Close to Heart

by T. J. Kline

  “Sure,” she said, giving him a bright smile, posing the way she used to for media events and paparazzi. He pulled out a cell phone and held it out, snapping a couple of pictures in quick succession while the flash nearly blinded her.

  “Thank you so much,” he prattled, holding out a grease-covered hand. “I can’t believe I’m towing your car. I’m Dave, by the way.”

  She shook it gingerly. “Do you think I can pick the car up by tomorrow afternoon?”

  He laughed, and then cleared his throat as if he realized his mistake. “Oh, you’re serious. Well, we can’t fix it here in town. I’m going to have to take this to our shop and tow it into the dealership in El Dorado Hills in the morning. But I know Mark; he’s a great guy and he’ll fix you up ASAP.”

  “El Dorado Hills? That’s almost an hour away.” She glanced back and saw that she was alone. Justin must have gotten tired of waiting and gone inside. “How long will they need?”

  “I’d say at least a week, maybe two if the quarter panel is damaged.”

  Alyssa thanked Dave, and watched as he drove away with her incapacitated nest egg, feeling the bottom drop from what little hope she had to get to her parents’ house and try to find some sort of a job before the baby came. It was going to be hard enough to find a job pregnant, but she felt as if she was doubling in size every week. She needed a way to take care of herself and her child, and it was looking less likely that she’d find someone to hire her when she was about to give birth any day.

  JUSTIN COULDN’T BELIEVE she’d outright lied. He remembered the movie Dave mentioned when he picked up the car. She was freakin’ Alyssa Cole. Married to some superagent. She’d practically been Hollywood royalty until she’d vanished from the big screen a few years ago. No wonder he’d recognized her; she’d graced every checkout-line tabloid for months.

  He could forgive a lot of crap, but the one thing he despised was dishonesty. What did she mean she couldn’t afford to pay him for taking care of the dogs? She probably had more money than she knew what to do with. He must have sounded so stupid offering her a job in the clinic. She probably thought he was some backwoods hick idiot. Justin felt the irritation at her duplicity bubble up within him, and he tried to stifle it.

  She hadn’t exactly lied, he realized. She just hadn’t been forthcoming with who she was. He couldn’t help but recall the apprehension he’d seen in her eyes and found himself wanting to forgive her oversight. She had just spun out on the freeway and crashed her car.

  The bells over the front door chimed as Justin checked on the Lab, just starting to wake from the anesthesia. Her puppies, satiated, were happily sleeping in a pile on the warm towels in a crate nearby so she could see and smell them, alleviating her stress.

  “Justin? Are you in the back?”

  He didn’t bother to answer her, knowing she’d find him and still trying to get a handle on his irritation with her lie by omission. His gut twisted as he sat down on a stool near the puppies. Alyssa appeared in the doorway and watched him silently, a slight blush of what he assumed was shame covered her cheeks, and she looked unsure how to address the elephant in the room.

  He wasn’t about to make this easy on her and refused to look her way, instead staring down at the pups. “When you’re ready, I’ll call my sister and see if she can take you back to her place. I have to stay here with the dogs.”

  “I’ll stay with you,” she offered, quietly.

  “Isn’t that a bit beneath you? I don’t think these guys will be asking for your autograph or a picture.” He gestured toward the puppies.

  He wasn’t sure why he was so angry that she hadn’t told him who she was. It wasn’t as if she owed him anything. They didn’t have any sort of relationship, but that didn’t stop the gnawing irritation from taking hold. He’d been ready to help her, to open his business and his home to her on a gut instinct. To know that he’d been so wrong about her, misjudged the situation so completely, fried him, and he felt his anger stir again.

  Surprised by his sarcasm, she took a step back and folded her arms above her belly protectively. “I . . . I’m sorry I didn’t tell you who I was. I just . . . ”

  “You know what? You don’t owe me any explanations.” He held up a hand, barely glancing up at her. He was surprised he’d managed to keep his voice indifferent when he felt anything but. “There’s a couch in my office if you want to get some sleep. I’ll let you know when Jessie gets here.”

