by Maggie Marr
“Let’s go.” Sophia and the two cameramen followed me into the hall. I wished Charlie’s final day had been yesterday and not tomorrow. We went into the clinic where Estrella was sedated and asleep on a comfy doggy bed. She had a huge bandage on her neck.
“It nicked her jugular,” Doc said. “If she hadn’t been at Pawtown she wouldn’t have made it.”
“If she hadn’t been at Pawtown this wouldn’t have happened.” Sophia reached out and ran her hand across the top of Estrella’s head. “She’s going to be okay?”
Doc nodded. “She’s going to be okay.”
A huge sigh escaped Sophia’s lips. Her feelings for the dog were pretty obvious. She loved Estrella.
“Why don’t you go grab some dinner and then come back? I’m going to be around here until she wakes up. I want to make sure she’s comfortable before I head home.”
“I’m not hungry,” Sophia mumbled. She stroked her fingers over Estrella’s side.
Doc looked at me. She wanted Sophia to get some air, take a walk, maybe eat, get out of the building and out of this headspace.
“Come on,” I said. I put my arm around Sophia’s shoulders. “We’ll just grab a little fresh air.” I gently pulled Sophia toward the door. Her gaze lingered on Estrella, but she came with me without a protest.
*
I took Sophia over to Angie’s house. I didn’t want her to be alone and I was hoping that Angie might be able to get a little food in her. Angie waved me off with a smile—I knew she would take good care of Sophia. I walked to the volunteer bungalow and found Charlie standing on the front porch with a cigarette in his hand, laughing with one of his cameramen. I caught his eye. “You got a minute?” I called.
“For you, Trick, I’ve got two.” He bounded down the steps and we walked to the far side of the bungalow. By now, darkness had fallen, so we stopped in a pool of light at the edge of the gravel path that lead back to the admin building and the vet clinic.
“I think you got enough footage tonight,” I said. Charlie tossed his cigarette onto the ground and stubbed it with his boot. He opened his mouth to speak but I cut him off. “No. Really, Charlie, you have enough. Don’t make me call Dillon and Choo. Sophia needs some time. You’ve filmed her for almost eight hours today.” I tossed her mic pack towards Charlie. He reached out and caught it. “I think you’re almost done here anyway, right?”
“We’ve got two more days on the schedule. I don’t think we’re anywhere close to being done.” He held the mic pack under his arm and pulled another cigarette from his shirt pocket.
I closed the distance between us. He needed to know, he needed to be really clear that I wasn’t making a request; I was giving him an order. “I know you need a story and I know you need drama, but I also know that the run gate was left open by someone and it is never open.”
He pressed his hand flat to his chest as though he was seriously shocked at what I was saying.
“I won’t go so far as to say it was intentional on you or your crew’s part to leave the gate open at the dog run, but I can guarantee there is no one on the Pawtown staff that would be so careless. We keep it padlocked and someone would need a key to open it.” I pulled a damaged padlock from my back pocket. Luis had found it when he did a final check of the grounds this evening. Someone had taken a hammer to it.
Charlie reached out and took the lock from me. He examined it and feigned surprise. “Can’t imagine who would do such a thing.”
“Right.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “Nothing dramatic about a dog getting loose, right? Or having everyone at Pawtown mobilized to begin a search? Your camera guys just happened to be wandering the grounds when all this happened? Who knew you’d get so lucky that the lost dog was Estrella? And then for her to go Cujo on a red-collar dog to protect Sophia? You may be good Charlie, but you’re not that good. You didn’t plan that part. Thank God. You just planned for some dog to get loose, any dog.” Anger thrummed through me. Today had been bad, but it could have been horribly worse.
I’d worked in entertainment for decades and I knew Charlie’s type. He’d do anything to get the story he wanted. Anything. Didn’t matter who or what he hurt. “I want you and your cameras out of Pawtown tomorrow. We clear?”
