Page 9 of Puppy Christmas

“Oh, is your phone call done?” Lila asked with one eyebrow carefully arched. “I wouldn’t want to interrupt something important.”

“Crisis averted,” he said, refusing to take the bait. “One crisis, at least. But before we create another one, we should probably lay a few ground rules.”

“Ground rules? About what?”

Off the top of his head, he could think of at least three, but none of them had anything to do with his daughter or puppies. On the contrary, they were founded solely in his body’s unexpected reaction to Lila’s laugh.

I will not picture this woman naked.

I will not picture this woman naked and in my bed.

I will not picture this woman naked and in my bed and making those phone-sex operator noises.

Those were three very good rules, and he planned to stick to them at every turn. Starting…soon. Very soon.

“Our house isn’t large,” he said, his voice only slightly strangled. He couldn’t help it—he was still caught up on that first rule. Lila’s beige suit might not be flattering, but there was something about the boxy simplicity that enhanced every long limb and packed curve contained inside it. “So the dog needs to be on the small side.”

“Oh,dogground rules.”

“And my schedule is a flexible one, but I can be up against some pretty tight deadlines, so a puppy that’s going to require three-hour walks every day is a definite no.”

“Mr. Ford—”

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. If she was going to insist on calling him Mr. Ford for the next six weeks, he was going to have a seriously difficult time with that whole not-picturing-her-naked thing. Formality might work in putting some men off, but that air of authority was only making things worse.

“Ford,” he said again, corralling his thoughts into a semblance of order. “Just Ford. And I don’t mean to tell you how to do your job, but Emily can be—”

Stubbornwasn’t right. Nor wasdifficult, though both those words occasionally applied.Complicatedwas more like it. The poor kid had only one parent, and not a very good one at that. She had regular appointments with audiologists, endocrinologists, and every other -ologist under the sun. She’d undergone her first surgery at age three and, since her condition was a degenerative one, probably had a lifetime more of them to look forward to.

She was a tough little bird, yes, but there was a limit to what he was willing to make her endure. A broken heart over a puppy she couldn’t have was that limit.

“She’s fast?” Lila suggested with another of those wonderful laughs. She nodded her head toward the back of the house, where Emily had made a beeline for the back door. His daughter was in a phase where the only kind of shoes she’d wear were soft-soled ballet flats that made about as much sound as a whisper on the wind. It was impossible to hear her coming—or going.

And she was going, no doubt about that. She’d known what was about to happen and decided to take matters into her own hands.

“Emily, you can’t—” he called, but it was too late. Emily had already disappeared through the back door, slamming it gleefully behind her.

“They won’t hurt her,” Lila said as she began what seemed like the slowest possible walk in that direction. Slowandsultry, he noted, as though the only way to reduce her speed was to move her hips like a pendulum in slow motion. He could only assume she was doing it to torture him. Well, either that or to give Emily time alone with the puppies. “They’re all exceptionally well behaved.”

“It’s not the puppies I’m afraid of,” he admitted. “It’s what’s going to happen when she picks the biggest, slobberiest one you have, and I have no choice but to drag her away. You obviously have no idea what it’s like to be the fun sponge.”

Although it seemed impossible, her walk slowed down even more.Tick, tock.Back and forth. The steady beat of her body was mocking him.

“The fun sponge?” she echoed.

“One who sucks all the joy out of life. The void of happiness. The black hole of delight.”

This time she stopped. Actuallystoppedmere inches from the door. Turning to face him, she asked, “You think you’re a fun sponge?”

“Ask anyone,” he said with a mock sigh. “I’m the biggest fun sponge on the block.”

“And you thinkI’mnot?”

The incredulity on her face almost had him laughing out loud. “Well, I don’t know you very well, obviously, but based on what I’ve seen so far, I’d have to say no.”

“Me?”

“Other than your weird dislike of white teeth, sure.” He shrugged and shoved one of his hands in his pocket. It was dangerous to bring up the night of the ball, but he had no other choice.Shemight have been able to set her kindness toward Emily aside like it was nothing, but he’d been reeling ever since. “Think about it—your job is literally to play with puppies every single day. You went to a stuffy black-and-white-tie ball in a sparkling pink dress and pulled it off with panache. You make Emily laugh. Come to think of it, you makemelaugh. That all sounds pretty fun to me.”