Page 13 of Goalie Interference

Beast? How appropriate.Now, if he’d just remove the dog, I could get on with my day. I sighed. Could I, if he was back? How noise-sensitive was he?

Goober let out another howl from the bathroom. Mountain Man’s head whipped around. “What the fuck wasthat?”

I hadn’t noticed him much yesterday, too upset about his existence to look past the wild hair. Now I saw green eyes and tanned cheeks above the beard. Nose with a bend from being broken at some point. The rangy build my ex had, but whereas Ollie always looked polished and presentable, this man still looked like he’d been living in the bush for a while.

“That’sthe animal who lives here. Maybe you can take that one”—I jerked my head at the crate—“with you?”

He glanced back at the dog, who had ventured out of the protection of his crate and was still growling but otherwise seemed fine. Mountain Man pushed to his feet. Well over six feet, with broad shoulders, jeans stretched by big thighs. Not that I needed to notice.

He met my gaze. “My apologies. They weren’t supposed to deliver the dog when I wasn’t here. They messaged but I didn’t have my phone on me. They shouldn’t have brought him here before I said I was around to get him.”

“Well, I’m glad he’s yours and I didn’t take delivery of a random dog. I opened his crate because the delivery driver said he just got off the plane, so I thought he’d need to pee and drink, but…”

We’d have to figure out what was going to happen as far as my work went, but right now I wanted to get the two of them out of the shop so I could let Goober out of the bathroom before her howls broke my eardrums. She was louder than any noise my machines generated.

He tapped his fingers on his leg. “Thanks. Should we discuss details?”

“What details?”

He looked down at his dog. “I was told someone would help. Like, taking care of Beast when I’m not here? Is there Wi-Fi? Where should I order food and pet supplies from? Do I tell you when those deliveries are coming? I didn’t even think of that yesterday.”

What the actual hell?“Taking care of your dog?”

“I’ll be traveling.”

“Lucky you,” I responded flatly.

He shot me a wary glance. “Maybe I should talk to your boss.”

“My boss?”

“The landlord? I don’t want to be rude, but you don’t seem to be the right person for me to deal with.”

I shook my head to clear it. “You’re totally right, that I’m not the person you should be dealing with, because you seem to be under the misapprehension that I’m an employee here and someone who needs to take care of your problems.”

“Aren’t—”

“This”—I swept a hand around the space we were standing in—“is my workshop. I’m a luthier. Not a dog sitter. I rent the space. The whole property belongs to my brother. He employs people to do the maintenance and upkeep, and if dog babysitting and accepting deliveries is part of your agreement, you’ll need to discuss that with him.”

His dog growled, but whether at me or Goober I wasn’t sure.

“I’m sorry—I was just going on the instructions Elsa sent me.” He pulled out his phone.

Cash didn’t work with any Elsas that I knew of. Had he taken on someone new? Elsa wasn’t that common a name around here, and the only one I knew of was?—

“Elsa Harbourn,” Mountain Man read.

My jaw dropped. “What? ElsaHarbourn?” There couldn’t be two of them.

He looked up at me. “So maybe you do need to deal with this?”

No, no, no. Couldn’t be happening. “Still no. My brother was in a session so he didn’t give me any details, but I’m not his employee just because I know Elsa.”

“I needed a place with the dog, and this is what the team came up with.”

“Team,” I repeated flatly. He was looking at me like I was a few crumbs short of a biscuit, and I couldn’t blame him. My head was spinning as I tried to compute what he was saying.

“The Austin Aces—you know, the hockey team.”

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