  He twisted the stool, turning his back to her, feeling like a bigger jerk with each passing second.

  Cowboy up, he scolded himself. Tomorrow morning she could call her agent husband and he could come pick her up—puppies and all. This entire mess would be one less thing for him to worry about.

  “I NEED YOU to come and pick her up.” Alyssa heard Justin’s voice carry through the office walls as she tried to get comfortable on the worn leather couch. “Because her car was just taken to the shop, and Dave says it’s going to take a week to fix.”

  She could hear irritation in the huskiness of his voice. He sounded tired, but she’d seen that much in his eyes. That didn’t explain his reaction when she’d come back in from talking to the tow truck driver. Justin had been pissed. At her. She hated when people were mad at her. She couldn’t imagine what she’d done to offend him.

  “Can’t you just double up the guests in one of the other cabins? Well, what about Julia?”

  His voice was growing more frustrated and the conversation was sounding less optimistic with every word. Alyssa cursed her luck. Here she was, stuck in a veterinary clinic in the early morning hours with no way to leave. She could call her father and have him drive down from Carson City, but he wouldn’t get here for another few hours at the very least. She would have to wait until the sun was up before calling him, and if she was honest with herself, she dreaded the disappointment in her father’s eyes when she told him about her marriage more than Justin’s annoyance.

  She awkwardly pushed herself up from the couch and made her way down the hall to the small office she’d heard Justin’s voice bellowing from. Even with his back to the doorway, she could hear the frustration in his sigh of resignation.

  “What the hell am I supposed to do with her? She’s a movie star. I don’t have time to cater to—” There was a long pause. “I can’t take her back to my place. She’s married, and that’s where I draw the line. Yeah? Well, thanks a lot.” He spun around in his chair to throw the cell phone onto the desk as he ran a hand through his light brown hair. “Son of a bitch,” he whispered, burying his head in his palms. He didn’t see her in the doorway.

  “If you don’t mind me waiting a little longer, I’ll call my dad to come pick me up.” Her voice was quiet, but it broke through the stillness like shattering glass. Justin’s chair creaked as he sat up, obviously surprised to see her standing in the doorway. “I appreciate how much you’ve helped me already. I don’t mean to be a burden.”

  Justin rubbed a hand over his tired eyes, letting his fingers run over the scruff covering his jaw. “So, you heard we have a bit of a predicament?”

  She moved toward the seat across from his desk and sat down carefully, cupping one hand around the side of her stomach, nodding. “Like I said, I’ll have my father come get me. It’s just still a little early to call.” She glanced at the clock on his desk. Was it really only three in the morning? “He should have me out of your hair before lunch. But I can’t take the puppies,” she added.

  As much as she’d like to, there just wasn’t room at her parents’ condo. She wasn’t even sure they were going to be able to make room for her and the baby in spite of her mother’s insistence. She didn’t even want to think about how her parents would react to news of her divorce. They were going to be devastated. Elijah was the son her father had never had, and he’d always charmed both of them. The same way he charmed everyone else, she thought bitterly. They might take her side, but she still worried that they might think she was to blame.

 
Justin pressed his lips together and nodded slowly, drawing her attention back to him. He rubbed his finger over the bottom of his chin. She could read the questions in his eyes—why would she call her father and why couldn’t she take care of the puppies? She owed him some sort of explanation after the way he’d taken her in without hesitation. For crying out loud, he’d offered her a job and a place to stay.

  Before he knew who you were.

  “I was on my way to my parents’ house when I got surprised by this storm.”

  He didn’t look convinced, as if he knew she was holding back information. It was in his best interest to let her call her father and leave, but something in her eyes seemed to make him think twice. “You don’t want to stay and help with the pups?” he asked. “At least until your car gets fixed?”

  “I can always come back for the car later.” She avoided his first question, finding it hard not to be drawn into the depths of those blue eyes, and forced herself to look away from him.

