Page 33 of Puppy Christmas

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“Ho. Ly. Crap.”

Lila didn’t turn from her position at the kitchen counter, where she stood chopping up strawberries in a belated attempt to not go down in history as the dog trainer who sent a child into sugar shock.

“Ho. Ly. C—”

“Soph, you know they can probably hear you, right?”

Her sister snaked a pair of arms around Lila’s waist and bestowed a kiss on her cheek. The gesture was an affectionate one, but it was also calculated to place Sophie’s mouth right next to Lila’s ear. Quieter this time, but still with that breathy squeal underscoring her voice, she said, “Ho. Ly. Crap.”

Lila sighed. There was no way she was going to be able to live this one down now. Her sisters had seen Ford Ford in a tight, blue button-down shirt. They’d watched him hitch his even tighter slacks as he poured his daughter tea and discussed the merits of tulle versus satin for daywear. They’d been the recipients of his heavy-handed flirtation and long, fluttering eyelashes.

Life, as she knew it, was over.

“I love him. I want to marry him. I want to bear eighteen of his children and grow old watching him drink tea with every last one of them.”

Lila was forced into a chuckle. “I think your bodyguard out there might have something to say about that.”

“Who? Harrison?” Sophie waved off the love of her life with a laugh. “I’m sure he won’t mind. From the look of it, he’s halfway in love himself.”

Lila peeked behind her, even though there was no need. She’d committed the tableau to memory—in fact, she doubted she’d ever be able to get it out of her head after this. Harrison, Sophie’s oversize fireman boyfriend, was dressed all in black and standing intimidatingly by the door. He refused by so much as a smile to show that he was enjoying himself in his self-imposed role as bodyguard to the Vasquez royal line, but he obviously was. He’d even demanded that Bubbles, his service Pomeranian, be given a share of the tea.

Her sisters had gone all out, too. Sophie wore a crown on her head and ruby-red slippers on her feet. Dawn was in the lime-green bridesmaid dress for reasons that Lila was sure were meant to cause her acute embarrassment.

And in the middle of them all sat Emily. As soon as she’d realized that her guests were ringing the doorbell one by one, each arrival timed to give Jeeves a chance to go through the training steps necessary for door alerts, she’d thrown herself wholeheartedly into her role as hostess/dog trainer.

In other words, Lila’s plan had been a success. She was getting through to the client, training a puppy, doing the work that needed to be done. And if she just happened to be the least fluffy woman in the room while it happened?

Well, so be it. Someone had to cut the strawberries and make sure the training stayed on track.

“Dawn wasn’t kidding,” Sophie added with a not-so-discreet look over her own shoulder. “That man is next-level kinds of gorgeous. And funny, too. How is he still single?”

“From what I understand of the matter, it’s by choice. He has plenty of opportunity, but he isn’t interested in most of the women he meets.” Lila spoke with what she hoped was quelling sternness.

It wasn’t.

“Oh, so he’s exactly like you.”

Lila turned to face her sister, still with the knife in one hand. She probably looked deranged, holding out a weapon with strawberry-stained hands, but that seemed about right. Shefeltderanged. At some point in the last week, her life had gone from a quietly predictable routine of her own making to complete and utter chaos.

And like the quietly predictable woman she was, she seemed to be the only one who noticed it. Everyone else was out there having the time of their lives.

“He’s not the least bit like me. He’s just dedicated to his daughter, that’s all. He has enough going on in his life. He doesn’t have time to bother with romance.”

“Bullshit,” Sophie said cheerfully. Without the least qualm, she plucked the knife out of Lila’s hand and took over the fruit-cutting task. “She’s a cute kid, I’ll give you that, but no thirtysomething man who looks like that one is going to take a vow of celibacy unless he has a good reason. Longing for the wife, maybe?”

“No, I don’t think it’s that. He was able to crack jokes about her living at the North Pole, so I think they must have parted on amicable terms.”

Sophie’s brow lifted in a perfect arch. “So youhavetalked about it?”

Dammit.Lila could have kicked herself for being so obvious. For an ice princess, she was doing a terrible job of hiding herself away. “It came up in the regular course of conversation, that’s all.”

“Sure it did. I mean, I usually wait until the second week of training until I plumb the depths of my clients’ previous relationships, but you’ve always been much more efficient than me.”

“It’s the truth!” Lila dumped the fruit onto a platter and did her best to hide her suddenly flaming face. Okay, so her interactions with Ford had a tendency to strain the bounds of propriety, but it wasn’t as if she had any other choice. Dealing with a man like that one required all the ingenuity she had. He crushed formality with his ready smile and put her into a flutter with no more than a word. In fact, the only thing that seemed to work at all was treating him to the same cavalier flirtation he was inclined to show her.

And, you know, every other woman he met.