Charlie’s half smile was cocky and self-assured. “You say that now, but just wait until the ratings are off the charts, and the donations fly in, and the forever homes start adopting all the dogs. You’ll be happy to have Pawtown on the map. And this?” He held up the padlock. “This little inconvenience will be a faint memory.”
The devil’s deal. I recognized it from all my years in entertainment. The end always justified the means.
“Tomorrow, Charlie. Everyone leaves tomorrow.” I couldn’t leave without getting a bit of a parting shot in. A tiny jab. “And if we’re lucky enough to get picked up for a second season, you definitely won’t be involved.” I turned and left Charlie standing in a pool of light. I’d had enough of cameras and crews. I was definitely done with this life once more. I was only surprised I’d lasted this long.
Sophia
“If you won’t eat, then at least have something to drink,” Angie said. “You must be exhausted, but I know you’ll want to stay up a little longer so you can go see Estrella again. I’m putting on the coffee.” She turned her chair to go into the kitchen and then turned around. “By the way, I called the family that was planning to come out this evening to meet Estrella. We’ve postponed their visit.”
At least that was some good news. Sort of. I sat on the couch in Angie’s house and tried to relax. It had been a brutal day and I was trying to take a cue from her pack that lay on the dog beds scattered around the room. I closed my eyes and just drifted. A few minutes later I heard Angie wheel into the room. On her lap was a tray that held two cups of coffee and a plate of chocolate chip cookies.
“I made these today.” She set the coffee and the cookies on the table. “I bake when I’m worried.”
“I usually go shopping,” I said with a wry smile.
“That used to work for me, too. Before we moved here. Now it takes two hours to find anything other than what you can get at the grocery store.”
I picked up my coffee cup and took a long sip. “How do you do this?” I looked at Angie. “I don’t even like dogs. I mean, aside from Estrella. But you? And Trick? And everyone here? You love dogs. But they get hurt, and people are cruel to them, and they leave to go to other homes, or they get old and die. How do you do this over and over again?” I shook my head. I wanted to get my mind wrapped around the idea that people lived with the knowledge that this kind of heartache was inevitable. “Why?”
Angie lifted her coffee cup. “I don’t think about the losses.” She took a drink. “I can’t think about the losses.” Delilah came to her and put her head beneath her hand as though to help Angie answer my question. “I have to concentrate on the wins.” She set her coffee cup onto the table. “I do it because I love them, and loving them and knowing they love me makes me feel better about me. By helping the animals, I started to feel whole again. It doesn’t matter to them if I can walk, or if I’m in this damn chair. They love me either way. They love me no matter what.” Her gaze landed on her pack. “They see the real me.” She looked at me. “Or at least I think they do.”
I understood what she meant. My feelings were more limited, I only felt that way with Estrella. Angie’s love extended to every pup at Pawtown.
“I wouldn’t want to do anything else. Or live anywhere else,” she added.
I knew she felt this way and I knew that Trick shared her sentiment and her devotion. It was one of the reasons I liked being with Trick, our relationship was limited and we could only go so far. I wouldn’t be moving to Pawtown and he wouldn’t be returning to L.A.
“After the accident, after I woke up and realized what had happened to me and to Trick?” She shook her head. Her voice was soft, as though the memories and that part of her life was painful to revisit. “It t
ook me a long time to come to grips with what I’d lost, and how I’d lost it. But coming here, being with these animals, taking care of them … Pawtown got me out of my own head. I stopped feeling sorry for myself and I started feeling stronger. I was helping other living creatures. The dogs depended on me. So when Trick got released from jail and made it through rehab I went to him and told him what I’d been doing out here in Idyllwild. He went for it. I thought he might, but I wasn’t sure. Even if he hadn’t come with me I still would have moved here permanently, I still would have started Pawtown. This place?” Her gaze locked with mine. “And what I do? This was the only way I was going to survive.”
I had goose bumps. This was Angie’s truth. Her core belief. This was the foundation upon which she’d built her life. I respected that.
