Diamond in the Ruff (Matchmaking Mamas Book 13)

by Marie Ferrarella

  “No,” Lily corrected, “I made these for you. I’m a pastry chef,” she explained quickly, in case he thought she was just someone who had slapped together the first dessert recipe she came across on the internet. She wasn’t altogether sure what prompted her, but she wanted him to know that in her own way she was a professional, too. “I work for a catering company,” she added, then thought that she was probably blurting out more details than the man wanted to hear. “Anyway, since you wouldn’t let me pay you, I wanted to do something nice for you. It’s all-natural,” she told him. “No artificial additives, no gluten, no nuts,” she added, in case he was allergic to them the way her childhood best friend had been. “It’s all perfectly safe,” she assured him.

  “Well, it smells absolutely terrific.” He opened the box and the aroma seemed to literally swirl all around him. “If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought I’d died and gone to heaven,” he told her.

  “I’m told it tastes even better than it smells,” she said rather shyly.

  “Let’s see if they’re right.” Christopher took out a pastry and slowly bit into it, as if afraid to disturb its delicate composition. His eyes widened and filled with pleasure. “Heaven has been confirmed,” he told her before giving in and taking a second bite.

  And then a third.

  Chapter Four

  Despite the fact that she really was enjoying watching the veterinarian consume the pastry she’d made, Lily did feel a little awkward just standing there. Any second now, someone would either come in with a pet that needed attention, or one of the doctor’s assistants would emerge and the moment she was experiencing, watching him, would vanish.

  It would be better all around if she left right now.

  “Well, I just wanted to drop those off with you,” Lily said, waving a hand toward the contents of the opened pink box. With that, she began to walk out of the clinic.

  Christopher’s mouth was presently occupied, involved in a love affair with the last bite of the pastry that he’d selected. Not wanting to rush the process, he also didn’t want Lily to leave just yet. He held up his hand, mutely indicating that he wanted her to stay a moment longer.

  “Wait.” He managed to voice the urgent request just before he swallowed the last bite he’d taken.

  Lily stopped just short of the front door. She shifted slightly as she waited for the vet to be able to speak, all the while wondering just why he would ask her to remain. Was he going to tell her that he’d changed his mind about charging her for today? Or had the man had second thoughts about his offer to meet her in the dog park on Sunday?

  And why was she suddenly experiencing this feeling of dread if it was the latter?

  “You really made these?” Christopher asked once he’d regained the use of his mouth.

  “Yes,” she answered slowly, her eyes on his as she tried to fathom why he would think that she would make something like that up.

  Unable to resist, Christopher popped the last piece into his mouth. It was gone in the blink of an eye. Gone, but definitely not forgotten.

  “They’re fantastic,” he told her with feeling. Executing magnificent restraint, he forced himself to close the rectangular box. “Do you do this professionally?” he asked. “Like at a restaurant? Do you work for a restaurant?” he rephrased, realizing that his momentary bout of sheer ecstasy had temporarily robbed him of the ability to form coherent questions.

  “I work for a caterer,” Lily corrected. “But someday, I’d like to open up a bakery of my own,” she added before she could think better of it. The man was only making conversation. He didn’t want her to launch into a long monologue, citing her future plans.

  Christopher nodded and smiled warmly as he lifted the lid on the box just a crack again. There was a little dab of cream on one side. He scraped it off with his fingertip which in turn disappeared between his lips as he savored this last tiny bit.

  He looked like a man who had reached Nirvana, Lily couldn’t help thinking. A warm, pleased feeling began to spread all through her. Lily forgot to be nervous or uncomfortable.

  “You’d have standing room only,” Christopher assured her. “What do you call these?” he asked, indicating the pastries that were still in the box.

  She hadn’t given the matter all that much thought. She recalled what Theresa had called them the first time she’d sampled one. “Bits of Heaven.”

  Christopher’s smile deepened as he nodded his approval. He turned to face her completely as he said, “Good name.”

