by Carrie Elks
Maybe not one like this puppy, though.
‘It’s Jonas’s Christmas present,’ Kitty whispered, gesturing at Annie to keep it down. ‘Mia had him flown in from LA this morning. I don’t think he’s enjoying his trip.’
‘He stinks.’ Annie’s distaste was written all over her face. ‘What on earth is that smell?’
In an effort to keep the puppy hidden from Jonas, Kitty had kept him locked in the Escalade until bedtime. He clearly wasn’t house-trained, nor had the effects of the winding road gone unnoticed by his bowels. As a result, the inside of the car now resembled a cesspit.
‘You don’t want to know,’ Kitty told her. ‘I’ve tried cleaning it off him as best I can, but without a hose I don’t think I’m ever going to get the smell out.’ She put the dog down and grabbed a bowl from the cupboard, filling it with water and placing it on the floor. The puppy approached it slowly, stilling his tail as if he was suspicious. Sniffing at the water, he shot a baleful look up at Kitty before dipping his tongue into the bowl and taking a drink.
‘She bought him for Christmas?’ Annie asked, still frowning. ‘What’s she planning to do, wrap him up with a bow?’
Kitty shrugged. ‘She wants me to hide him somewhere for the next week. If Jonas finds him before Christmas morning she won’t be happy.’
‘She never is,’ Annie grumbled. ‘Fancy buying a puppy for Christmas, hasn’t she heard all the warnings? What breed is it anyway?’
‘A Portuguese Water Dog,’ Kitty said. ‘Oh, and he’s a vegan, too,’ she added.
‘A what?’
Kitty tried to stifle her smile. ‘A vegan. No meat, no fish, no dairy products. I’m supposed to order his food online.’
Annie gaped in horror, as if Kitty had told her that she needed to feed him with human remains. ‘I’ve never heard such nonsense in my life. What kind of dog doesn’t eat meat? What are you going to feed him while you wait for his special food to arrive? It’s not as if you can starve the poor little mite.’
Kitty looked down at the puppy, who was still lapping at the water. She hadn’t thought of that. It was going to take at least a day for his special food to be delivered. She couldn’t refuse to feed him while they waited for the courier to arrive, could she?
‘Kitty!’ Jonas’s plaintive cry filled the air. Suddenly the kitchen was full of action as Annie scooped the dog up and Kitty searched in vain for somewhere to stash him. Her eyes lighted on the pantry door, and she turned to Annie with a questioning look, only to receive a severe shake of the head.
OK, then. Clearly the pantry was out.
‘Get the dog away from here,’ Annie hissed. ‘I’ll distract Jonas.’
That’s how Kitty found herself stuck outside the kitchen window, trying to keep the puppy calm in spite of the inky-black night and the cold, wet ground. He kept dipping his paws in the snow then wiggling his nose, staring up at Kitty as if it were all her fault.
She squatted down, beneath the line of the window, trying to disguise herself from any prying eyes, aware of how stupid she must look.
It was a full five minutes before Annie showed her face, craning her head around the kitchen door in an attempt to locate the errant Kitty.
‘You still there?’ the housekeeper hissed.
‘I’m here,’ Kitty called back, her voice just as low. ‘But I think he might have done a poop on the deck.’
‘Well he can’t stay here,’ Annie told her.
Kitty knew that. She needed to find a hiding spot. At least until Christmas Day, when hopefully he was going to be somebody else’s problem.
‘Where should I hide him?’
Annie gave a deep sigh. ‘There’s nowhere that I can think of. Unless you shove him in the old icehouse, but I suspect he’d die of hypothermia within a few hours.’
Annie was right. There was nowhere outside that Kitty could hide the dog that wouldn’t result in him getting frozen. Even the summerhouse at the edge of the treeline was covered in snow and icicles, its windows frozen opaque. The inside of it couldn’t have been much warmer than the icehouse.
‘We’re going to have to tell Jonas,’ Kitty whispered, sighing at the thought of his gift being spoiled.
That’s when Annie stretched her head around the doorjamb again. ‘You could take him down to the cabin.’
‘Where?’
‘To the cabin by the lake. It’s got heat and it’s got food, plus Adam has nothing better to do. Take the dog down there and I’m sure he’ll help us out.’
Kitty was taken aback. The thought of taking the puppy down through the forest and over to the ramshackle wooden house was enough to make her stomach turn. The last thing she wanted to do was ask Adam for help after their previous encounters. He may have apologised, but she was in no doubt what he really thought of her. This would only make it worse.
‘Surely there must be somewhere up here I can keep an eye on him,’ she whispered back. ‘A garage or something?’
A silence was followed by Annie’s hollow laugh. ‘If you can think of anywhere let me know. I’ve been looking for a bolthole for these last forty years.’
In the gloom of the evening, Kitty scanned the grey-coloured landscape, her eyes failing to take in anything but the snow-covered land. There was no good hiding place for a small dog.
It was the cabin by the lake or bust.
‘Does Adam even like dogs?’ Kitty hissed. ‘Am I going to embarrass myself by turning up at his door?’
