LITMIR.BIZ

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I can’t take her to my meeting.”

      “Champ is a girl?” Ella said, unable to suppress a smile at the tiny, wavy-haired terrier, or to hold out a finger to pet her.

      “She is a female, yes,” Jacob Weber confirmed.

      “Champ makes her sound like a boy.”

      “She’s named Champ because that’s what she is—a little champ.” That was all the explanation he was offering because then he said, “Shall we go? We don’t have much time.”

      Champ was more easily won over than her owner, because she was licking Ella’s hand and wiggling around in the coat pocket enough to let Ella know she was wagging her tail.

      But Ella had no choice except to comply with the doctor’s insistent suggestion, retrieve her hand and follow him to the door.

      He opened it, waited for her to step out into the hallway and then closed and locked the door behind them.

      The elevator was directly across from his office, and the moment he pushed the down button the doors opened.

      “Champ looks too young to be away from her mom,” Ella observed during the elevator ride that Jacob Weber would likely have left silent.

      “She is. I found her in the gutter at the curb in front of my place about four weeks ago. Since she seems to be a purebred, the best guess is that her original owner was moving the litter for some reason and she somehow fell or got out of the box unnoticed. I knocked on a few doors but no one knew anything about her so I took her to a vet around the corner. He thought she was five or six days old at the time and said she wouldn’t live without special care.”

      “And you decided to keep her and give that special care?” Ella asked, trying to keep the surprise out of her voice.

      They’d reached the ground floor, and the doctor held open the door long enough for her to precede him out of the elevator.

      “The vet was too busy to do it so I did,” he said matter-of-factly.

      “What kind of special care did she need?” Ella persisted as they left the office building.

      He continued in that same no-big-deal tone to outline a regimen of feeding and watering the pup every hour round the clock until recently, of caring for her day and night to pull her through, of her still needing to be looked after closely and not left unattended for long periods.

      By the time they’d walked across the street to a row of brown brick town houses, Ella was amazed that the gruff Jacob Weber had gone to such lengths to save the animal.

      “You’re a dog lover,” she guessed.

      He shrugged as he unlocked and opened his town house door, reaching in to flip on a light, then motioning her inside. “I’ve never had a pet of any kind before this,” he said as he came in after her and closed the door behind them.

      “And you still kept Champ and did all that for her?” Ella marveled.

      “What was I going to do? Put her back in the gutter to die?”

      That snide statement was more like what Ella expected from Jacob Weber. As was the curt “I’ll only be a minute” that came next.

      But for the first time she didn’t take him or his surliness as seriously as she had before. How could she when, as he turned to go into what appeared to be the living room, he reached into his pocket and extracted the tiny dog to hold up to his face and say in a tender voice, “Okay little girl, outside to do your business and then I’ll have to put you in the crate for a while. Don’t worry, I promise it won’t be long.”

      Then he lowered the puppy to hold to his chest just as they both disappeared from her view.

      Maybe you’re not such a hard-nose after all, Ella thought.

      Of course despite his treatment of Champ, Jacob Weber had still left her standing in the entryway rather than offering her a seat in the living room. Which would have been the polite thing to do.

      But at that point Ella merely shook her head and remained where she was.

      Well, almost.

      It was just that the longer she stood there in the narrow entrance with nothing but a steep set of stairs rising up in front of her to study, she became curious about what his place actually looked like. And what it might say about him.

      She wasn’t brave enough to do any actual snooping, but she did slide a few feet to where the entry merged with the living room, leaning enough to her left to peek into that other section of his house.

      She was glad that there weren’t any signs of the doctor by then and she assumed he’d gone through the living room into the kitchen that was visible at the other end, at the rear of the town house. But given that brief opportunity, she did take stock of the living room from where she was.

      Not that there was much to take stock of.

      What little furniture decorated the space appeared expensive and tasteful but there was definitely not much of it. An elaborate oak entertainment center on one wall sported a big-screen plasma television and an impressive stereo system. Directly across from that sat an exquisite overstuffed black leather sofa with a floor lamp to one side and an oak coffee table in front. And that was it. There were no pictures on the walls, no plants to warm up the place, and no other seating. And while the sofa was large enough for more than one person, the room still seemed to be a one-man setup that didn’t welcome company.

      It made Ella wonder if that was Jacob Weber’s own goal—to keep himself removed—or if his off-putting disposition had simply forced him into the role of loner.

      The doctor had apparently gone out the back door with the dog because just then Ella heard it open, and the sound of him saying something she couldn’t make out gave her fair warning of his return.

      She hurriedly straightened up again and sidled to her original position.

      He came as far as the living room where she could again hear what he said as he informed Champ that she had her pillow, blanket, bear and monkey to keep her company, instructing her to nap while he was gone and promising treats when he got back.

      It was sweet. Maybe more sweet because it was coming from a man who otherwise appeared to be tough as nails, but sweet enough nonetheless to raise Ella’s curiosity once again, this time over what exactly lurked behind the man’s brusque exterior.

      More sounds let her know that he was putting Champ in her crate and within moments of that Jacob Weber was back in the entry with her.

      “Is Champ all tucked in for the night?” she asked, pretending she hadn’t been privy to any of the doctor’s exchange with his pet.

      “Not for the night, no. But for the time being, anyway.” He raised a big, thick wrist to check the paper-thin watch there and added, “We need to get going.”

      Ella nodded her agreement, realizing that while Champ may have somehow wormed her way into the doctor’s affections and weakened his defenses, talking about Champ didn’t soften his demeanor at all.

      Maybe nothing did, Ella thought as they left the town house.

      Well, fine. If he wanted to keep things purely professional, she’d stop trying to make it anything else and wait for him to begin her orientation.

      Which was actually what he did as they set off in the balmy early-September evening to walk down the street toward the shops that lined the next block.

      “The study begins Monday evening,” he said without preamble. “Although I won’t be there—”

      “You won’t?” Ella heard herself ask before she’d considered the wisdom—or lack of wisdom—in it. And before she’d had any idea that it would come out in a tone of voice that had a slightly disappointed ring to it. To go along with the disappointed feeling she also discovered in herself…much to her own amazement.

      “I’ll

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