Page 52 of Puppy Christmas

The color of Helen’s cheeks deepened into a pink flush that brought a relief of freckles across the bridge of her nose. “I wouldn’t normally take advantage like this, but I figure we can skip straight to the good stuff since you’re dating Ford.”

Lila opened her mouth to deny this claim—as she had so many times before—but stopped herself short. Technically, shewasdating Ford now. Or close enough to it to count, anyway.

“Of course,” she said and settled more comfortably onto the stool. She also took another cookie. “If it’s within my power, I’d be glad to help out.”

“I’d be careful making promises like that around here. For all you know, I’m going to ask you take the boys for a weekend.” At Lila’s stricken look, Helen laughed. Feathery lines extended outward from her warm, hazel eyes. “Don’t worry—I wait at least two months before I start begging for those kinds of favors. You’re safe for now. This one is about that man we met at the kids’ school this morning. Dr. Yarmouth, I think his name was?”

“Patrick?” Lila asked with more violence than was warranted by the situation. She couldn’t help herself; just hearing his name set off a knee-jerk, negative reaction. “What about him?”

“Well…” Helen picked up the cookie crumbling in earnest. “He’s awfully good-looking, isn’t he?”

Lila paused to consider the question. “He’s notunattractive,” she was forced to admit. “I mean, all his parts are there—and in the correct proportions. The problem is, he knows it.”

She’d never really thought about it before, but that summed up most of her issues with Patrick Yarmouth. There was no doubt in him, no self-deprecation, no ability to admit his flaws and laugh at them. When he had occasion to wear a tuxedo, he didn’t ruefully liken himself to a penguin and wish himself back home in flannel pajamas. Instead, he sauntered about, one hundred percent aware of the impression he made and eager for others to know it, too.

She was about to elaborate on this subject—and at voluble length—when she caught sight of Helen’s face and stopped.

“Oh,” she breathed. “Ohh. You mean he’sawfully good-looking.”

Helen didn’t dare meet her eyes. “And a doctor, right? One of Emily’s?”

“A very good one,” Lila agreed. “Well-off. Not only is he a top specialist in his field, but he comes from money.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Helen said quickly. “I only wanted to know if he’s, you know, smart. Stable. Dependable. That sort of thing.”

“Oh, he’s definitely all those,” Lila said. “He’s good at crossword puzzles, too.”

“Is he?” Helen asked.

“Phenomenal. Do you want me to set you two up?”

Helen’s eyes flew up to meet hers. “Could you?” She blushed deeper and added, “What I mean is, do you know him well enough to set something up, or would it be awkward? I wouldn’t want to put you out.”

There was no way it wouldn’t be awkward, setting her ex-boyfriend up with the neighbor of a man she was kind of seeing, but Lila wasn’t about to say as much out loud. For one, the wine was already having a strong effect on her, making her feel rosy and warm and as though nothing in the world could touch her. For another, she was struck by the strong feeling that these two would get along incredibly well.

Amazinglywell, actually. If you asked someone to mold a human being as far removed from Lila Vasquez as possible, Helen Griswold would be the answer. She was petite and friendly, outgoing and warm. She answered phones and baked cookies and would probably idolize the ground Patrick walked on. In fact, Lila had a strong suspicion she already did.

“I can, and if you want me to, I absolutely will.” She hesitated. “I should probably warn you, though, that he and I used to date.”

“I thought so,” Helen said. She spoke with wistful matter-of-factness. “You two looked great together. You’re both so elegant.”

Elegance was all well and good, but it obviously hadn’t brought either of them much in the way of happiness. Lila said as much out loud. “Don’t take it so hard.Everyonelooks elegant when they stand next to Patrick. He’s like a little black dress.”

Helen sighed and held a hand to her chest. “He is, isn’t he?”

Lila hadn’t meant it as a compliment. She’d meant that he was functional and bland, suitable to bring out for any social occasion, but not very exciting for all that. Of course, she didn’t dare say so in the face of such swooning admiration. Reaching down into her bag instead, she extracted the notepad and pen she always carried. She might be turning over a new leaf and all, but some habits died hard.

“Okay,” she said in a businesslike tone, the pen poised above the paper. “Do you want me to make this an official blind date, or would you rather casually run into him somewhere without him knowing it’s a setup?”

Helen’s eyes widened. “Can you do that?”

“Of course I can. And I vote that we should, since we can make sure you’re all dolled up and looking your best beforehand. He’ll think you roll out of bed every morning looking like a million bucks.” She considered before adding, “Which, to be honest, you probably do. I have no idea how you’re old enough to have two kids Byron and Neil’s age.”

It was the right thing to say to put the other woman at ease. Helen stammered and tittered and buried herself in her wineglass before finally reaching a decision. “You know what? Let’s do it your way. I’ve always hated the awkwardness of both parties knowing it’s a setup. And this way, you can be there, too. Just in case I need you to take the edge off.”

“Consider it done.” Lila paused before jotting down all the places they could reasonably run into Patrick without it seeming too obvious. He kept to a fairly rigid schedule, which meant it would be easy to accost him at the gym or outside his office, but neither of those appealed to Lila’s burgeoning sense of the romantic. Spandex-packed, sweating bodies might appeal to some men, but not Patrick Yarmouth. The medical professional in him liked cleanliness too much. He also had a tendency to eschew hanging out at places like coffee shops and bars, since he saw these as a waste of time.

Then again, it was also a waste of time to hang around a diner and an elementary school for the sake of an apology, but he seemed to be doing plenty of that lately.