  That was when she saw it. The tiny dot of white cream just on the inside corner of his lips. Obviously not all of the dessert had made it into his mouth. She thought of ignoring it, certain that the more he spoke, the more likely that the cream would eventually disappear one way or another.

  But she didn’t want him to be embarrassed by having one of his patients’ owners point out that his appearance was less than perfect.

  “Um, Dr. Whitman,” she began, completely at a loss as to how to proceed. She’d always felt out of sync pointing out someone else’s flaws or shortcomings. But this was because she’d brought in the pastries so technically the remnants of cream on his face was her fault.

  “Your pastry just made love to my mouth, I think you can call me Chris,” Christopher told her, hoping to dismantle some of the barriers that this woman seemed to have constructed around herself.

  “Chris,” Lily repeated as she tried to begin again.

  He liked the sound of his name on Lily’s tongue. His smile reflected it. “Yes?”

  “You have a little cream on your lip. Well, just below your lip,” she amended. Rather than point to the exact location on his face, she pointed to it on hers. “No, the other side,” she coached when he’d reversed sides to start with. When Christopher managed to find the spot on his second try, she nodded, relieved. “You got it.”

  Amused, Christopher was about to say something to her, but he was stopped by the bell over the door. It rang, announcing the arrival of his next patient: a Himalayan cat who looked none too happy about being in a carrier, or about her forced visit to the animal hospital for that matter.

  The cat’s mistress, a rather matronly-looking brunette with a sunny smile, sighed with relief as she set the carrier down on the floor next to the front desk. “Cedrick is not a happy camper today,” she said, stating the obvious. Then, before Christopher could turn to the cat’s file, the woman prompted, “Cedrick’s here for his shots.”

  That was definitely her cue to leave, Lily thought. She’d stayed too long as it was. Theresa’s people were watching Jonathan, but she had a feeling that she was on borrowed time as far as that was concerned.

  “Well, bye,” she called out to Christopher as she opened the door for herself.

  She was surprised to hear his voice following her out of the office as he called, “Don’t forget Sunday.”

  The butterflies she’d just become aware of turned into full-size Rodans in a blink of an eye.

  Lily darted out of the office and hurried to her vehicle.

  * * *

  “You look like someone’s chasing you,” Theresa observed when she all but burst through the front door of the catering shop. “Is everything all right?” the older woman asked.

  “Fine. It’s fine,” Lily answered a little too quickly.

  Theresa opted to leave her answer unchallenged, asking instead, “How did he like your pastries?” When Lily looked at her blankly, her expression not unlike that of a deer caught in the headlights, Theresa prompted helpfully, “The vet, how did he like the pastries that you made for him?”

  “Oh, that. He liked them,” Lily answered. “Sorry, I’m a little preoccupied,” she apologized. “I’m thinking about the desserts for tomorrow night’s event,” she explained. Because she always wanted everything to be perfect—her w
ay of showing Theresa how grateful she was to the woman for taking such an interest in her—she was constantly reviewing what she planned on creating for any given event.

  This time it was Theresa who waved a hand, waving away Lily’s apology. She was far more interested in the topic she had raised.

  “Well, what did he say?” she asked. “Honestly, child, sometimes getting information out of you is just like pulling teeth.” Drawing her over to the side, she repeated her request. “Tell me what he said.”

  She could feel her eyes crinkling as she smiled, recalling the exact words. “That he thought he’d died and gone to heaven.”

  Theresa nodded in approval. “At least he has taste,” she said more to herself than to Lily. Maizie had come up with a good candidate, she couldn’t help thinking. “It’s an omen,” she decided, giving Lily’s hand a squeeze. “We’ll go with Bits of Heaven for the celebration tomorrow night.” And then, because Lily didn’t seem to be inclined to say anything further about Christopher for now, she changed topics. “By the way, if you’re wondering where Jonathan is, Meghan took him out for a walk. Until he gets housebroken, one of us is going to have to take him out every hour until he finally goes,” Theresa advised.

