Dear Roomie (Rookie Rebels #5) - Kate Meader Page 0,13

flinty stare, and reddened. Yeah, you were, lady.

Reid picked up his phone from where he’d dropped it with his running jacket. “We should take him to a vet.”

“Maybe.” Coffee Shop Girl rubbed the dog’s head. “It’s hard to find one open on Sundays, but there’s one just off the main street in Riverbrook that has emergency hours. He’s actually not doing too bad. Might just need to warm up.”

She was right. The dog was definitely perking up, his one eye bright with life and adrenaline.

Reid would probably feel the same if a woman as attractive as this was giving him a rub-down.

“You seem to know a lot about it.”

“I work with dogs all the time. Got him?” Pulling herself to a stand, she smiled at the man of the couple and reached for the dog leashes in his hand. “Thanks for holding them.”

“Sure, Miss. You were pretty amazing out there.” He shot a quick glance at Reid. “You, too,” he added.

Yes, let’s not forget who jumped in the water first.

Now that the adrenaline of the adventure was starting to wear off, Reid was feeling the chill. Coffee Shop Girl must be freezing as well now that she’d handed her coat off to the dog.

He picked up his hoodie and placed it over her shoulders. “Here, you need this.”

“Oh.” She flushed an uncommonly attractive hue. “Thanks.”

Reid picked up the dog, still wrapped in Coffee Shop Girl’s coat. “I’m parked near the beach entrance,” he said to her.

“Me, too.” She looked at him expectantly.

“We should get him somewhere warm.”

“Agreed.” She pulled at the leashes. “Come on, guys, let’s go.”

5

The first minute walking back to the cars was spent in silence except for the intermittent yapping of one of the dogs in Coffee Shop Girl’s care. The bundle in his arms didn’t squirm or struggle, apparently accepting of Reid’s firm hold. But Reid watched him closely anyway, looking for changes in his demeanor. He seemed content to snuggle in Reid’s arms.

No weight had ever felt better.

“You shouldn’t have jumped in,” Reid said after a moment. “I had it under control.”

“Did you? Because from where I was standing it looked like you were having a hard time wrangling this little guy.”

“He was scared, that was all. You didn’t need to get wet.” Or save Reid, which is what she had claimed she was doing. How ridiculous.

“Admit it, you were starting to panic.”

“I was not.” He stared at her, and she laughed. Ah, she had been teasing him. “I was not,” he repeated in a lower voice, so they were clear, teasing or not.

“I’m a good swimmer. I don’t know how strong you are but I know how strong I am. It was a no-brainer.”

So foolish. No decision like that should ever be a no-brainer.

“I’m Kennedy, since you haven’t asked.”

“Reid.”

“Yeah, I know. Reid D.”

So she recognized him—he hadn’t been sure before. But now he recalled something else. Something from their time in the lake.

She had called him Hot Jerk.

Maybe he was mistaken. He couldn’t exactly ask if that was her nickname for him. Neither was he sure he wanted to know.

He took a furtive look at her. The clothes she wore clung to her body—a long-sleeved T-shirt over amazing breasts and leggings hugging nicely-shaped thighs. She was short, maybe five feet two inches, but she didn’t seem fragile. She seemed strong.

What an incredibly brave woman. A hot, tempting, incredibly brave woman.

“What you did back there—jumping in like that—it was courageous. Foolish, but courageous.”

Two spots of color appeared high on her cheekbones. “Anyone would have done it.”

“Not anyone. You did it. And this little guy is here because of it.”

“You would have been fine.”

“A minute ago you said I was starting to panic.”

“Yeah, I did, didn’t I?” One of the dogs strained at the leash, trying to get ahead of the others. She reined him in gently.

“Who are your friends?”

“My friends?” She looked down at the dogs. “Oh, these beauties! Meet Tiger, Dylan, and Smoky.”

“Hallo, boys.” He nodded at the dogs who paid him no heed.

“Dylan’s a lady.”

“Ma’am.”

Kennedy smiled, and it was only the most gorgeous smile he had ever seen. How had he not noticed it before?

Oh yeah. Because she never smiled at you in the coffee shop.

They reached the parking lot and Reid switched the dog to one arm while he fished his keys out.

“I have a blanket in my car,” Kennedy said. Adroitly while still holding the dogs, she opened the door of a battered-looking, older model Ford Focus and funneled the dogs