by Ava Miles
“Why don’t you tell him to go to the door and see what he does?” she suggested. “Say door and point to it.”
When he did as she suggested, Henry dropped onto his stomach and put his paws over his eyes. Jane couldn’t help it. She laughed with gusto. Matt seemed less amused.
“He doesn’t respect me.”
“No,” she said with total honestly, “but sometimes you have to laugh about it.”
“Well, your Inner Alpha isn’t taking a beating.”
“I’m sure we can do something about that,” she said, and even to her ears, it sounded sensual.
He must have noticed too since he looked over at her with a new spark in his eyes. His gaze slid down her body.
“This was fun, Jane. Despite the whipping to my ego. I’m just sorry I didn’t have a chance to enjoy my wine.”
Her mouth tipped up into an easy smile. “Another time.”
“Yes,” he said with a little pause. “Another time.”
“Henry. Door. Now,” she said, and the dog lazily got to his feet and went to the door.
Matt walked over and grabbed the red leash. Henry jumped on him, but he’d braced himself for it, so he quickly grabbed the dog’s collar in one hand and snapped the leash in place with the other. “Got ya.”
Annie pranced by Jane’s side as she sauntered over to the door to bid him goodbye. “I think it’s a good idea for us to keep working together indoors when it’s this cold outside.”
“Thank you, Jane. Really. Henry and…I would be lost without you.”
That heart she wasn’t so sure of simply throbbed at those words. His gaze slid over her face and settled on her lips. She desperately wished he would kiss her—ending the perfect evening in the perfect way—but Henry jumped on the leash and destroyed the moment.
“He has a thing for timing,” Matt mused. “You have to give him that.”
“Yes,” she said. “Drive home safe. Slow.”
“Yes, Mom.” He shrugged into his coat one-handed.
“Here,” she said, taking Henry’s leash. She stared the dog down while Matt put on his gloves and hat. “Be good for Matt, Henry, or you’ll have to answer to me.”
The dog actually whined, making them both burst into laughter.
“Maybe I need to record you saying that and play it to him every time he thinks of being bad.”
“I’ll be seeing you, Matt,” she said.
That long, slow stare again, as though he were seeing her for the first time. “I’ll be seeing you, Jane,” he repeated.
As he opened the door, the wind gusted in, and snow flurries swirled around them. He was humming as he shut the door.
She started humming the same tune before realizing what the song was. “I’ll Be Seeing You” by Frank Sinatra.
No one sang it like Frank.
Chapter 6
In his new job, Matt had plenty of down time, which had been a foreign concept at his old law firm. Standing at the window in his corner office, Matt was throwing basketballs into the hoop on the back of his office door when his phone rang. A quick glance told him it was his younger sister, Moira, so he immediately picked up.
“Hey, Mo, what’s shaking?” he asked, knowing she’d frown at the nickname she’d never completely shaken.
“I don’t know, Matty Ice. What about you?” He wasn’t Matt Ryan, quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons, by any stretch, but it was a nickname he’d inherited as a lawyer after an incident with a hostile witness. A woman he’d been cross-examining had jumped off the witness seat, flung herself at him, and clawed his face. Instead of freaking out, Matt had remained calm, restraining her as best he could until the officers had swarmed around them and dragged her away.
“Okay, nickname truce. So, how are you? We miss you.”
“Yeah, I know. I was talking to Mom on my way to work this morning, and she said the same thing. Danny almost broke my heart over Facetime last night, saying he missed sledding with me at the park. Why did you all have to up and leave Denver? Caroline, Natalie, and I were moaning about it at our regular Thursday Sisters’ Night.”
She darn well knew their reasons. “Because Andy and I both needed to get a life, and Mom…well, she needed to get away from Dad.”
“Jill’s been trying to talk us all into moving back to Dare. I swear that girl is a—”
“Fart on a skillet,” he finished. “I don’t even know what that means, but it sure as heck was fun hearing Uncle Arthur call her that growing up. I took him home the other night and told him I wanted to run for mayor.” He’d already scheduled a conference call with an old friend and colleague he wanted to hire as his political consultant. And his computer was filled with notes about his plans for his campaign and what he wanted to do as mayor.
