Animal Attraction Read online

  the can goes to bone, pointy goes to soft tissue. It’s really as simple as that, Jade. The next time you’re walking from point A to point B, just make sure you’re holding your keys or a pen or a can of hair spray. Hell, it can be a fucking can of vegetables, it doesn’t matter. As long as you’re thinking ahead, staying calm, keeping your head up and being vigilant, you’ll never be a helpless victim again.”

  At the again her head came up, but he was moving away, toward the refrigerator to get them each a bottle of water. Grateful he wasn’t going to push or ask, she let him talk her into giving the mats a try. They went over some of the other techniques that Dell had been working on with her, but they cut it short because her shoelaces were bothering her.

  Aka she wasn’t ready to wrestle with anyone other than Dell. Rather than face that, she made an excuse about being tired, and Adam walked her out to her car.

  “So,” she said, casually as she could, “where’s Dell tonight? Still at Melinda’s ranch?” Because everyone knew what Melinda and Dell did after a long day on the ranch, and it didn’t involve work.

  Hypocrite, she told herself. He and I have the same relationship. Or they had, for one night . . .

  Adam shook his head.

  “Is that no, you don’t want to tell me?” she asked. “Or no, you don’t know?”

  He actually gave her a rare smile. “You’re too smart for him, you know that?”

  “He’s on a date,” she said flatly, not willing to be distracted, even if he had a pretty great smile.

  “Listen, I’m not sure what happened between you two, but—”

  “I reminded him that I’m leaving soon,” she said.

  “Ah,” Adam said, nodding. “Well, that’ll do it.”

  “Do what?”

  “You’re leaving,” he said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Dell doesn’t ‘do’ leaving. At least not anymore. He leaves first. Always.”

  Fifteen

  Dell was already back in Sunshine, a hundred miles away from Melinda’s ranch. At the bakery, to be exact, eating a half-dozen donuts, because for the third time in a row he hadn’t stayed for a date with Melinda.

  Although he should make a date—with a shrink.

  He wondered what Adam was teaching Jade right this very minute. And if she was wearing that look of intense concentration she got when he was showing her a new move, the one that said she was earnest and serious and focused on kicking ass.

  God, he loved that expression.

  Adam appeared at his side and plopped into the other chair at Dell’s little table. “You’re an idiot.”

  “Aw, thanks.”

  Adam reached out and snatched an old-fashioned glazed donut.

  “Hey.”

  Taking a huge bite out of it, Adam leaned back. “Don’t you want to know what makes you a fucking idiot?”

  “No.”

  “It didn’t go so well with Jade tonight.”

  Dell straightened. “What do you mean? What happened?”

  “She was nervous about tangling with me on the mat.”

  “She tell you that?”

  “No, she told me that she was exhausted, so we had to stop.”

  Dell blew out a breath. “I don’t get it, she’s been doing so well.”

  “Yes, and this is where the fucking idiot part comes in. She’s good with you touching her. She feels safe with you. What the hell is going on with you two?”

  “Nothing. She’s leaving.”

  “Yeah,” Adam said. “I got that. But she’s not gone yet. You’re just backing out of her life?”

  “What part of leaving don’t you understand?” Dell asked.

  “If it were me, I’d take every last second I had.”

  “Yes, well, I always was smarter than you.”

  “Come on,” Adam said, shaking head. “If this were any other woman, you wouldn’t give a shit that she was leaving. It wouldn’t matter.”

  “We work together.”

  Adam waved this away as inconsequential. “You know what my point is.”

  “Not really.” But Dell did. Christ, he did.

  “You going to tell her how you feel about her before she goes, or are you going to be a total pussy about it?”

  “Telling Jade that his feelings for her had changed, deepened, felt like the dumbest of all the dumbass moves he’d ever made. He didn’t want Jade to consider him as her...

  What?

  Christ. “I have to go.”

  “Shock.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “You’re so smart,” Adam said, stealing the very last donut as he rose. “You figure it out.”

  Jade went to the animal center instead of home. She’d been running some accounting reports and wanted to check on them.

