She sipped her beer and watched the dogs frolic across the lawn. Though Mitzi had stayed planted next to Linc, who casually scratched her behind the ears.

It amazed her how quickly her dogs had fallen in love with him. Then again, maybe it wasn’t so amazing after all.

“Tell me your ideal place to live. When you leave here, if money were no object, where would you like to live?”

“Oh. Okay. Let me think about that for a sec.” She conjured up her imagined nirvana in her head. “My first objective would be to have some land. Not a lot, of course, but enough for the dogs to be able to run freely without me having to worry about neighbors being close.”

“Sounds reasonable,” he said.

“And then, as far as a house, I don’t really care.”

“Sure you do. What do you want?”

She took in a deep breath, then let it out. “A fantastic kitchen, with a chef’s stove and a huge refrigerator. Lots of room to prep so I could really stretch out and have the space to create. Let’s see,what else. I guess if I was going to have all of that, I’d want to stay awhile. Or maybe forever, so I’d want an office and four bedrooms. And an amazing main bathroom with a huge shower. Oh, and also an outside shower for the dogs.”

“Is that all?”

She laughed. “Isn’t that enough? What about you? What do you want?”

“Everything you said, but also a pool and an outdoor kitchen.”

“Oh yes, definitely, those as well. Draw up those plans for me, won’t you?”

His lips curved. “Yeah, I’ll get right on that.”

She looked down at Mitzi, who had curled up at Linc’s feet and gone to sleep. “She’s cute, isn’t she?”

“Damned cute. You sure know how to pick ’em, Hazel.”

“I know.” She sighed, looking at Linc, who had scooped Mitzi up and let her settle back on his lap so she could nap more comfortably.

Yeah, she for sure knew how to pick them, didn’t she?

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Hazel looked over at the newest member of the pack, who was napping next to Gordon in the corner of Sandy’s house.

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