Danielle was quiet until they were on the road, heading back to the inn. “She’ll be gone another week, if she’s on the show circuit that I think she’s on. And actually…”
He wasn’t going to like this. “And actually?”
“She’s not too far from here.”
“But Ted might go there looking for you.”
“It’s likely.” Voice tight, she stared out the window.
“So we wait.”
“I wait. You can’t just hang here for a week.”
Right. He had a life.
Cooper’s Corner came into view, the pretty little village that never failed to draw him in. Small, personal. Unique. Danielle drew him in, just as this place did, he thought, turning into Twin Oaks B &B.
Danielle got out of the truck before he could come around. “I’m going to take Sadie for a walk in the woods.”
Alone. That was crystal clear.
Well, good. He’d practice being alone again, too. He watched her go, watched her hold on to Sadie’s leash as if the dog was all she had in the entire world.
What about me, he wanted to call after her, but that was pathetic so he headed around to the back of the house, to where he could go be alone and mull. Maybe even talk to Maureen.
He’d asked her to run Ted through the system, discreetly, without explaining why he’d asked such a thing. Nick hoped like hell she came up with something. Anything. If so, combined with the threatening e-mail, Danielle’s testimony on how he’d treated Sadie, and anything else he could find, it hopefully would be enough to turn things in Danielle’s favor.
Danielle, who was currently walking away from him as fast as she could.
On the back deck, which spread the entire length of the house, sat two young, bubbly, laughing women, whom he recognized as Maureen’s cleaning crew.
They grinned at him. “On a break,” the redheaded one called out cheerfully, having unfastened all but one button of her sleeveless blouse so that she could tie it between her very generous breasts.
The other had rolled her biking shorts up to nearly pornographic heights, and since she lay on her belly in a lounge, he had an unobstructed view of a very curvy, very nearly exposed bottom. From over her shoulder, she smiled. “Care to join us?”
“Uh…” Definitely, there was something wrong with him that he hesitated, glanced back over his own shoulder for one last sight of Danielle.
But she was long gone.
And damn it, so was any libido he might have had.
That it was possible for her to have so completely stolen all his lustful urges in such a short time was truly terrifying, and he turned back to the women, staring at their bodies, determined to get his own to react.
Not a twinge.
No getting around it. What he wanted, what he craved, was one slender, sweetly sexy, misty-eyed Danielle.
Only problem was-and here was another first-she didn’t want him back.
He knew he had decent looks. That wasn’t ego talking, but fact. He also knew he hadn’t been bad in bed. The way she’d clutched at him, staring into his eyes with sweet, sexy, wondrous surprise, as if no one had ever made her feel like that before, told him that.
It hadn’t been his company, either, because no matter what she pretended, she liked him, he could see it in her eyes, taste it in her kiss.
And whether she wanted to admit it or not, she trusted him. She’d trusted him with the truth, she’d trusted him to be with her. She’d trusted him to help her.
She hadn’t let anyone else do any of those things.
But she didn’t want to trust him. Didn’t want to let him in.
And without that, they had nothing.
Little Buxom Redhead wriggled on the lounge, getting herself comfortable while watching him from beneath lowered lashes to make sure he was catching it all.
“Sorry, ladies,” he said, knowing he was truly certifiable. But the niggling in the back of his mind had turned to a full instinctive awareness of trouble, and his instincts were never wrong. Without another look at the women, he pivoted and followed Danielle.
She wasn’t on the trail. She wasn’t in the gardens. She wasn’t anywhere.
She was gone.
13
DANIELLE GAVE UP the walk in favor of a little ride. Maureen had been so kind, offering her anything she needed, and the fact that she’d taken advantage of that hospitality and borrowed her car felt like an overwhelming burden.
But she still drove herself and Sadie to the dog show to find Laura Lyn.
All the way there Danielle told herself she was doing the right thing, not involving Nick in this any further. He’d done enough, she owed him everything as it was, and…
And who was she fooling?
She’d needed-quite desperately it turned out-to remember what it was like to be on her own, without the incredible, dynamic presence of one Nick Cooper, the only man to ever have her fantasizing about what-ifs.
What-ifs were fruitless. What-ifs were dangerous.
She pulled up to the site of the dog show, taking a moment to look around at the controlled chaos with a sense of nostalgia. Trailers, campers and minivans dominated the parking lot. Two huge ring tents had been set up for the show itself, and surrounding those were the booths of various vendors selling everything from doggie sweaters to pooper-scoopers.
The hustle and bustle of it, the friendly but stiff competitors, the general craziness had been Danielle’s life for so long. It felt like home, and yet oddly enough, also like a dream where she didn’t quite belong.
Luckily, it didn’t take long to find Laura Lyn, who’d hired Danielle on several occasions to handle her extra dogs. After a quick hello hug, Danielle pulled back and said, “You don’t see me standing here.”
“Okay.” Laura Lyn shifted her perpetual wad of gum from one cheek to the other. “I don’t see you standing here-stressed, exhausted and looking like crap. Does that have anything to do with the phone call I took from Ted several days ago?”
Danielle’s stomach sank and she gripped Sadie’s leash with tense fingers. She looked around, but didn’t see him. “This was a bad idea.”
“Was it?” Another careful shifting of the gum made Laura Lyn’s left cheek bulge. “Why?”
Danielle stopped looking for Ted long enough to look into Laura Lyn’s eyes. “I need records.”
“Ted said you might. And that I was to call him the moment I saw you.” She lifted a brow. “Hard to do that, as I’m not seeing you.”
Danielle drew a careful breath. “Laura Lyn…”
“Did you steal Sadie?”
“More like put her in protective custody.”
Laura Lyn blew a huge bubble. “Ah.”
“I want to show the court that for all intents and purposes, Sadie is mine.”
“To prove ownership.”
“Right. Then she can stay with me.”
“Because Ted broke up with you? Or because Sadie is the most amazing champion the breed has seen in decades?”
So now the story was Ted had broken up with her. Terrific. That gave him even more sympathy in the eyes of the law. “No, not because of any of that.” Danielle looked into Laura Lyn’s eyes and willed her to understand. “But because Sadie needed to get away from Ted. So did I. Laura Lyn, I left him. I had good reasons, and now I need to prove Sadie doesn’t belong with him.” She drew a deep breath and gave it her best shot. “Can you help me do that?”
“Danielle?”
Both Danielle and Laura Lyn froze as Laura Lyn’s assistant, Gail Winters, came jogging up to them. “Imagine seeing you here,” she said to Danielle, with a wealth of speculation in her gaze.
Gail was barely twenty, independently wealthy, gorgeous and far too glamorous for the dog life, but she’d proven herself a good assistant to Laura Lyn.
All that, and she also fancied herself in love with Ted. Given the predatory way she was staring at Danielle, Gail had to know too much.