Chapter Sixteen
A nna’s phone alarm jarred her awake the next morning. Eyes still closed, she felt around on the nightstand until she found the damn thing and swiped off the annoying bell. “Sorry,” she murmured and rolled over, reaching for…as it turned out…empty space. She opened her eyes. Sawyer was gone, and not a sound came from Trixie’s corner. She rolled back over. The crate door was open and the puppy was gone.
She sat up and raked her fingers through her hair. “You’d better be outside with Sawyer, little girl,” she muttered as she nabbed her robe from the end of the bed, “because if you’re out peeing all over my house, I’m gonna…” She didn’t finish the threat because Sawyer appeared in the doorway, looking rumpled and handsome as heck.
“You’re gonna what?” he asked, unclasping the leash. “Go get her, Trixie.”
Trixie ran right to Anna and nosed her bare feet, licking her toes, before putting her front paws on Anna’s legs to give her a short hello bark.
Anna leaned down and picked her up to nuzzle her and inhale her sweet puppy scent. “Good morning to you, too.” She laughed as Trixie snuffled at her neck.
That springy curly fur tickled. Then she turned her gaze to Sawyer, all sexy in his khakis and untucked button-down. The first few buttons were undone and the sleeves were rolled up to reveal the soft hair and hard muscles of his forearms.
“Did she wake you up?”
“Nope, you did.” He retracted the leash, ambled over to the bed, and bent down to cup her cheek and drop a kiss on her lips. “You were snoring.”
Not a bit mortified or even apologetic, Anna set Trixie on the floor and stood up right into his arms. “One of the hazards of sharing a bed with a spring allergy sufferer, my friend.” She put her arms around his neck.
“I guess I’ll just have to bear up.” He kissed her hungrily and let his hands roam under the robe.
Aching, she pressed against him, longing to simply toss all other responsibilities aside, fall back into bed together, and spend the day there, touching and kissing and talking. Instead, she put her hand down and turned his wrist over to look at his smartwatch. “What time do you have to be at the clinic?”
He sighed into her hair. “Seven thirty. And there’s Otis…”
“I’ve got to feed Trixie and get her ready to go to the jobsite with me.” Anna took a step back, but he tugged her close again and she went willingly. “You want some coffee and a bagel or something before you go?”
He planted one more kiss on her tingling lips before setting her away. “Yes, but I need to run down to the truck and get something. I got you a gift that I meant to give you last night, but someone couldn’t wait to get me upstairs, rip off my clothes, and have her way with me.” His dimple showed as he grinned, sending another frisson of hunger through her. “If we hadn’t needed to take Trixie out when we got home, who knows what kind of shenanigans you’d have been up to.”
She shivered at the memory of their night together. “I’m pretty sure the shenanigans happened anyway and were mutual, Doc.”
“ Very mutual.” His eyes darkened with desire, but he closed her robe and turned her around. “Get dressed, you temptress. I’ll turn on the coffeepot. Be right back.”
Anna placed her hands to her chest as if she could control her pounding heart by pressing against it. The man turned her inside out. “Oh, Trixie—I think I’ve got it bad.” She glanced down at the dog, who had her fuzzy scuff in her teeth. “No!” She snatched the slipper away. “Not a toy, Trixie.” She marched over to the crate and pulled out the stuffed duck. “ This is your toy.”
The dog accepted the exchange with good grace and almost managed to look a little bit chagrined at her faux pas.
Anna patted her. “You’re not going to be one of those destructive puppies as long as I have you, missy.”
By the time Sawyer returned, Anna had washed up, put on a clean pair of denim bib overalls and a T-shirt, topped with an old plaid flannel shirt she’d nabbed from Cam’s closet a couple of years ago. She’d even gotten to the kitchen to put two bagels in her four-slice toaster. “That took a while.”
He came to the kitchen door carrying a large bag and the take-out container from Ascent. “I just met your parents.”
Anna gasped. “My parents ? Where?”
“In the parking lot. They passed my truck on their morning constitutional —” He air-quoted after setting the bag on a chair.
“Oh God, you did meet my parents. Only my dad calls a jaunt down the River Walk a constitutional .” She groaned and dropped her head back. “They saw you, dressed like that…” She raked her eyes over his bare feet shoved into his brown loafers, his partially unbuttoned, untucked shirt, his thick tousled hair, and the overnight stubble shadowing his face and cringed. “What did you tell them?”
He quirked a brow. “Um…good morning? Nice to meet you?”
“Sawyer…”
“I told them I’d spent the night with their daughter and, man, was she ever hot as—” His eyes shone with merriment as she clapped a hand over his mouth.
“You did not !”
He tugged her into his arms. “Anna, you’re a thirty-eight-year-old beautiful adult woman. Do you really imagine your parents aren’t aware that you might have a love, er, a life?”
She rested her forehead against his wrinkled shirtfront. “I’m sure they’re aware. However, I really don’t think they want it paraded in front of them.”
“I told them I was dropping off a gift for Trixie.”
“They don’t know anything about Trixie.”
