Page 34 of Hound Dog
The date may not work out, but those two rescue dogs were his real soul mates. And the real reason why I started this business.
The concept of romantic soulmates was bullshit propaganda created by religious doctrine and mythology and perpetuated by Hallmark.
But the love of a dog? That shit was real. And lasting.
And that meant IneededHaylee and her aunt’s dogs to keep my business going until I found another rescue to work with.
Key fob in hand, I locked my car and made my way to the front door. I hadn’t even knocked yet, and a chorus of barks exploded from somewhere distant. Maybe inside the house? Or out back? Regardless, the barking was deafening. “Here goes nothing,” I muttered to myself.
As I raised my fist to the door, it swung open, revealing Haylee standing there in denim shorts, a blue tank top, and some sort of sheer, flowy wrap draped over her arms.
Don’t look at her legs. Don’t look at her legs.
I forced my gaze to stay on her face and she smiled knowingly, holding my stare like some cosmic game of chicken. Double-dog daring me to sweep a look at her body. The body I could have had years ago on the roof of the mill.
Christ.How was it possible that out of all the times I acted like an asshole playboy, it was theonetime I tried to be chivalrous that was coming back to bite me in the ass?
“You actually came,” she said and slid one foot up the back of her other calf, balancing on one leg like a flamingo.
And….dammit.I looked at her legs. They were muscular, tanned, and so smooth that they looked nearly airbrushed.
I lasted all of three fucking seconds. I dragged my gaze back to hers, and based on her victorious smile, she somehow knew I’d lost that fight.
“You thought I wouldn’t show?”
“Wouldn’t be the first time.”
Hot damn.“I walked right into that one, didn’t I?”
A faint blush colored the apples of her cheeks as she laughed, and God, was she adorable.
No, adorable was a word used for puppies and infants.
Haylee was the most gorgeous woman I’d ever seen.
“Where are the dogs, anyway?” I asked, tearing my gaze away from her blushing face. “I swore I heard them barking their heads off.”
“Since I knew you were coming, I rushed to put them outside in the fenced-in yard. Plus, I’ve been trying to keep them in different rooms and switching out who plays outside, so they don’t knock Aunt Meryl over while she’s trying to heal. It’s been…” she paused, blowing out a breath that made her bangs fan across her forehead.
“Exhausting?” I finished for her. I couldn’t imagine what the house must be like with that many animals inside, running around.
With a nod, she spun around and waved me into the house. “Well, come on, then. Let’s get this over with.”
The house inside was sparkling clean, and the strong aroma of lemongrass and bleach overpowered my senses. The decor on the other hand was as quirky and colorful as Meryl was.
Bottlecap windchimes and a giant Buddha statue greeted me at the door. A room divider was off to the right that looked like something straight out of the seventies.
But the real sight was the woman in front of me. As Haylee walked ahead, I took the opportunity to stare at her. My eyes raked over her from the top of her messy bun down to her seafoam-green-manicured toes.
Goddamn, she was gorgeous. She was beautiful six years ago, too, but now? She was similar, but different in all the best ways. My jeans tightened as I grew hard just looking at the sway of her ass with each step.
Shit, I was going to have the world’s greatest case of blue balls if I kept this up. I adjusted myself as covertly as I could manage and cleared my throat. “Great. My client will be here in fifteen minutes.” It gave me just enough time to meet the dogs and pick out a couple that I think will work best for her and the kind of guy she’s looking for.
Haylee stopped short and I nearly slammed into her. “Here? Your client is coming here?”
“Well… yeah. I used to meet them at the rescue so they could meet a couple canine candidates first. Is that going to be a problem?”
She worried her bottom lip. “As long as Aunt Meryl gets to say goodbye to the dogs before they’re adopted, it’ll be fine.” Even though the nod of her head was confident, there was an uncertain twitch to her brow. “And I told her she can keep two dogs and one cat.”