“And? Did he bean you with his cane?”
“No, but he glowered and did that whole harrumph thing.”
“God, I love that old man. And now I get to see more of him since I’ll be coming up to visit a lot. Caroline, Nat, and I all agreed we’d do a road trip soon.”
“Good. I miss you.” He loved all his sisters, but he and Moira had been Irish twins, less than a year apart in age, so they were incredibly close.
“Miss you too. You really should think about moving back to Dare, Mo. Leave the big city behind. I can’t tell you how great it feels to leave the office at 4:30 so I can get a walk in with Henry before the sun goes down. It’s incredible.”
“4:30, huh? That makes me want to cry.”
“And there’s no traffic…”
“Stop it. I’m tearing up. Seriously.”
Yeah, Mo’s commute was a good forty-five minutes each way, just like Matt’s had been when he lived in Denver. He’d listened to a lot of books on tape while sitting on the heated butt warmers in his car. He didn’t miss it.
“How’s business?” she asked.
“Well, it’s early days, but since I’m from here, there’s like a built-in trust system. Meredith told me Uncle Arthur even mentioned me at Bingo night. I had ten people show up the next day to arrange DNRs and wills.”
“That’s…sweet, I guess.”
Andy appeared in the doorway.
“Guess who just showed up,” Matt said, putting Moira on speaker. “Mo’s on the phone.”
“Hey, Mo,” Andy said as he strolled in and shut the door behind him. “How’s human resources in the big city? Fire anyone today?”
“Hey, Andy Cakes!”
“How did you get a pass from the hospital?” Matt asked, throwing one of the small basketballs on his desk at his brother. “You cancelled our lunch run this morning for an operation.”
Andy easily deflected it. “The patient miraculously healed at the last minute and didn’t need his scheduled surgery. Living here is like heaven, Mo. When would I ever have had the chance to leave the hospital during the day in Denver? On a Tuesday at that.”
“Okay, I’m going to get back to the grind. You guys totally suck.”
“We know,” Matt said, “but we happily suck.”
“Aren’t you funny? Love you both. Have a good run.”
They all said goodbye, and Matt disconnected the call.
“You ready for me to kick your ass running?” he asked his brother.
“Like that could happen, but maybe you have a shot today. That blizzard sucked. After not running for two days, I feel like my arteries are clogging.”
“Right. This from a man who eats like a vegan.” And one he never beat in a race.
“I’m not a vegan,” his brother said, nailing him in the head with the mini-basketball he’d picked up off the floor. He’d played high school varsity while Matt had only been a sub and had a much better aim. “I just like to keep healthy things in my body.”
After Kim’s diagnosis, she and Andy had done everything they could to make their lifestyle healthy. It hadn’t been enough to allay her breast cancer, but Andy still ate mostly organic food. Sometimes he got on his soapbox about preservatives
, which could be annoying, but Matt never took offense. And since he realized kids wanted to eat mac and cheese and hot dogs just like their friends did, Andy didn’t impose his diet on Danny. Still, the kid ate much more healthy stuff than they had while growing up. His nephew even liked kale. Crazy.
“Moira said Danny almost broke her heart when he talked about missing their sledding matches.”
“Yeah,” Andy said. “I heard. He really misses his aunts, but he’s made some new friends already. I knew he’d be fine with switching to a new kindergarten halfway through the year. Especially with you and Mom as anchors. Plus, he’s totally fallen in love with Jill.”
“She’s something.”
“So, get your butt up and let’s get going.”
“Okay, but we need to stop at my place so I can get changed. I left my stuff at home when I got your text this morning. But I’m not going to bring Henry. It’ll be nice not to have him on a run for once.”
“Still not obeying you?” he asked as they left his office.
Matt paused to tell his secretary, Alice, that he’d be back in about an hour.