  “Alyssa?” He said her name quietly, cajolingly. Her heart skipped several beats and her gaze jumped up to meet his at the way he drawled her name and chuckled quietly. His lips curved into a smile, but she could see a different emotion in his blue eyes. They were penetrating, empathetic, almost convincing her to tell him everything she’d gone through over the past day and a half. Almost.

  “You’re so full of it.”

  “I’m not lying,” she argued, trying to calm her racing heart.

  “I didn’t say you were.” His blue eyes were intense, seeing far more than she wanted him to. “That’s at least four hours of travel, more like five with the snow. Besides, we’re both adults. I think I can trust you to keep your hands to yourself, right?” Justin winked at her and gave her a playful grin, that dimple creasing his cheek again.

  This man had her stomach flipping and twirling, like a Cirque du Soleil performer. It was a feeling she hadn’t had since . . . well, she didn’t remember ever reacting this way to a man, not even with Elijah, and they’d dated since her senior year of college, when she first started acting. How could a stranger cause this sort of reaction in her body with nothing more than a smile? Alyssa felt a small measure of guilt travel down her spine. A married woman shouldn’t feel this way just because a handsome man smiled at her. What about your husband?

  Ex-husband, she corrected herself again. And it never seemed to stop Elijah from straying.

  It was time she admitted that her marriage had been over for a long time; Alyssa just hadn’t wanted to believe it. Neither of them was in love with the other. She wasn’t sure they ever had been. It hurt her to find out he’d been sleeping around, especially when Lillian claimed she wasn’t the only woman, but Elijah had always loved the idea of their marriage, the fame it gave him, far more than the reality of it. She’d only wished she’d seen it sooner.

  The baby kicked, bumping against her hand. Elijah was still the father of her child. She needed to try to make this work, to forgive him, for the baby. She and Elijah had been happy together once. Maybe they could settle for that, for their child’s sake, if she could just find a way to forgive him.

  She ignored the voice that taunted her for her naiveté. She had to stop thinking about her past, the what-ifs and should-haves. She knew she couldn’t overlook his affairs, and he wouldn’t ever stop. Her future lay ahead, with her and her child. Everything else was fantasy that existed only in the pages of romantic comedy scripts. This was real life. Men weren’t knights in armor. Happily ever afters were reserved for the big screen in two hours of edited scenes.

  “Had to think about it that long?” Justin was still staring at her, as if he was trying to wait her out with that sexy gaze of his. It almost worked.

  “I was just . . . thinking.”

  “Okay,” he finally said, rising from the desk. “I won’t push you to tell me what’s going on, but if you want someone you can talk to, honestly, without judgment, we’ve got a long, sleepless night ahead of us taking care of these puppies. As much as I’d like to offer you a bed, I need those hands of yours again.”

  What was that supposed to mean?

  He moved to the front of the desk and held out his hand, waiting for her to take it. She looked at his long fingers, more refined than she’d expected for a man his size, but calloused from hard work. Justin was completely unlike the polished men she’d spent the past six years schmoozing in Hollywood, the antithesis of her normal life.

  “The mom should be coming around, and I don’t want her to be worried about her pups,” he explained, reaching toward her.

  She took his hand, letting him help her up from the chair, eyeing him speculatively. She might not know him well, but he had that look in his eyes that said he wasn’t giving up this easily. He wanted answers, so she’d better figure out something to tell him soon.

  Chapter Three

  AS SOON AS Alyssa took his hand, Justin felt that electric jolt of desire shoot straight through him again.

  It’s completely normal, he tried to reason with himself. Who wouldn’t be attracted to this woman?

  She wasn’t just gorgeous, she was sheer perfection—from her long layers of honey-kissed hair to her perfect, barely there makeup and all the way to her long, lithe legs that seemed to go on forever.

