by Dylann Crush
“I don’t have a minute.”
“I’m on it.” He leaned down and pecked her cheek. “I’ll figure this out and then be in to help. Girls, why don’t you go with Zina?”
“Can’t we meet the penguins, Uncle Alex?” Dolly asked.
“Later. Just go with Zina, please?” He gave Dolly a gentle nudge toward the warehouse.
Zina took Dolly’s hand. “Come on, you can help me round up the dogs. They probably shouldn’t be out here if your uncle is about to parade some penguins across the parking lot.”
She took a few steps toward the warehouse, when she heard a chorus of oohs and aahs. Too late. The driver had opened up the back of the truck. A crowd of people stood on the drive, staring and pointing and smiling at the back end of the semi. Those were her people. They’d come to meet the dogs, not ogle Alex’s penguins.
Before she could complain, a loud bark came from her left. Buster. He charged the crates the driver had started unloading from the truck. Jasper ran after him.
Zina stumbled toward the dog, trying to grab onto his leash. Buster had always been a giant lug of a beast who usually wouldn’t move from his bed unless she offered him a treat. But now, he looked like one of those dogs who performed in agility competitions. He hopped the small makeshift fence they’d erected around the building and made a beeline for the penguins.
“Grab him!” Zina instructed anyone who might be near enough to snag his leash as he flew by. Alex sprang into motion, hurdling over one of his nieces in an attempt to intercept Buster before he reached the crates. The dog ran past, seemingly intent on reaching the birds. For a split second time seemed to stand still. Zina imagined what Buster might do to the poor birds. If someone didn’t stop him, everyone who’d come to meet the dogs available for adoption might bear witness to a bird bloodbath.
“Buster!” Dolly pulled something out of her pocket and waved it in the air.
Zina strained, trying to see what she had.
“Want a treat?”
The dog stopped in midair, spinning around like he’d hit an invisible wall. Then he bounded over to Dolly and sat down right in front of her. The child was an angel from heaven, sent down to save her. Zina was sure of it. In the few seconds it took her to reach Buster, Dolly had him eating out of the palm of her hand. Literally.
“Dolly, you’re a lifesaver.” Zina wrapped an arm around the little girl and pulled her in for a side hug. “Thanks so much for catching Buster.”
“He likes cotton candy.” Dolly smiled up at Zina, her mouth covered in a mix of pink and blue spun sugar.
“How did you know that?” Zina bent down to make sure the leash was securely attached to Buster’s collar.
Dolly looked at her like she was the dumbest adult on the face of the planet. “Everyone likes cotton candy.”
Alex let out a nervous laugh. “Who knew?”
“Thank goodness Dolly seemed to.” With the crisis averted, Zina’s attention moved to the number of crates the truck driver had lined up on the driveway. “What are you going to do with them? You said six. There are more than six there.”
“There was a little miscommunication about the number.” Alex’s foot tapped on the gravel drive. “Give me a minute. I need to go inside and make sure the dome is ready.”
“You can’t leave me out here with . . . with . . .”
“Ms. Baxter?” Cyrus Beasley, photographer for the local paper, stood next to her, a camera hanging from his neck.
Zina wanted to follow Alex into the building. Maybe together they could figure out what was going on and how to salvage the adoption event. But instead she stood in the center of the chaos and turned toward Cyrus. “Yes?”
“Is it true your dogs are going to be sharing living quarters with some penguins? How long do you expect them to be in town?” He held his phone in hand, waiting for her to respond.
She stared at him as the question sank in. Dogs. Penguins. Living together. This couldn’t happen. The penguins weren’t supposed to arrive for another week at least. She was supposed to have time to find the dogs homes before then.
“Ms. Baxter?” Cyrus lifted his phone, holding it closer to her face. “The residents of Ido want to know what’s going on right under their noses here. Are the penguins going to be safe sharing quarters with your pit bulls?”
twenty-one
“I didn’t know they were coming.” Alex paced the length of the kitchen.
Zina uncrossed her legs and then recrossed them the other way. She didn’t believe him. He could tell by the way her jaw set. The softness he’d seen in her just last night was gone.
“I’m sorry. We’ll figure this out.”
“No, you’ll figure this out.” She finally spoke. “And by the way, why is the parrot here?”
Alex glanced toward the bay window where the girls had insisted he set up Shiner Bock’s cage. “Char thinks Dolly might be allergic and wanted to see if moving him out here would make a difference. As for the penguins, fine, I’ll figure this out on my own.” So far all he’d been able to do was put the penguins up in the front half of the warehouse. He’d had to use the shelving units to separate them from the dogs. The old Phillips warehouse was turning into a bit of a zoo.
“All the time we spent planning the adoption event.” Zina let out a loud sigh. “Wasted.”
“It’s not wasted. You still found homes for a few of the dogs, right?” He tried to remind her of the good that had come out of the day.
“Buster. We found a home for Buster and that’s it.” She held a puppy in the crook of her arm. He’d never meant to make more work for her. All along the only thing he’d wanted to do was help her out.
“Well, at least that’s one dog who’s going to a good home.” He gave her his best winning smile.