  Utterly unaccustomed to anything that had to do with having a pet, Lily looked at her, momentarily confused. “Goes? Goes where? You mean with his owner?” she guessed.

  Theresa suppressed a laugh. “No, I meant as in him relieving himself. Unless made to understand otherwise, that puppy is going to think the whole world is his bathroom.”

  Lily looked at her in complete horror. “Oh, God, I didn’t think of that.”

  “Don’t beat yourself up, Lily,” Theresa told her kindly, putting her arm around her protégé’s shoulders. “You’ve never had a pet before.” Then, to further ease the young woman’s discomfort, Theresa told her, “There were always dogs around when I was growing up. This is all like second nature to me.”

  If she felt that way, maybe there was a chance that she could convince her boss to take the puppy if no one came forward to claim him. Lily gave it one more try. “Are you sure that you don’t want to—”

  Immediately aware where this was going, Theresa deftly headed it off. “Not a chance. My Siamese would take one look at Jonathan and scratch his eyes out, then go on strike and not eat her food for a week just to make me suffer. As long as that prima donna resides with me, I can’t have any other four-footed creatures coming within a yard of the house.” Theresa gave her a sympathetic smile. “I’m afraid that until you find his owner, you and Jonathan are going to be roomies.”

  Lily nodded, resigned—for the moment. “Then I’d better get started trying to find his owner,” she told Theresa.

  With that, Lily retreated into the glass-enclosed cubbyhole where she came up with her recipes. It was a tiny office at best, with just enough space to fit an undersize desk and chair. She couldn’t complain. It suited her needs. There was enough space on the desk for her laptop, which was all she required. That and the wireless portable printer she had set up on a folding table.

  Lily got to work the second she sat down.

  Deciding that an actual picture would do a better job than a drawing, she’d taken a picture of Jonathan earlier with the camera on her cell phone. After attaching her phone to the laptop, she proceeded to upload the photograph—adorable in her opinion—onto her laptop.

  “Why would anyone not realize you were missing?” she murmured to the photograph. “Okay, enough of that, back to work,” she ordered herself.

  Centering the photograph and cropping it to focus on his face, she wrote in a few pertinent words about the puppy—where and when he was found—then put down her phone number.

  Reviewing everything on the screen, Lily went ahead and printed one copy as a test run. Except for the fact that she needed to tweak the color a little to get it just right, the results looked fine to her. She adjusted the color and changed a couple of the words she’d initially used, then saved this copy over the first one. She printed a copy of this version.

  She reviewed the poster one final time, decided she was satisfied with both the message and Jonathan’s photograph and saved this version for posterity. Then she ran off an initial twenty-five posters. She intended to put them up on trees and poles throughout her entire residential development.

  Hopefully, that would do it. If she received no response to the flyers, she’d be forced to widen her circle and take in the adjacent development, but for the moment, she was hoping that it wouldn’t have to come to that.

  If Jonathan had been her puppy, she’d be frantically searching for him by now. It only seemed right to her that his real owner would feel the same.

  * * *

  Once she and Jonathan left the catering shop for the day, Lily put her plan in motion. With the rear window cracked just far enough to let him have air, but not enough to allow the puppy to make an escape, she would drive from location to location within her development. She’d then get out—leaving the Labrador sitting in the backseat of her car—and put the flyers up on two to three trees.

  Because she was trying to blanket the entire development, it took Lily more than an extra hour to get home. Jonathan barked louder and louder each time she got out, registering his growing displeasure at this game that seemed to be excluding him.

  “You’ll thank me when your owner turns up,” Lily told the dog, getting in behind the wheel again. She had just tacked up the last of the posters.

  Weary, she pulled up to her driveway. Jonathan began to bark again, as if anticipating that she was going to leave him behind.