  But she was still another man’s wife, the mother of another man’s child, which made her off-limits. He might not have a lot, but he did have his honor. He was trying not to think about how she’d already hidden the truth of her identity from him, and he couldn’t help but feel as if she was still hiding something else. She was from a different world, nothing like his own, where life was a game. Toying with people came as naturally as breathing, and there were no consequences for people like her or her husband. In spite of the warnings sounding in his brain like a fire alarm, he couldn’t quite reconcile the Alyssa Cole he’d seen so far with the woman he was trying to convince himself she was. Everything in him wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt.

  As Justin pulled her to her feet, her protruding belly bumped against his abs, knocking her off balance. She reached out to steady herself, her hands landing on his forearms. Desire flooded his body at her touch, racing through his veins, and he cursed himself. He usually had more self-control than this, and if the discomfort of his jeans was any indication, right now, he had none.

  “I’ve got you,” he assured her. His voice came out a husky rasp, and he cleared his throat.

  “Pregnancy balance, I guess.” Her voice was breathless.

  Justin felt a soft pressure against his stomach, where her belly moved against him, pressing lightly, and he jumped backward, releasing her. “What the hell?”

  She laughed at his reaction and pressed a hand against her side. “It’s just the baby moving. You’ve never felt one?”

  “Not the two-legged kind.”

  He felt like an idiot. He’d palpated pregnant animals, felt four-legged babies move under his fingers, delivered hundreds of baby animals, but he’d never been around a pregnant woman as far along as she was before. Her laughter was infectious, making him smile, in spite of his embarrassment. It was sweet and smooth, like honeyed whiskey, and he found he craved hearing it again.

  “Here.” She reached for his hand and pressed it against the side of her stomach.

  Justin stared down at her, suddenly realizing how close she was, how good she smelled, how deep of an emerald her eyes were. Her breath was warm against the cotton material of his shirt. One small dip of his head and he could steal a kiss from those perfect lips. She was oblivious to his reaction to her as she slid his hand over her stomach until she found a spot where he could feel the baby bump against his palm better. His fingers, caught in her hand, moved over the curve of her waist in a caress far more intimate than either of them had anticipated. Her sweet scent, like flowers and sunshine and country fairs, swept around him, making him pulse with longing for something he couldn’t have. Something he’d never even realized he wanted until now.
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br />   Justin fought the urge to wrap his other arm around her back and pull her against him, kissing her senseless. She continued to stare at his shoulder, unaware of the thoughts he was having about her. She brushed her hair back from her eyes, and he caught a glimpse of her wedding ring winking in the overhead light.

  This isn’t right.

  He shouldn’t be having thoughts like this about her. She was married. Almost ready to deliver another man’s child. He wasn’t going to let anything make him desperate enough to become that guy. Justin immediately released her.

  “We should get the puppies to their mother so they can nurse.” He stuffed his hands into his pockets, ignoring the way they still burned from touching her, and hurried past her, through the doorway, leading the way back down the hall into the back room to where the Lab was now awake and waiting for them. “She needs a name.”

  “She does?”

  Alyssa’s voice sounded grieved and he stopped in the hallway, looking back over his shoulder at her. Justin hadn’t meant to make her sad and she hadn’t done anything wrong, but he needed to keep his distance, for his own sanity as well as maintaining his honor. He sighed, forcing himself to ignore his inclination to apologize to her, to explain himself, knowing it would only make the situation worse. But that didn’t make it any easier to face that hopelessness he saw in her eyes. Instead, he pushed open the door to the back of the office where the kennel was situated.

  “I need to write something on the chart. Besides, I don’t want to keep calling her ‘the mom.’ ”

  Justin ran his hand over the dog’s side as she tried to stand. “Easy, girl. Just relax.” He reached out to steady the dog.

  “Lucky.”

  “What?” he asked, turning to look at her again.

  “Call her Lucky.” She moved closer and bent down as best she could, running her hand over the dog’s smooth, inky head. “She was lucky the accident happened right in front of your office and that you’re such a good guy to look for her until you found her.”