  Or . . . she wanted to keep herself busy.

  She decoded the alarm, flipped on the lights, and sat at her desk, immediately losing herself in the comfort and stability of accounting. Accounting didn’t require much. The numbers either added up or they didn’t, and the predictability of the work was soothing all in itself.

  After an hour, she got thirsty and headed into the staff room for a bottle of water. She stepped into the room and as her hand reached out to flip the light switch on the wall, she heard it.

  A loud exhale.

  Male.

  Panic. Her hand flailed and instead of getting the light switch, she hit the counter. Her fingers wrapped around something and without thinking, she held it out in front of her as a weapon just as a large shadow surged upright at the table in front of her.

  “Holy shit,” she gasped.

  “Holy shit,” someone else gasped, and then there was a beam of light that blinded her.

  Jade stepped backward, out of the room, then whirled and ran down the hall to the front desk, where she groped for the panic button, which she hit five hundred times in a row.

  “Jade?”

  She was still hitting the button as she looked up. Keith stood in the doorway wearing nothing but his long hair standing straight up on one side and a pair of Big Dog flannel boxers that said BLOW THIS down the fly. She was so shocked, she just stood there, her finger still on the button.

  “Dude,” Keith said, scrubbing his hands over his face. “You scared the shit out of me.”

  Knees wobbling, Jade sank to her chair. “What are you doing here?”

  “My roommate got lucky tonight and he made me leave so he could have the place to himself.”

  “So you were sleeping here?”

  He gave her a reproachful look. “Was sleeping. Jesus, you are one noisy chick. What were you going to do with that?”

  Jade looked down and realized that she was gripping a plastic fork. It’d been what she’d grabbed off the counter. “I . . . I think I was going to stab you with it.”

  “Dude.” He scratched his chest. “Gotta piss.” He vanished in the back.

  The front door crashed open and Dell burst in. Jade stared at him. He stared right back, concern and anger and fear all over his face as he came to her. “Jade.” He sounded horrified as he reached her, hauling her up out of her chair and wrapping his arms around her tight. “You hit the alarm? What happened, are you hurt?”

  “No, I—”

  There was a scuffle of feet in the doorway to the back rooms, and in the same instant Dell whipped Jade behind him. There was a gun in his hand.

  A gun.

  Keith was in the doorway again, still in his BLOW THIS boxers, holding an opened soda. His eyes went wide at the sight of Dell standing there, gun drawn. “Holy shit,” he said in a repeat of what he’d said to Jade, jerking, spilling his soda down his bare chest. “Am I dreaming?”

  “I came into work because I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep,” Jade started.

  “Unlike some of us,” Keith muttered.

  “And I came in on Keith sleeping in the back room, but before I realized it was him, I’d hit the alarm. I’m sorry, Dell.”

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nbsp; He swore and tucked the gun into his jeans waistband at the small of his back. Then turned and hugged Jade in close. “Don’t be sorry. You did the right thing.”

  “It’s my fault,” she whispered, pressing her face into his chest. His bare chest because he was in jeans and an unzipped sweatshirt with nothing beneath it. His athletic shoes were unlaced and he didn’t appear to be wearing socks.

  He’d been in bed.

  Beneath her cheek she could feel his heart pounding hard and fast. She’d wondered what it would take to ruffle the unflappable Dr. Dell Connelly.

  She’d found it.

  Her.

  Her safety. “You have a gun?”

  “I get notified at the same time as the police when the alarm goes off. I saw your car in the lot. I thought—”

  He’d thought she was in danger.

  Still holding her against him, Dell reached into his pocket. “Need to call this in and tell them it’s a false alarm—”

  Before he could finish that sentence, several squad cars came flying into the lot, lights flashing.

  “Dude,” Keith said on a sigh.

  The next morning, Jade was at her desk staring down at the newspaper. There were two stories of interest. The first one was front page. The guys robbing the vet clinics in the state had been caught in Boise when they’d tried to hit a twenty-four-hour emergency pet hospital. No one had been injured.

  The other story was on page three.

