Page 103 of Puppy Christmas

Chapter 20

“Do you remember that day at Tilly’s pool party last summer? He wore an honest-to-goodness Speedo, Lila. I kid you not. He forgot to pack his own suit, so he had to borrow one of her son’s. He’s a competitive swimmer, so his suits are all tiny.”

“I missed that one, but Helen took pictures. I still have them on my phone somewhere. Do you want me to pull them up?”

“Um, who cares what Lila wants? Pull them up anyway.” Danica grinned at Lila to show she meant no harm. “We sound like creeps, I know, but the day Ford Ford moved onto our street was one we won’t soon forget. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there’s a dearth of attractive men around here.”

Lila could only blink at the circle of women standing around her in the kitchen. They were all lively, funny, and pretty—and, if half their stories were true, had once been married to men who had failed to appreciate any of that. They were also die-hard members of the Ford Ford Fan Club, which was a thing she had no trouble believing. She was ready to run for president herself.

“Well, thereusedto be a dearth of attractive men,” Maddie countered. “Helen, who is that handsome hunk of a man your sons are making walk the plank over by the punch bowl? I’d like to wrap him up and put him under my tree.”

Helen blushed up to the roots of her hair, which Lila noted had been recently touched up. “That’s Patrick. Patrick Yarmouth.” She colored even more. “He’s, uh. Um. Well, he and I have started seeing each other.”

There was so much squealing and hugging that Lila felt as though she were in the middle of a PTA mosh pit.

“It’s not serious or anything yet, you guys,” Helen protested, trying—unsuccessfully—to quiet them. “We’re just trying things on for size. Lila introduced us.”

All eyes turned her way.

“How many more of those do you have hiding in your pocket?” demanded a woman whose name Lila couldn’t remember.

“Does he have any brothers?” asked another.

“You’re coming to my game night next week,” announced a third. “I won’t take no for an answer. How are you at charades?”

Maddie wrapped an arm around Lila’s shoulder and squeezed. “Ford is such a great guy, Lila. He deserves to be happy. I’m so glad you’re together.”

“Oh, we’re not togeth—” Lila began, but it was no use. Helen winked and announced to the group that until the puppy training was over, all talk of relationships was to be kept to a low murmur.

For professionalism, of course.

The ease and delight with which the women agreed to this spoke volumes about them. So did the fact that the talk immediately turned to the snowplow schedule and whose turn it was to shovel Mrs. Bates’s walkway until her hip had finished healing. These were nice women,goodwomen, and their romantic rivalries were conducted almost entirely in jest.

Lila liked them. She liked them a lot.

She was also starting to appreciate the approach Ford had taken with them for all these years. To an outsider, his flirtatious demeanor bore all the hallmarks of a man who took nothing seriously and dallied with any female who crossed his path. But these womenlikedthat he wasn’t serious with them—encouraged it, even. It gave them something to look forward to without requiring them to invest their already-damaged hearts.

“Ahem.”

Lila whirled at the sound of that voice. Her own heart, which was well on its way to being irreversibly damaged, gave a heavy thump.

“Ladies, if you’ll excuse me, I’d like to whisk this woman away for a private moment or two.” Ford stood less than a foot away from her, looking like a roguish pirate from head to toe. Lila had no idea what the real Blackbeard was supposed to look like, but the version Ford had chosen was decidedlys-l-u-t-t-y. There was no other way to describe the billowing white shirt that opened in a deep vee at his chest or the tan pants so tightly molded to his thighs that they looked like a second skin.

Lila could only be grateful that her sisters weren’t here to see this. Or her mother, for that matter. There was no coming back from a man who looked like this one.Shecertainly wouldn’t be able to.

“You can’t have her until you promise to come to charades for my New Year’s party.” The woman who’d invited her to game night crossed her arms. “I need more bodies, and Lila has promised to bring me a date.”

“Has she, now?” Ford asked with one arch of his brow. When matched with the rest of him, the result was even more debonair than usual. “I’m starting to wonder how many backups she keeps on hand.”

“Sixteen,” she lied.

The speed with which she answered caused Ford’s brow to shoot up even more.

Emboldened, Lila added, “So you’d better watch your step, because there are plenty more where you came from.”

Ford didn’t, as she’d hoped, treat this as the cavalier piece of nonsense she meant it to be. “I know,” he said in a perfectly serious tone. “But I’m hoping you’ll choose me anyway.”

If the flutter of sighs that erupted from behind her were any indication, his words had their intended effect. The women swooned where swooning was called for, adored when adoration fit.