The fact that Angie could no longer walk, and that it had been Trick, her little brother, who had caused that loss was impossibly painful. I thought of Rhett. My big brother. Would I have forgiven him if he’d taken something so fundamental away from me?
“I don’t miss my life in L.A. I never thought of what could have been, or what would have been if the accident hadn’t happened.” She put her coffee cup on the table. “At least I hadn’t until I met you.”
I pulled my eyes from Delilah. “Me?”
Angie nodded. “When I saw you at the Pawtown charity event in L.A. it was the first time it crossed my mind—the what could have been. You had everything in front of you. Your career was just starting. People were talking about you and your future. You reminded me of me. Right before the accident I was the new ‘it’ girl and everybody loved me.”
I wrapped my arms around my chest. Why was Angie telling me this? Why would she want me to hear this?
“Being the new ‘it’ girl can be a lonely place,” Angie said. Her head tilted to the side. “Don’t beat yourself up too badly about what happened that day. You’re a good person, Sophia. I’ve been watching you. You’ve spent the last four months confronting your biggest fear every day.”
Angie’s words were kind. Gentle even.
“I didn’t necessarily want to like you,” she said with a teasing lilt in her voice. “But how bad can you be if my little brother has fallen in love with you?”
My stomach tightened. Fear trickled through me. Love? Trick and I weren’t in love. I lifted my eyebrow. What a thing for her to say. What a crazy thing to think.
“He hasn’t been involved with anyone … well, ever. I mean there have been women, but never one he cared about. And over the past five years there have been no women at all. I’m glad he’s found a relationship with you.”
My tongue darted over my bottom lip. Cool sweat trickled down my back. Trick and I didn’t have a relationship. We were having casual sex. Weren’t we? It seemed casual to me. Had he said something to Angie?
“I don’t think Trick wants … I mean, we don’t want anything serious. He’s here and I’m going back to L.A.”
Angie nodded. Her eyes held a look, a look that seemed to say, okay, believe what you want, but I know different.
This conversation was becoming uncomfortable. Trick and I had been very clear with each other. Part of our mutual attraction was because of the impermanence of what was going on between us. Had he been lying to me? I hadn’t lied to him. I had plans for my life, for my career. Plans that couldn’t be changed. This doggie detour had been for a specific reason with regard to my life and what I wanted. But it wouldn’t be permanent, no matter what Angie thought.
My phone rang. I glanced down at the screen. Beverley.
“I’m sorry. I hope you don’t mind, but I have to take this.”
Angie nodded and I walked toward the back door that lead to the yard. My heart somersaulted in my chest. Please let this news be good. Aside from the possibility that Beverley would tell me I had a gig at Paris Fashion Week, today had been the absolute pits.
“Beverley!” I cooed when I answered the phone. “How are you?”
“Darling! How did I not have the right cell phone number? How? I am so, so, so sorry my love. I was just about to call Choo when that fabulous sister of yours finally answered the phone. How are you my dear? How are you holding up out there in the second circle of hell?”
I looked up toward the sky. Inky black with a million stars dotting the darkness. “I’m good,” I said. “It really hasn’t been that bad.”
“Well, thankfully, my love, your penance is officially over.”
Another somersault in my chest. I closed my eyes. “Really? How so?”
“Well, Choo told me that the reality show is finished filming as of tomorrow. Correct?”
“I guess you’re right. Honestly, I’ve lost track of the time.”
“And I just got an offer for you today. It’s a sign, my lovely, divine providence has taken over. Take a long hot shower and get that doggie smell from your pores, because tomorrow night you are on the red-eye out of LAX for Paris.”
“Fashion Week?” I whispered.
“Booked solid my little lovely. And then straight to Rome for a cover shoot.”
“Oh my God!”
“The media loves you again! From what I hear from Choo, Webber has offers for you. Lots of them for you to do film and TV work. Really, my darling, you should check in with your team more often.”
“I know. I just … I thought I was still paying the price for what I did.”
“What you did created a public relations gold mine. Your public will love you for the rest of your days. You are on fire! The YouTube videos, the pictures, the upcoming reality series? Darling, what more do you want? I can get you anything—name it! But first it’s Paris Fashion Week!”