Annie walked through the doorway, her stout frame illuminated by the yellow kitchen light. It lent her an almost angel-like aura. ‘If there’s one thing I know about Adam, it’s that he’s a sucker for a sad story. All you have to do is spin him a line and he’s bound to look after the dog.’
‘I need to spin him a line?’ Kitty repeated faintly. ‘What kind of line?’ She was rubbish at lying, couldn’t tell a fib if she tried. A sense of impending doom came over her.
Annie huffed. ‘Just tell him it’s a rescue dog or something. Make up a story about how he managed to save a whole family from a fire before being burned himself. Anything to make Adam inclined to lend us a hand.’
‘You want me to lie to him?’ Please, no. Anything but that. She didn’t need to make him any angrier than he already was.
‘No!’ Annie protested. ‘I wouldn’t dream of it. Just make it easy for him to say yes.’
Somehow, Kitty couldn’t imagine a single situation where Adam would easily say yes. All she could think of was his irritated tone and his disapproving stare.
‘OK, if you say so,’ she agreed. ‘But if he shouts at me, I’m blaming you.’
‘Adam won’t shout at you, he’s a teddy bear,’ Annie replied.
Kitty grimaced, pulling her bottom lip firmly between her teeth. If there was one thing she knew, it was that the angry man living down by the lake was nothing like a teddy bear. If it wasn’t for the puppy and the fact that Jonas deserved a Christmas surprise, there was no way she’d be going down to the lake right now.
She couldn’t help wondering how she’d managed to get in this position. Reliant upon the good grace of a man who had already proved himself graceless. More importantly, she wondered what the hell she had to do to get herself out of it.
With the puppy trotting alongside her, they cleared the final distance to the old cabin, leaving two parallel trails of footprints behind them. Behind the thick drapes, Kitty could make out that there was a light burning, and from the wispy grey smoke curling up out of the chimney, there was a fire burning in there, too. The sight of it made her shiver.
What wouldn’t she give to warm up beside a roaring fire right now?
‘Well, boy, here goes nothing,’ she whispered, rapping on the wooden door with her knuckles. ‘Try to behave, OK? If he refuses to take you then we’re both out of luck.’
The door swung open, revealing Adam behind it, a look of surprise crossing his face when he saw Kitty and the dog standing there. His hair was wet – maybe he’d jus
t come out of the shower – and he was wearing a plain black T-shirt along with soft, comfortable jeans. Once again she was hit by his attractiveness, so much clearer to her when he wasn’t shouting. This time her heart pounding against her ribs had nothing to do with fear.
And everything to do with the way he looked.
Before she went to sleep last night, she’d spent an hour on her laptop, Googling him. All the pictures of him showed Adam as freshly shaven, his dark hair spilling over his forehead, his height eclipsing everybody around him. Even in those still images he had an aura that couldn’t be denied. No wonder people opened up to him in his documentaries, with those wide brown eyes and warm smile, it was almost impossible not to crumble in front of him.
Her eyes slid down from his face, taking in the broad shoulders and the hard planes of his chest, barely disguised by his tight T-shirt. He had this aura of protection, as though he could just stand in front of you and shield you from a blast, like some kind of superhero in a comic.
‘Are you OK?’ His eyes scanned down from her face, to the excited puppy next to her. He frowned slightly, taking it all in. But he didn’t seem angry. Not this time, thank goodness.
‘I hope so,’ Kitty said, following his gaze down to the black furry dog. ‘I have a bit of a problem.’ She inclined her head to the puppy. ‘Can we come in?’
He licked his lips slowly, his eyes blinking faster than usual, lifting his hand up to rub his bearded jawline. Then he stepped aside, gesturing for her to come in, closing the door behind her. She scooped the dog into her arms, walking into his warm, welcoming living room.
‘I’m not exactly prepared for company,’ Adam told her. ‘I can’t offer you anything unless you like either coffee or beer.’
The thought of a beer after the day she’d had was like nectar to the soul. ‘I’d love a beer,’ she said, trying to hide just how desperate she was for it. ‘And a bowl of water for the puppy would be great.’
‘What’s his name?’ he asked, walking into the small kitchen at the end of the living area and pulling open the fridge.
‘He hasn’t got a name yet,’ she said, wondering if she should have remedied that. How long could she go on calling him ‘the puppy’?
‘Where’s he come from? Is he yours?’ Grabbing two brown bottles of beer from the refrigerator, he popped the caps off and passed one to her, lifting the other to his lips and taking a mouthful.
Kitty took a long sip of her own beer, letting the liquid slide down her throat and warm her stomach. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had a bottle of honest-to-God beer. It tasted better than ice-cold water on a summer’s day.
‘You want to sit down?’ Adam gestured at the old sofa and chairs that surrounded the roaring fire. The whole room looked cosy and rustic, with hand-carved furniture and lived-in upholstery. It made her want to curl up and relax.
He filled a bowl full of water and placed it down on the tiled floor. Seeing it, the puppy began to wriggle in Kitty’s arms, until she placed him down. He ran straight over and lapped furiously. Adam’s face softened as he watched the little bundle of fur drink from the old china bowl, and he squatted down, stroking the puppy’s back. His hand was almost as big as the animal itself. The puppy stopped drinking and began to furiously lick at Adam’s palm, causing a smile to break out on his face. It was crazy how good-looking the man was, especially when he was smiling. Kitty tried to remind herself that this same man had spent most of the week shouting at her.