“No,” he answered as they left his office. The sun was shining and there wasn’t a breath of wind, a perfect winter day. Main Street was buzzing with shoppers enjoying the nice weather.
“But someone’s helping me with his training,” he continued, “and it seems to be making all the difference.”
“Really,” his brother drawled. “Someone of the female variety, I take it.”
“Yes. Go get your gym bag.”
As his brother jogged to his SUV, Matt thought about his new dog trainer, as he’d been doing a lot lately. He couldn’t stop thinking about how things had changed between them in her kitchen last night. Watching her savor her wine, eyes closed in apparent ecstasy, he’d felt a definite shift between them. Then she’d told him about her enchanting vision of the vineyards, which had made him notice her even more as a woman, a woman he’d badly wanted to touch. Without her scarf and hat, the exposed line of her neck had made him want to run a finger along it. Her short hair made her big brown eyes pop in a face that was becoming more arresting each time he saw her.
“Who is she?” Andy asked when he returned with his black canvas duffle.
“Jane Wilcox,” he responded as he unlocked his SUV.
Andy threw his bag in the back seat, and they both buckled their seatbelts.
“Rhett Butler Blaylock’s dog walker and dog sitter,” he continued. While Matt liked Rhett, he didn’t know what to make of the situation. Why would a Harvard grad who was obviously incredibly smart choose to be a dog walker for a champion poker player?
“I’ve seen her around town. Petite, right? Short hair. She’s cute.”
Yeah, he’d thought so all along, but she wasn’t his typical type. Usually he liked forthright women with endless legs, and being a lawyer at one of the most cutthroat law firms in Denver, he’d had no trouble meeting women who met the bill. Those relationships had never become serious, but who had the time for that sort of thing anyway? He hadn’t—not while he was in Denver.
“That’s her. She goes to the same park on the far side of the bench, and she came to my rescue when Henry pulled one of his stunts.” He could still see her smiling at him as she joked about him being a damsel in distress.
“You ask her out yet?” Andy had always been able to read him, so it didn’t surprise him that his brother was picking up on his interest.
“No, but it was so cold the day the blizzard rolled in that we continued Henry’s dog training at her house.”
And what a place it was. She was a nester. His sisters Moira and Caroline were nesters too—like Jane, they chose warm colors for their walls, decorating their homes with carefully selected artwork and scattered accessories.
“Where does she live?” Andy asked as Matt pulled into his driveway.
“Not too far from here,” he said, leading his brother down the sidewalk he’d shoveled at least six times during the blizzard. They’d gotten eighteen inches in total, and he’d had to clear a path for Henry to go outside and do his business. And, of course, Henry hadn’t wanted to come back inside, so Matt had chased him in the freaking blizzard, muscling through the snow drifts. He’d almost called Jane to ask for advice, but he didn’t have her number. Yet.
“She lives on the bench?” Andy asked as Matt unlocked the door and opened it carefully so his dog wouldn’t bolt.
Henry was dancing around excitedly, and Matt slipped inside to grab his leash so he could take him out to do his business. Andy followed him into the front yard.
“Yeah, she does,” he continued. “Surprised me too. And get this…she went to Harvard.”
“You’re kidding me! And she’s a dog walker? No offense, Henry.”
His dog simply lifted his leg.
“I know!” His brother’s response mirrored his own, which made him even more curious.
They headed back inside, Henry tugging on the leash now. “We’ll go for a walk later, numbskull,” Matt said. “This is bro time.”
After changing, they took off again, choosing the Bear Creek trail, since it was an asphalt path that the city always cleared and salted after a snowfall. Matt smiled as they jogged in tandem—the wind was ruffling through the pines and aspens, and the sun felt warm on his head and shoulders. The cardinal he spotted in the nearby bushes looked blood red against the blinding fresh snow. This moment felt good, peaceful.
“So, let’s get back to the dog walker,” Andy said once they’d settled into a good pace. “Run me through what you know about her because I can tell you like her.”
He gave his brother a slight shove, but then he shared what he knew. He’d been spending so much time thinking about Jane that the words just spilled out.