She frowned back. It had taken all afternoon and into the evening to get the penguins and the puppies settled. Gramps had gone to bed a couple of hours ago while Alex and Zina had still been shuffling kennels around in the warehouse.
“You hungry?” he asked. “I can whip up something for us to eat.”
The look she gave him let him know she had less faith in his ability to make dinner than she did in his ability to remedy the penguin and puppy situation.
“What? I’ve been feeding myself for years. I think I can handle it.”
“You burned macaroni and cheese.”
“First of all, that wasn’t totally my fault. And second, I’ve never burned a quesadilla.”
“You seem pretty sure of yourself. Go for it.”
He’d show her he could succeed at something, even if it was only heating up two tortillas with some cheese between them. Determined to prove himself, he scoured the fridge for possible ingredients. He hadn’t had to fend for himself at the station. They had cooks to take care of feeding the masses. But before that he’d been pretty good at managing on his own. He grabbed the eggs, cheese, some sausage left over from breakfast, and the tortillas.
Zina rose from the table, the puppy sound asleep in her arms. “I’m going to go put him in the basket and wash up. Try not to catch the place on fire while I’m gone, okay?”
“Very funny.” Alex let his gaze linger on her retreating behind. When she disappeared from view he pulled the cutting board out of the cabinet and chopped up half of a green pepper he’d found in the fridge. Next, he dropped a pat of butter into a skillet and sautéed the peppers, then got to work on the eggs. By the time Zina came back he was just putting the finishing touches on two sausage, egg, and pepper quesadillas.
“Wow, the smoke alarm didn’t even go off.” She smiled as he slid a plate in front of her.
“One gourmet quesadilla. Can I get you anything else?” He’d already poured the remains of the orange juice into two glasses and cut up whatever fruit Gramps hadn’t eaten yet into a quick fruit salad.
“This actually looks
really good. Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.” He took a seat next to her and let his gaze linger on her as she took the first bite. Her shoulders didn’t seem as tense and she didn’t look like she wanted to kill him anymore.
“Mmm. This is good. Maybe you’re not such a failure in the kitchen after all.”
“One bad experience and I’m going to have to live that down the rest of my life, aren’t I?”
“Your ‘bad experience’ was burning mac and cheese.” Zina held a triangle of quesadilla up to her mouth. “That’s pretty hard to overcome.”
He shook his head. “I had to rescue Barbie from my nieces.”
“So you admit you get easily distracted by women?” She swallowed the bite in her mouth and took a sip of juice.
“Not all women.” He couldn’t help but notice the way her throat moved as she swallowed. He’d had his lips on that same spot. Was it just a few hours ago? Thinking about how it had felt to lie next to Zina in the big bed upstairs made him shift in his seat. This thing between them, whatever it was, seemed to flip-flop back and forth between frustration and desire. He didn’t know which feeling was sitting closer to the surface with her tonight.
“Hmm. I suppose Barbie is one of a kind. Good thing she’s not here tonight. This is really good.”
He smiled at the compliment. “So do you have any specialties?”
“What, like in the kitchen?” The tilt of her head, the way she glanced over at him, told him she was flirting. Maybe desire was winning and he’d convince her to stay over again tonight.
“Sure. In the kitchen . . . or feel free to name any talents you might have in other rooms of the house as well.”
“Other rooms?” She grinned back at him. “Like I’m great at starting a load of laundry?”
“Not what I meant.” He watched as she took a particularly large bite. Melted cheese oozed from where it sandwiched between the tortillas.
“Oh, I know what you meant. I just don’t like to play into your conversation traps.” She hitched a brow as he wondered what she meant by that.
“My conversation traps? Say more.” Leaning back against the chair, he crossed his arms over his chest. Zina’s mind was an interesting playground. She didn’t respond the way he expected her to most of the time. It was refreshing and if he were being completely honest with himself, which he rarely did, it was also a bit intimidating.
“You know . . . where you send some flirty bullshit my way and expect me to volley it back to you.”
“Oh.” Wasn’t he charming? He’d always thought so. Most women seemed to like the banter, the flirty foreplay. Maybe it wasn’t him that was the problem. Maybe it was Zina.
“It’s okay.” She set her elbows on the table. “I kind of like it.”
“You like what? The flirty bullshit?”
“Bullshit, bullshit,” Shiner Bock piped up.
Zina laughed. “No. The quesadilla.”
Damn. He should have seen that burn coming. Ready for a complete change of subject, he tried to get to know her a little better. “So you grew up in Ido?”
She shook her head. “My dad was in the military. I was an Army brat. We moved here when he retired so my mom could be closer to her family in Mexico.”
“And you’ve lived here ever since?”
“Yeah. Except for my stint in the Army.”
“How long did you serve?” Trying to get personal info out of her was like trying to milk a bull.
“Only a few years. I had to file for a dependency discharge to come home and take care of my brother.”
“Zeb?”
Zina nodded. “He was in the service, too.”
“I really thought he would go all the way to the NFL. He was good.”
“Better than good.” Her mouth set in a grim line. “I wish he had. Then maybe he wouldn’t be so messed up.”