Anything I wanted? Wasn’t Beverley giving me everything I wanted right this minute? So what was this feeling of anxiousness I had … it was not the same as excitement. I felt fear at the idea of leaving, of walking away from Pawtown, from Estrella, from Trick.
“Text me when you get to the airport tomorrow night. The boarding passes should be on your phone right now. Toodles, my love. And congratulations! You’ve returned from the damned.” The line went dead. Beverley was gone.
I should be jumping up and down, thrilled by this news. I’d been excited when Ellen mentioned it earlier today … but now? Now with Estrella having been hurt and unconscious, and Angie telling me about Trick, and … and … my chest tightened and my bottom lip quivered. What the hell? I didn’t have time to be sad, or upset, or feel any of these emotions. I had to focus on myself and my future. A future that didn’t include Pawtown or Trick. I needed to concentrate on getting home to L.A., getting packed, and getting on that plane for Paris.
Chapter 20
Trick
The long lush waterfall of black hair that fell down the center of her back glistened in the overhead light. This was the same hair I’d wound my fingers around every night for months.
She didn’t turn when I walked into my bedroom. Her hands were busy. An open suitcase lay on the bed and she was folding and packing her clothes.
“You’re nearly packed.”
She didn’t stop what she was doing. She didn’t turn. It was probably for the best, she didn’t want me to see her face. I knew women well enough to know that now, tonight, Sophia would talk tough and act nonchalant, but inside her heart would be breaking. She might not know it yet, she was completely in denial about it, but she’d fallen in love with me. And Estrella. And Pawtown.
“I have a red-eye out of L.A. tomorrow night. I’m going to Paris.”
“Paris? For Fashion Week?”
The reflected light on the slick of black hair glimmered as she moved. There were no words. Perhaps she had a lump in her throat. Tears in her eyes? One hand moved from the red sweater she was folding and even I could tell she was wiping her eyes.
“I can take you to L.A. tomorrow,” I offered. “I need to go in to the city for a couple things.”
“I already ordered a car service. It’ll be here at ten in the morning.�
�
“Gives you enough time to do a couple kennels then, before you go.”
She turned after that comment and she gave me a small crease of a smile. “Funny, but I think my dog poo days are over.”
I walked to her and pressed my fingertips to her chin. I wouldn’t argue with her. Not now. Not tonight. But she was wrong. Dead wrong. I felt the truth in my bones. Sophia would be back. She would return to Pawtown. She would return to me.
“You nearly finished with this?”
That damn tongue of hers darted out over her bottom lip and with that one motion a heat flew up my thighs and clutched my cock. Just that one motion and I wanted her. Desperately wanted her. How, after night after night of lovemaking, had she not sated my desire? Never had I made love to the same woman so many times. I’d never imagined that I could do so, yet I still wanted to have sex with her even now.
“I’m finished.”
“Good.” I turned to her suitcase, zipped it, and tossed it to the floor.
“Hey, I—”
I stopped her words of protest with my lips. If I couldn’t protest her departure then she couldn’t protest how I treated her luggage. She fell back into my arms and I wound my fingertips into the silkiness of her hair. My hand pressed down the front of her body, my hand cupping her breast. I pressed my thumb over her nipple. A small whimper came from her lips.
My cock hardened. She grasped the bulge in my jeans and I pressed forward against her hip. I pulled my lips from her mouth and let them travel down her throat. My kisses were thick with need and want. How long would it be before I kissed her again? I needed to believe, I wanted to believe that there was love in her heart. Perhaps unknown to her right now, but I knew love was there, deep in her heart.
I pressed my hand to the edge of her shirt. I could feel her skin under my fingertips. I pulled her shirt up and tugged it from her body. I unsnapped her bra, my execution nearly perfect. She pressed her hips toward mine. My lips clasped her tight nipple and a loud moan came from her throat. Her moan sounded so fucking good.