  “I’m coming,” Lily assured him.

  She rounded the hood of her vehicle to get to the rear passenger side. When she opened the rear door, she did her best to grab the leash the vet had given her but Jonathan was just too fast for her. He eluded her attempts and dove right between her legs as he made his break for freedom.

  With a sigh, Lily gave up and let him go. She wasn’t about to chase the animal down. With her luck, she’d fall flat on her face. Instead, she went to her trunk and unlocked it.

  Theresa had insisted on making her a home-cooked meal—if home was a catering company—so that she’d have something substantial to eat for dinner.

  “I know how you get all caught up in things and forget to eat, especially if you have to prepare something. Well, this time, you have no excuse,” Theresa had told her as she thrust the large paper bag at her. The bottom had been warm to the touch.

  It still was, Lily thought as she took the carefully packed, large paper bag out of the trunk.

  Armed with her dinner, she walked up the driveway to the front door and then came perilously close to dropping the bag.

  Jonathan was sitting on her front step. By all appearances, the puppy looked as if he was waiting for her.

  “What are you doing here?” she cried, stunned. “I thought you’d be long gone by now.”

  Jonathan’s expression was mournful as he glanced up at her. His tongue was hanging out and he was drooling onto her front step. The moment she inserted her key into the lock, the Labrador shot to his feet. His tail was thudding rhythmically on the step.

  “I suppose you’re going to want to come in,” she said. As if he understood her—or perhaps he just wanted to be annoying, she speculated—Jonathan responded by barking at her. Barking even more loudly than he had before. The sound made her absolutely cringe as it echoed in her head. “House rule,” she told the puppy as she pushed the door open with her shoulder. Jonathan was inside the house like a shot. She had to be careful not to trip on him—this was getting to be a habit. The puppy seemed to be everywhere at once. “Use your inside voice,” she said firmly.

  He chose to ignore her.

  Jonathan barked again, just as loudly as before. Temporarily surrendering, Lily sighed
as she closed the door and then made her way into the kitchen.

  “Maybe you don’t have an inside voice. I’m beginning to think that you didn’t run off, someone dropped you off. Someone who didn’t want to spend the rest of their life living on headache medication.”

  Jonathan ran around her in a circle then, suddenly and inexplicably, he apparently opted to become her shadow. He started to follow her every move, staying within a couple of steps from her at all times.

  “It’s just going to be a matter of time before you make me fall, isn’t it?” she predicted, putting down both the bag Theresa had prepared for her and the one Alfredo had given her earlier in the day. The chef had sent his assistant out to the pet store to buy some cans of dog food for Jonathan.

  She might not have adopted the Labrador yet, but it seemed as if everyone else had, Lily thought as she unpacked the cans and set them on the counter. There were ten cans in all, each one for a different kind of meal.

  “Boy, dogs eat better than most people, don’t they?” she marveled. Jonathan was now running back and forth, eagerly anticipating being fed. “Can you smell this through the can?” she asked incredulously. Jonathan just continued pacing.

  She took a moment to choose a can for her houseguest, decided that she couldn’t make up her mind and finally made her selection by closing her eyes and plucking a can out of the group. One was as good as another, she reasoned. She had a feeling the puppy would have made short work of cardboard had she decided to serve him that.

  The can conveniently had a pop-top. “At least I won’t have to look for the can opener.”

  Lily pulled the top off and emptied the contents of the can into a soup bowl. Placing the bowl gingerly before the Labrador, she managed to take a couple of steps back, out of his way. That took a total of three seconds, possibly less.

  Jonathan was finished eating in six.

  Lily stared at the empty bowl. “Don’t you even chew?” she asked in amazement. The puppy followed her when she picked up the bowl to wash it out. As before he seemed to be watching her every move intently. “If you think I’m going to give you any more food, you’re going to be sadly disappointed. Your kitchen is closed for the night, mister. Water is all you’re going to be getting until tomorrow.”