Anything for Her - By Janice Kay Johnson Page 0,22

no way he’d understand it. What did a twenty-eight-year-old businesswoman have in common with any fourteen-year-old boy, never mind one with Sean’s background?

Nothing, that’s what.

Too much.

“I thought maybe you’d like to come,” Nolan said. “You can advise us.”

How a voice so low and rumbly could also be coaxing, she couldn’t have said. But she found herself reluctantly smiling.

“Out of my great store of knowledge? Didn’t you ever have a dog?”

“My mother didn’t like them. She always had a Persian cat. You notice I said she. These were not kid-friendly pets. They made great pillows, but that’s about all you could say for ʼem. Dumb as a box of rocks—and I know my rocks.” Amusement suffused that voice now. “Softer, though. I remember one that I was never sure could actually walk. I swear Mom would carry that damn cat to the litter box and then back again to its throne.”

Curled up in her easy chair, Allie laughed at the image.

“Not exactly a growing boy’s dream pet.”

“A dog was bound to chase the cat, Mom insisted. I thought some exercise would do the cat good.” Plainly, he liked making her laugh. He wasn’t being entirely serious now. “That was assuming the dog ever noticed that the fluffy peach-colored mound at the end of the sofa was alive.”

“So why didn’t you get a dog the minute you left home?”

He was quiet for a minute. “Too busy, I guess. Ironically, I do have cats.”

“No!” she gasped in mock surprise.

“Make fun of me, will you.” There was the amusement again. “They showed up on my property about two years ago, a couple of scrawny half grown, half wild mongrels. Can a cat be a mongrel? Anyway, they’re only distant relations to my mother’s cats. I figured somebody dumped them. So I started putting food out, trapped ’em before the female threw a litter of kittens. They’re still mostly outdoor cats. They let me pet them, but haven’t decided whether to trust Sean yet.”

“A dog might chase them,” she pointed out.

Silence. “Okay, is it bad if I admit that hadn’t occurred to me?”

“Very bad,” she said solemnly, suppressing this laugh.

“We can be sure we get a dog that’s lived with cats before. Or a puppy.”

Realizing how much she wanted to be with Sean and Nolan when they picked out the dog, she had to ask. “Do you really want me to come? This sounds like something the two of you should do together, without an outsider along.”

“You don’t feel like an outsider,” he said, and his voice had deepened further.

She had to press the heel of her hand to her breastbone to quell the sharp pang.

“I... Thank you.” Allie closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Why don’t you ask Sean? My feelings won’t be hurt if he’d rather go without me. Please don’t press him.”

“Fair enough,” Nolan said after a minute. “I thought you’d enjoy it.”

“I would,” she admitted. “But not if I ruin the whole thing for Sean. Anyway, I really can’t afford to take Saturday off.”

“I checked. They’re open on Sundays.”

He’d checked because he wanted her to go with him. He was hinting at a whole lot more than a dating relationship, which shouldn’t have stunned her but did.

“Let me know,” she said, working hard at sounding cheerful and offhanded. Nope, doesn’t matter to me either way. She ended the call as soon as she could without having him notice anything was wrong.

It’s not wrong. It’s good. It’s great. I like him.

Then why this flutter of alarm?

I don’t know how to do this.

And that, she realized, was the truth.

If she’d ever known how to be intimate with other people, she’d forgotten. She hadn’t had a really close friend since middle school. Before. Being so terrified of what she might inadvertently say, she didn’t dare say anything at all—which was an excellent way of appearing unfriendly to other teenagers. Or pathologically shy. Or maybe of making a person pathologically shy, eventually.

Am I?

Yes and no. Not in the quilt shop, but when the possibility of something closer arose...maybe. After all, she still had to think every time before she opened her mouth.

The phone rang again shortly after Nolan and she said good-night, and she snatched it up, noting belatedly that the caller was her mother, not Nolan calling right back to say, Sean would love to have you come with us.

Yeah, right.

“Hi, Mom. This is late for you to be calling.”

“I’m not quite as stodgy as you think I am,” her mother said