LITMIR.BIZ

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STRETCHED OUT on her couch in the great room of her house and watched Lady feed her five puppies in a nest set up for them by the fireplace. Exhausted, she yawned. She knew she should take a nap, but she didn’t want to leave them just yet. What a night! It had taken five hours for the pups to make their debut. And there had been complications. Thankfully Ben was there. He’d had to tug one puppy out and clean two from their sacs. She knew from what she’d read they could have died without his help.

      Alice had stayed, too, and they’d loaded Lady and her pups into Emily’s car at about 3:00 a.m.

      Before she’d left, Emily had stood by her Taurus in the parking lot with Ben. For the first time since she’d known him, he looked truly happy.

      “I’m glad I was here.” He leaned against the side of the car, a genuine smile on his face. “It’s a thrill, isn’t it, to see new life into the world?”

      “Yes.” They shared that bond now. “I wish you’d take one of the puppies when they’re weaned.”

      “I’d like nothing better. But my situation precludes that.” There was that extensive vocabulary again.

      Apparently riding high from adrenaline, he reached out and squeezed her shoulder. “Take good care of them.”

      Before she thought better about it, she stood on tiptoes and slid her arms around his neck. He stilled for a minute, then his arms encircled her waist and he drew her closer. He was all muscle and steely strength. His lips brushed her hair. “You’d better go.”

      She stepped back.

      “Good night,” he’d said and walked away into the darkness….

      Sighing, Emily curled up on her side. The grandfather clock in the foyer chimed ten times, but still, she stayed where she was, fascinated by the pups burrowing into their mother, snoozing, stretching. The doorbell intruded on the moment. Reluctantly she got off the couch, crossed to the foyer, checked through the window and opened the door. “Hi, Dad.”

      “Well, you don’t look sick.” He looked worried.

      “I told Donna I wasn’t when I called in. Just that I’d been up all night.”

      “Why?”

      “Come see for yourself.” She tugged him through the foyer, over the Italian marble tile, into her great room. “Look.”

      He tracked her gaze. “Harrumph.” But she saw his smile. “I can’t believe you kept that bitch after she got pregnant.”

      “I love that bitch, Dad. Come look at the babies.”

      He hesitated and she wondered what was in her father’s makeup that always made him resist his soft side. She knew he’d grown up poor and had been knocked around by the uncle who’d raised him, but still, a lot of people overcame those odds. Finally, he knelt in front of the box. “Hey, girl.” He didn’t touch the mom or pups, though. He just watched them and shook his head. “You used to love that storybook when you were little. Lady and the Tramp.”

      “I remember.” She waited. “Mother used to read it to me.”

      His body tensed but he stayed where he was, studying the dogs. “We had a cocker spaniel.”

      “I don’t remember that.”

      “It was before you were born.” He stood and jammed his hands in the trousers of his suit. “It took us a while to have you so we got a dog in the interim.”

      “Did she like dogs?”

      Her dad got a faraway look in his eyes. “Yes.” When he answered, his voice was gruff.

      He never talked about her mother. All pictures of the woman who’d given birth to her had been destroyed when she’d left. Emily had no idea why she’d abandoned them; her father would only say she didn’t want to be his wife and her mother anymore. A few times, Emily had been tempted to search for her, but she didn’t have the courage. What good would it do to look for a woman who’d made it clear she didn’t want her young daughter, anyway?

      “Do you ever think about her?”

      His face flushed. “No.”

      “I wonder where she is.”

      “Last I heard she went to New York.” He crossed to the bank of windows and stood in the spring sunshine, staring out at the front lawn. “Before we married, she worked in a bookstore.” He shook his head. “She loved to read to you.”

      “Not enough to stick around, apparently.”

      It seemed as if her dad was about to say something, then he shook himself and checked his watch. “I have to go. I just wanted to make sure you’re all right.”

      “You don’t have to escape. Stay for lunch.”

      “No, I can’t. I have a meeting.” He kissed her cheek and strode to the door, calling over his shoulder, “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

      Emily sighed as she watched her father leave. She suspected he didn’t have a meeting, but that talking about his ex-wife made him uncomfortable. When she thought about her mother, Emily just got sad. She had to fight hard not to dwell on the fact that the woman who’d given her life didn’t love her enough to stick around and raise her. She’d never be that way with her kids, if she ever had any.

      Slowly Emily sank onto the Aubusson carpet. “You’re lucky to have those pups, Lady. I envy you.”

      Fatigue settled on her like a heavy blanket. How pathetic it was to be jealous of a dog.

      BEN SWORE SILENTLY at himself as he rode the bus from the inner city to Corn Hill, where he used to live and where Trey still did. After finishing a day’s work that just about broke his thirty-eight-year-old back, coming off a night of no sleep, he couldn’t resist the urge to make this trip. He didn’t even know if Trey would be home, but after last night, he needed company.

      As Ben got off at his stop and covered the few blocks to Trey’s upscale condo, he thought about delivering the puppies. He hadn’t felt that needed in two years.

      And then what had happened in the parking lot with Emily: he hadn’t backed away from the hug and couldn’t help brushing his lips across her corn-silk soft hair. God, she’d felt good against him. Curvier than she looked. Just the right complement to the hard planes of his body.

      A body that had given him grief for hours because of that simple indulgence. Damn it.

      He reached the brick building on Hoffman Street where Trey lived and caught sight of the Porsche in the condo’s parking lot.

      You got a Porsche? What’s wrong with you?

      Just because you prefer those little Jags….

      Their taste in cars had been as dramatically different as their taste in women.

      Man, give me a redhead any day, his friend always said.

      Not me. I’m a brunette connoisseur.

      And he had been. Mallory had worn her black hair short, styled in a careless bob. She’d been rail thin, too, and most of the time she’d looked like she’d just walked out of Vogue. Hell, when had he begun to prefer strawberry-blondes with generous curves and freckles?

      He slipped into the building along with another couple and made his way to Trey’s unit. Punching the doorbell, he forced Emily out of his mind.

      Trey answered before he could ring again. “I don’t believe it. You haven’t been here in two years.”

      Ben jammed his hands into the pockets of his best jeans. “Hello to you, too.”

      “Hey, Ben.”

      “So, are you going to invite me in or not?”

      Trey moved aside.

      Ben stepped into the living room with its floor-to-ceiling

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