“Yeah, so they said.” He peered down at her. “Your parents live in the next building, and you didn’t tell them you’re fostering a puppy?”
“I haven’t seen them since I picked her up,” she confessed, although she didn’t really owe anyone, not even her parents, updates every time something in her life changed. Truth was she’d planned on telling them when she could sit them down and explain that Trixie wasn’t staying. Knowing her mom, Bertie would immediately fall in love and that would make giving Trixie up for adoption even harder.
“Well, they were excited. Apparently, they’re in the market for grandkids, but will happily take a grand dog, if that’s all that’s available.” He shrugged. “Maybe they’d like to puppy-sit while you’re on the jobsite this week.”
“Um…no,” Anna said firmly, then voiced her biggest concern about Lionel and Bertie knowing about Trixie. “They don’t need to fall in love and be heartbroken after she gets adopted in couple weeks.”
“Or maybe they’ll try to convince you to keep her?”
Anna turned away from his intense gaze to lower the toaster levers. “Maybe,” she replied shortly. Then she measured two-thirds of a cup of puppy chow from the bag in the bottom cupboard and dumped it into the dog’s bowl. “Trixie, come.” The dog who’d followed her into the kitchen was batting her duck around the chair legs under the table. She scrambled out, the duck in her mouth and dropped it at Anna’s feet. “Sit,” Anna commanded, not sure what Trixie would do, even though as a lark, she, Maddie, Kara, and Harper had worked on Sit during an afternoon break the day before. The puppy wagged her tail and turned in a circle. “Trixie, sit.”
Trixie sat. Shocked, Anna glanced at Sawyer, who nodded approvingly. “Good girl.” She set the bowl of food on the placemat on the floor at the end of the counter. “Here’s your breakfast. Eat.” That would be something good to teach her for her new owners. To sit before she got her food.
Sawyer didn’t say anything more about adopting Trixie, but the atmosphere had chilled a degree or two, and she could tell it was on his mind. Obviously, he was still hoping she’d be so taken with the silly mutt that she’d change her mind. Her conscience niggled. If he only knew how close she was to doing exactly that. He picked up the bag he’d dropped in a chair earlier. “Here, I brought you a present.”
“I thought you told my parents it was for Trixie.” She set two plates of bagels smeared with cream cheese on the table, got mugs from the cupboard, and poured coffee.
“It’s for both of you.” He held out the bag.
Anna hesitated for a moment before opening it and pulling out a plastic-wrapped pad decorated with puppies and hearts and labeled Dog Crate Mat .
“Waterproof,” Sawyer said, “and much more attractive than that gray tarp.”
Anna smiled. “Thank you.” Next, she brought out a pile of dark blue fabric that was connected together with a circle of padded plastic. “And this?”
“It’s a pet carrier sling.” He took it from her and shook it out. “Four loops, see? You just…” He slipped it over his head, then put his arms between the loops. “Trixie fits right here.” He patted the place where the loops crossed over his chest. “You pull this part up over her body and voila. It holds her snug against you and yet your hands are free.” He took off the sling and handed it back to her. “You can use it on the jobsite.”
Anna’s heart filled with joy. Maybe he was hard over about her keeping the dog, but he was still trying to make life as a foster pet owner easier for her. And perhaps his whole motivation was to show her how nice it could be to have a pet, so she’d adopt Trixie, but it didn’t matter. Whatever drove his kindness and generosity, she appreciated it.
She hugged him. “This is really cool and so sweet of you to think of me. Thanks.”
He placed his hands on her hips and drew her into his arms. “Owning a pet doesn’t have to be hard, Anna. There’s almost always a solution. Most times they’re more joy than annoyance.” He kissed her gently before releasing her. “I brought the pie in. Bagels and pie are like the perfect healthy breakfast.”
Anna chuckled. “Oh, really?”
“I’m a doctor, I know this stuff. Trust me.” He was teasing, but the look in his eyes told her it wasn’t only the breakfast menu he was asking her to trust.
She stroked his stubbled cheek. “I trust you.” She tried on the sling. The pouch seemed like a cozy place for her little puppy. “She’ll really be okay in this?”
“She’ll be in heaven, I promise.” He split the slice of pie between their two plates. “She’ll sleep and be less whiney because she’ll feel safe. Switch it up every couple of hours, the crate, a walk, the sling. It’ll be great.”
*
The sling was great. The day went so much easier, and Anna was able to help wherever she was needed because she didn’t have to figure out how to keep Trixie happy. The little puppy was an angel, snoozing most of the day either in her crate or in the sling snuggled against Anna’s chest. Everyone got a huge kick out of Anna wearing her puppy, and even Cam had to agree that having Trixie on the jobsite wasn’t a distraction anymore.
Anna enjoyed having the puppy curled up next to her, too aware of the warm feelings she was developing for the little furball. At one point, she stopped to adjust the sling and set Trixie up on her shoulder and kissed her between her big ears. “You’re such a sweetie,” she murmured, wondering for a moment if this was even one one-hundredth of what Jazz and Tierney and Sam and Holly must feel about their babies. Was this motherhood? Or at least a hint of it? Fiercely protective and proud and— own it, Anna —loving.