“What happened?”
“I told you he’s got PTSD. I think anyone who’s been stationed in a war zone ends up with some level of trauma. But Zeb wasn’t the same man when he came home.”
“I’m sorry.” Against his better judgment, he reached out and put his hand on hers.
She tried to laugh off his concern. “Sorry for what? It’s not your fault.”
“Of course not. I just mean I’m sorry he’s had to . . . I mean, sorry both of you have had to deal with this.”
“He’s family. You do what you’ve got to do, right?” She shrugged and nibbled on her last triangle of quesadilla.
Family. Do what you’ve got to do. She made it sound so simple, so cut-and-dried. Here she’d given up her military career to come home and take care of her brother and he balked at the idea of having to deal with his grandfather for a few weeks.
“So who takes care of you?”
“What?” Her eyebrows drew together.
He wanted to kiss away the little wrinkle that furrowed her brow. “Who has your back? Who’s your family?”
She leaned back from the table. “Lacey for one. She and Bodie are about the only family I’ve got left. We do all right around here though. Sometimes family doesn’t necessarily mean the people who share your blood, you know?”
He nodded like he knew what she meant, but the truth was, he hadn’t been very good family to anyone—not the people he shared genes with or anyone else for that matter.
“Thanks for the late dinner.” Zina pushed back from the table and carried her plate over to the sink.
He scarfed down the last couple of bites and joined her next to the sink. “Do you want to stay over tonight?”
The blank look she gave him made him rethink the invitation.
“I just thought, since it’s late and you’ve got the puppies here . . .” Hell, maybe he’d misread the entire situation. She seemed pretty into him last night.
She closed her eyes for a long moment and rubbed at her temple. “Sorry, it’s been such a strange day, I forgot to tell you.”
“Tell me what?”
“I’ve been forbidden to return to my place, so we’re going to . . . well, we’re going to be roommates.”
A heaviness settled in the pit of his stomach. “Excuse me?”
“With everything going on I forgot to mention it. Seems someone tossed a brick through my front window last night and Bodie won’t let me go home. Looks like you’re stuck with me until I get the dogs out of here.” She caught her lower lip with her teeth. “Is that okay?”
“Okay? Um, yeah, of course.” An image of the men from the restaurant this morning played through his head. He needed to talk to Bodie, tell him what he’d overheard. “Are you all right?”
“It’s a little unnerving knowing that someone has it out for me.”
“Come here.” He held his arms open and she snuggled against his chest. “Gramps and I won’t let anything happen to you. Not while we’re around.”
“I can look out for myself you know.” Her voice was muffled against his shirt.
He pulled back to meet her gaze. “I have no doubt you can. But as long as we’re working on this wedding, we’re part of a team, right? Which means we’re in this together.”
“Until you leave for your next job.”
“What are you talking about?”
Zina looked away. “Your gramps said you got an offer to work for Munyon. Something about checking out some investment property he’s looking at and joining his team?”
“It’s not a done deal.” He needed the wedding to go well before anything was finalized.
“But you’re considering it?”
“I’m keeping my options open.” He’d be an idiot not to jump on it. Munyon owned land around the world. Alex could go to work for him and enjoy the benefit of a paycheck while still not having to settle down anywhere.
She pulled his head down and pressed her l
ips against his.
“What was that for?”
“I guess I’m keeping my options open, too.”
His mouth spread into a smile. “Does this mean you’re not going to make me sleep on the couch?”
twenty-two
Zina tossed the thin local paper down on the table. It made a very unsatisfying whoosh, making her wish she’d been reading one of Lacey’s huge bridal magazines or a hardcover book instead. The harsh thunk of a thicker volume would have better matched her mood.
“What’s wrong?” Morty lifted his gaze from his mug of coffee.
“They didn’t even mention the dog adoption event. All of the news, if you even want to call it that, revolved around those stupid penguins.” The penguins who weren’t even supposed to be arriving for at least another week. Alex had left early that morning to drive into Houston to meet with the director of the aquarium. At least he seemed as concerned as she was about the mistake, not that there was anything anyone could do about it now.
He chuckled. “Folks around these parts probably ain’t ever seen a penguin in real life before. Not unless they went to the zoo.”
Zina huffed out a breath as she lifted her mug to her lips. “I suppose. But why couldn’t we have gotten through the adoption event before they brought the dang birds over?”
She shot a glance to Shiner Bock. The Phillips House was going to the birds. Literally. “And sending twelve instead of the six we were expecting? Now all anyone wants to talk about is penguins.”
“It’ll all be over soon.”
“Not soon enough.” She got up from the table and stalked over to the sink. With Alex gone for the day, she was in charge of both the dogs and the penguins. He’d shown her how to feed them and clean up after them. With any luck he’d be back before the evening feeding. “I’m heading over to the warehouse to take care of the animals.”
“I’ll come with you.” Morty pushed back from the table and stood. “I want to check on those little pups you brought in the other day.”
“They’re doing great. Greta took them in like the rock star mama I knew she’d be. They’re nursing right alongside her brood.”