“So a stock portfolio, huh?” Andy commented, his breath creating sparkling white clouds in the cold air. “She sounds great, but there are a lot of things that don’t add up. Did you Google her?”
“I thought about it,” he admitted, but he’d stopped himself. That would make it a big deal—it would mean that he really liked her—and he wasn’t ready for that yet.
His brother punched him in the arm, salt crunching under his feet where it hadn’t melted. “So this is why you left your soul-sucking job. You have too much of a conscience. I’ll have to tell Mom. She’ll be so proud.”
He snorted. “Suck it.”
“You first.” Andy picked up his pace. “Think you can keep up with me?”
“I dared you earlier. You’re the old man here, not me,” he said, as if thirty-six could be considered old.
Matt lengthened his stride and soon they were neck and neck.
“You’re going to eat my dust. Race you to the post by the picnic bench.”
“You got it,” he said, spotting it ahead.
Their casual jog accelerated to a flat-out sprint. Ah, sibling rivalry. Gotta love it.
Matt was pushing so hard his lungs started to burn from the cold, but just like always, Andy was a foot ahead of him. This was what thirty years of defeat felt like. It totally sucked. When they were growing up, he’d blamed it on Andy being older, his body more developed. Now, he’d have to resort to blaming it on Andy being an inch taller that he was, at six-two.
But that didn’t mean he could play dirty. “Hey!” he gasped. “I think I see someone lying over there by the creek. They look like they need help.”
His brother’s doctor instincts kicked in, and he slowed just a fraction, scanning the snow around the creek. “Where?”
Matt ran past him as hard as he could. “Sucker!” he yelled.
“Shit,” he heard Andy mutter behind him.
Apparently his brother had a Pavlovian response to the Hippocratic oath. He’d have to use that one against him more often.
Matt made it to the pole before his brother did, and even though he’d only won by cheating, he did a victory dance.
His brother glared at him. “And here I thoug
ht you were an ethical person. You should know better than to call medical wolf.”
“I know,” he admitted, but he couldn’t stop smiling. He’d finally passed the finish line ahead of Andy after decades of losing. “I’m a terrible person.”
His brother leaned down and palmed some snow in his glove. Uh-oh. His brother had a mean fast ball. He tried to duck out of the way, but Andy adjusted his aim and the little missile smacked him right in the chest. The sting of it meant he’d probably have a bruise. He held out his hands.
“Now who’s the sore loser? Is that what you want to teach Danny?”
Another snowball smacked him in the chest. He winced. Okay, so that hadn’t been the smartest comment ever.
“You got the second one for impugning my fatherly abilities,” Andy said, grinning like the mischievous boy he’d been. “Now, do we have that all out of our system, or should I keep pelting your cheating ass? We should probably turn around and head back.”
“You’re still a bad loser.”
“Butthead cheater.”
Yeah. Brother time had never felt so good.
They jogged back at an easy pace, no more races or banter. Once they reached the SUV, they stretched and climbed inside. Andy immediately dug out his phone, and Matt drove in silence, letting him check his emails. His brother’s job was to help people get healthy, and sometimes that couldn’t wait. His own emails were usually far less urgent, and the bonus of having his own practice was that his inbox had experienced a major slim down. At his old firm, he’d never been able to keep up with his emails, but now he cleaned out his inbox every day.
“Wow,” Andy finally commented a few minutes later. “Even if Jane wasn’t good at the stock market, she’d still be pretty well off. Her family’s loaded.”
“What?” His hands tightened on the steering wheel, and when he glanced over at his brother, Andy was scrolling on his smart phone. “Dammit! You looked her up, didn’t you? Is that what you’ve been doing? I thought you were doing work stuff. Saving lives.”
“You like her, so yes, I totally did. Big brother’s privilege. Her family is from old manufacturing money. Currently lives in Greenwich, Connecticut.” Then he whistled. “And guess what? Her father is a long-standing state senator who’s running for U.S. Congress in the next election.”