Yeah, tell that to her racing heart.
Leaving the puppy by his bowl, the two of them walked over to the chairs beside the old inglenook fireplace. Unlike the rest of the cabin, the fireplace was clad with stone, with orange flames dancing in the cast-iron grate. Kitty was desperate to feel its warmth seeping into her bones. They sat silently for a moment, sipping at their drinks, and it felt somehow peaceful. For the first time that day, she felt herself starting to relax.
Funny how quickly things changed.
Though the chair was big, Adam’s body dominated it, with his thick, rippled chest and long, lean legs. He took another sip of beer, regarding her silently. He didn’t seem at all embarrassed at his scrutiny of her, and didn’t seem in a rush to end it, either. She could feel her cheeks flush, and not from the warmth of the fire. There was something about the way he was looking at her that made her feel exposed.
Clearing her throat, she glanced over at the dog. He was sitting patiently next to his bowl, his tail wagging. So much happier than when he’d been in the car. Maybe he really was just travel sick.
Finally, she broke their silence. ‘Um, I need somewhere to hide the puppy, and Annie suggested that you might be able to help.’
Adam raised his eyebrows. ‘Why on earth would you need to hide a puppy?’ His voice was deep and smooth – the same voice she’d heard in the clip she’d watched on her laptop last night. The kind of voice you paid attention to.
‘It’s a Christmas present for Jonas, and we can’t let him see it. Otherwise the surprise will be spoiled. So I need to find somewhere that we can hide him without Jonas finding him, and this was the only place we could think of.’ Her words tumbled out of her mouth as if she couldn’t stand their taste.
‘So I’m the last resort,’ Adam said drily.
‘No! Not at all.’ Kitty’s tongue tripped over her words in an attempt to form them. ‘It’s just that there are no outhouses and if I put him in the attic Jonas is bound to get suspicious and go up there to investigate. And Annie said you liked animals. So…’
Adam leaned back in his chair. His long legs were sprawled out in front of him. Kitty couldn’t help but admire the firmness of his thighs and the way they filled out the denim of his jeans. Out of his bulky coat and thick beanie – and most importantly without a furious look on his face – he seemed a different person.
She shook her head as if to get some sense into herself. This was the man who’d shouted at her twice, and told her she was a terrible nanny. She needed to take hold of herself.
‘Is he house-trained?’
Kitty side-eyed the puppy, remembering the steaming pile she’d had to clean out of the car. ‘I think so.’ It wasn’t really a lie, was it?
‘What does he eat?’
There was no way she was going to tell him the dog was a vegan, not when Adam seemed almost willing to helping her. ‘Oh, anything. Beef, chicken, rice. Whatever you happen to have in your cupboards.’
He turned to stare at the dog again, his gaze steady as he took him in. ‘What kind of breed is he anyway?’
‘A Portuguese Water Dog. Like the Obamas’ Bo.’ She didn’t know why she bothered to add this. It wasn’t as if his similarity to the ex-president’s dog was a selling point.
‘I’ve never heard of them.’
‘Oh, they’re a lovely breed. Friendly, happy, really a man’s best friend. You’ll hardly notice he’s here.’ Suddenly she sounded like an infomercial for Portuguese Water Dogs. No wonder Adam was biting down a laugh.
‘Why do I think you’re full of shit?’
Because she was? ‘Honestly, he’s as good as gold. It’s only for a little while, I promise he won’t be any trouble.’
‘If I take him, and I mean if, then you’ll owe me.’
She nodded rapidly. ‘Of course.’
‘So I get to ask for something in return.’ He didn’t say it as a question. The tone of his voice – low and gravelly – sent shivers down her spine.
‘You do?’
‘Yeah,’ he said slowly. ‘I do.’
Her heart was beating annoyingly fast. When she finally found the words to reply, her voice was thick with anticipation. ‘What do you want me to do?’ Was it wrong that she had bad thoughts of her own?
Adam stared at her, the tip of his tongue running along his full lips. Kitty watched its progress, fascinated, trying to ignore the way he took her breath away. He didn’t reply for at least a minute, preferring to look at her as if he was sizing her up,
or maybe considering her fate. It was both tantalising and terrifying.
‘I don’t know yet, I need to think about it,’ he said finally. ‘I’ll tell you when I’ve decided.’
Excited by the realisation she’d solved the puppy problem, yet shocked by his bargaining, Kitty found herself nodding, still unable to tear her eyes away from his. The thought of having to do whatever Adam asked of her was enough to send shivers of anticipation shooting down through her spine.
The puppy was curled up in the makeshift bed Adam had put together – a wooden box lined with blankets and pillows. He snored softly, his tiny body rising up and down with each breath, the occasional shudder interrupting the rhythm of his sleep. Adam stared out of the window, looking at the path Kitty had made in the snow as she walked back to the big house, wondering if he should have insisted on walking her back there, rather than letting her go alone.