  Dr. Dell Connelly’s ex-fiancée and receptionist at Belle Haven catches their animal tech Keith Roberts In the Act. Of Sleeping.

  Sighing, Jade tossed the paper aside. The police had been quite understanding of the mishap. Keith got over himself. Dell swore he wasn’t upset with her, but something had happened.

  He’d pulled back. She didn’t know why.

  After morning rounds, he’d gone into surgery and Jade spent the time reorganizing files and updating inventory. Dell was gone for a few hours, seeing pets at a vet hospital about an hour away. When he called her from there about some records he needed, he sounded perfectly pleasant.

  And perfectly not himself.

  “Dell,” she said after she’d told him where to find the records. “Are you okay?”

  “Of course,” he said, then paused. “And you?”

  An odd longing filled her. A longing for him, which was unsettling. She wanted . . . well, she didn’t exactly know.

  And wasn’t that the problem.

  “I’m peachy,” she said, and when he’d hung up she smacked herself in the forehead with her phone, castigating herself aloud. “Peachy? You’re peachy?”

  “I think pineapple works better,” Adam said, walking through the reception area. “It’s prickly.” He flashed her a quick grin, making her laugh and shake her head.

  “You on for tonight?” he asked.

  Tonight was poker night. Dell, Brady, Adam, and Lilah were religious about the twice-monthly get-togethers. Dell hosted them at his place and these guys took their poker very seriously. “Yes,” she said. “I’ll be there.”

  “Bring your cash and valuables,” he said.

  Two weeks ago Jade had cleaned Adam out. He wanted his revenge. “There’s going to be an ass-whooping tonight.”

  “Hmm,” she said. “I’ll bring my can of hair spray, too, in case it gets ugly.”

  He reached into the candy jar on the counter that Jade used to bribe little children into behaving. “You can’t scare me like you do Dell.”

  She went still. “Is that what I do, scare him?”

  Adam flashed her a look of sympathy that she didn’t want. “Jade—”

  “No, never mind.” Standing, she nudged him clear of her area. “Okay, out you. I have to close up.”

  He managed to grab a handful of candy before she pushed him away. When she was alone, she looked at Gertie. “Men are annoying.”

  Gertie cocked her head in agreement, but Jade let out a low laugh. “Oh, who are you trying to kid? The minute he shows his face, you’ll drop everything for him. Face it, Gert. You’re a Dell ’ho.”

  Gertie grinned and drooled.

  Jade sighed. She was a Dell ’ho, too. She finished closing up and got Beans into the carrier, surprised when she straightened to find Adam back in her space. “You didn’t have to wait for me. The bad guys have been caught.”

  He shrugged. “Humor me.” He paused. “And about Dell. He—”

  “You don’t have to explain him to me.” She pointed to a stack of phone messages from the day, which she’d already entered onto a spreadsheet and sent to Dell’s e-mail.

  Adam picked up the messages and flipped through them. “Okay, Tina’s his housekeeper. Shelly’s a good friend of mine. She called me, too, wanting to know what to get the man of mystery for his birthday next month. I told her a kick in the ass. Amanda . . .” He lifted a shoulder and stared at that message. “Okay, that’s a new one,” he admitted, rubbing his jaw. “And probably not worth remembering.”

  Jade sighed. “She’s a drug rep.”

  “And you think Dell’s into her?”

  “No,” she admitted. “He took her to lunch last week when she drove in from Boise, and since then she’s called twenty times, but he hasn’t gotten back to her.”

  “And how many times has Melinda called?”

  “Four, and there’s two hang-ups, which thanks to the magic of caller ID, are also hers.”

  Adam just shook his head. “Christ, you two are a pair.”

  Dell was slumped in his dining room chair as he gathered his cards in. He’d lost.

  To Jade.

  Fitting, he thought. Since he’d already lost her—a fact that had been slammed home to him last night. Only a few weeks ago, what had happened in the clinic last night would have paralyzed her with fear and insecurity. But the self-defense he’d taught her had bolstered her confidence and given her some belief in herself.