Page 52 of All For You

Everyone looked at me expectantly. Knightley said nothing either, giving me a confused face. Cunning, conniving bloody man. I had a new respect for him.

I heaved out an exasperated breath. “Okay. I’ll foster her for two weeks and see if she gets along with Max. Otherwise, this is not fair on Max. Two weeks.” I sighed internally. I was pretty sure they would not get along, and I’d be off the hook.

“First, I must announce the winning combo! Lizzy and old Bob. Lizzy, you win a gift certificate to a hot-air-balloon experience!” Knightley said.

Lizzy looked a little horrified for some reason, then smiled gamely.

Knightley turned back to me, grinning from ear to ear. “Now. I’ll go and grab Topaz’s medications from the car. Hard to believe by looking at her, but she has a lot of health issues.”

Shocker.And why did Knightley have all her medications in his car? Had he been planning all along to offload this creature on me? Knightley returned with a veritablesuitcasefull of medications and afolderof instructions.

“All pretty self-explanatory,” he said with a friendly but cursory clip to his voice. “But feel free to contact Hetty Bateson our front desk with any questions. Hey thanks, man,” he said brightly, patting me on the back after he’d handed off the suitcase and folder. His forehead creased with sincerity, but there was a definite twitch to his lips. “We’re going to miss our Ms. LeStar. She’s much loved.”

“I can imagine,” I said. I tucked the high-maintenance Ms. LeStar’s to-go bag and folder under one arm and leaned over to collect her.

“Okay, beautiful, looks like you’re coming home with me.”

I scooped her up, and she looked at me like I was her prince. Sweet.

“Oh hell,” I coughed out at the stench. Topaz LeStar might have been named after some glamorous, perfumed dancer, but unlike her imaginary namesake, she was on the smelly side. What was it with me and stinking beasts, large and small? First, Goatee and now this dog.

“Yay,” said Lizzy, clapping and bouncing on her toes.

You’d think there’d be an easier way to impress a woman. But apparently not this woman. Lizzy called out the news to Jane and Emma, who joined in, doing some hand-clapping and bouncing up and down themselves.

Yay.

Now, where the hell had Wills gone?

Upstairs,I found the bedroom empty, not just unoccupied. Wills must have quickly packed, loaded up the car, and left for a walk or something. My heart twisted in my chest, unsettled and uncertain about the state of my brother’s mind. I’d talk to Lizzy then find him.

I washed a protesting and thrashing Topaz in the sink, dried her, and settled her newly sweetly smelling self on my bed while I changed again out of my sodden clothes. I then directed a watchful and pissed-off Max to his cushion and packed. I had to make sure they got on before I left them alone together. It already wasn’t going so well. Topaz didn’t realize, as the second dog in the house, she should be humble and defer to Max’s seniority. Instead, she gave Max a superior grin from her new height atop the bed. Max returned her haughty look with a stink eye.

I gathered my stuff, ready to take it down to the car, and asked Penny Balfour to keep an eye on the dogs. Before we left, I wanted to meet Lizzy somewhere private to tell her how I felt and to see how we could get together. I wanted to get to know her better, and I thought through the logistics of traveling back and forth on dates. We lived two hours apart, so how was that going to work with my job? But I knew this connection between us was strong enough already we would make it work.

CHAPTER 25

Lizzy

Jane was finishing her packing, and I was writing a scene in our bedroom. Finally, I was getting down some good words, freer and deeper and different from how I’d written this year.

How I felt last night with Darcy, all the emotions, had set my brain on fire. Darcy dancing me into the library, feeling the warmth of his body, and that excruciating tension of not knowing how he felt. Then in the library, how my breath had caught, the way his lips had parted, how my pulse had kicked up at the press of his hand. And before the kiss, those extreme vibrations between us. Then the sudden stillness as he’d stared at my lips.

My words flowed, inspired by our sparking chemistry.

A firm knock sounded on my bedroom door. Was it…?

I rushed over from my laptop and opened the door with a burst, my hair bouncing around my neck. Darcy filled the doorway. I felt my face blush with heat at him standing there, mixed up with what I’d been writing about.

“Could we speak downstairs?” he asked, touching my wrist. “Before we leave?”

“Yes, okay,” I said, ducking my head, suddenly shy.

He took my hand and led me downstairs, out across the driveway and to a group of oaks. We were hidden from the house.

He gave me a crooked smile. “Hello again.”

He wasn’t touching me, but every inch of me seemed to lean toward him, thrumming with possibility.