She held Trixie away from her for a moment, looking into her sleepy doggy eyes, half-smiling when she yawned and showed her sharp little teeth. “Dammit, I don’t want a dog,” she whispered. “But here you are.” The puppy was burrowing her way into Anna’s affections. Every day becoming more a part of her life. To say nothing of her veterinarian.
“You sure you don’t want a dog, sis?” Joe’s voice twirled her around. “I think it might be too late. You’re already goofy over her.”
Anna tucked Trixie back into the sling. “Are you goofy over Scout?” Scout was Kara’s beagle, and Joe, who swore no animals would ever be allowed to live in his house, had welcomed the dog into his home right along with Kara. The whole family had been shocked, when they all met at Joe’s for a summer picnic, to see a doggie entrance cut into Joe’s pristine back door and the beagle’s food and water dishes in the breakfast nook.
Joe didn’t even look abashed, he simply shrugged. “Kara and Scout were a package deal. I had no choice but to learn to love him. He chased that damn fox away from my henhouse last month, and it hasn’t been back. That won me over totally.” He sauntered over to peer down at Trixie. “You, on the other hand, have a choice.” He gazed into Anna’s eyes. “Or maybe not. What about the vet? Is this”—he pointed to Trixie—“for him?” He lifted one shoulder. “Mom texted this morning, asking about Sawyer Braxton. She’s dying of curiosity and a little miffed you haven’t mentioned either the puppy or the vet.”
Anna smoothed the ruffled fur on top of Trixie’s head. She probably should’ve texted her mom and dad after their encounter with Sawyer in the parking lot. She was close to her mom—they took yoga together when Bertie was in town, and Bertie participated in the Business to Kids program with her, tutoring French and English to junior high and high school kids who were struggling academically. But Anna had pulled away from everyone after Daniel went back to Italy, even her mom. She’d pinned on a smile and a sunny demeanor and fooled them all.
Things were changing, though. Her smiles were real again, and that was partly due to the little ball of fluff cuddled up next to her and partly because of a certain veterinarian who’d asked her to open her heart to this little lost dog. With great reluctance she had, and she’d ended up opening her heart to him as well. “This started out for Sawyer, I’ll admit it, but also because I couldn’t stand the thought of a poor little puppy going to a shelter. But now, I dunno, Joey. She feels like mine, you know? She’s not the puppy, she’s my puppy. And he’s not just the new vet in town, he’s my vet, and it’s all happened so stinkin’ fast, my head is spinning.”
Joe’s gray-blue eyes softened. “And when was the last time your head spun, Annabelle?”
Anna sighed and considered the question seriously. Finally, she said, “Like this ? Never. Not even with Daniel, and I truly believed I’d love him ’til the day I died. He was the high water mark for all other men, but now”—she gave him a small smile—“well, maybe I set the mark a little too low because Sawyer is…really special.”
Joe didn’t smirk or tease. He merely slung an arm around her shoulders. “Come on, Jack wants to get a picture of all of us out front. We’re done.”
Anna looked around at the library where she’d been cleaning. The hardwood floor, the hickory bookcases, the wide beams, and the stone fireplace—it was all her design. Some of her best work. It had taken a long time to come to fruition, but they were finally done, and the Yoshidas would have their Indiana-Japanese home. She put her arm around her brother’s lean waist and walked slowly out to the covered porch that overlooked the mighty Ohio River.
The rest of the family—Jack, Maddie, Cam, Harper, Kara, Eli, and Jazz—were all gathered and for once they were all quiet, admiring the house and the view. Cam and Eli’s crews were lounging against their trucks in the wide gravel drive, except for their unofficial company photographer, Denny from Cam’s landscape crew, who was standing below the porch with a phone, clearly waiting to take a picture.
“Aren’t we including the crews?” Anna asked as they joined the others.
“We already did crew pictures, and Robbie’s grabbing my selfie stick so we can take a group shot of all of us together next. I also got a bunch of shots out back and I did interiors, too. I’ll send everything to Missy so she can post them to the loop. Then you guys can pick the ones you want to put on the website,” Denny explained. “Right now, it’s the Walkers, and you’re front and center, Annabelle. This house is yours.”
Anna’s cheeks heated, but she grinned with pleasure. This was her house—her pride and joy—the mid-century modern design fit in almost organically with the cliffs and hills above the river, as if it had grown there instead of being months of work. The Yoshidas would have a wonderful life in this house.
The sense of accomplishment was a tangible thing in the air as they crowded together, all trying to fit in the photo. The family business was moving forward again and the whole family had pitched in to make this house the quintessential example of exactly what Walker Custom Homes could build when they all worked together. The very rightness of the moment overwhelmed her for a moment, and she swallowed hard and blinked. Then she took her place in front with her brothers and cousins and friends surrounding her and tugged Trixie up so her head peeked out of the sling. “Smile, Trixie,” she whispered.