Hooking Him - Aurora Rose Reynolds Page 0,26
to know you’re late because of work and not because you’re an idiot who’s stuck in the past.” She smiles, then stands. “Gonna take my old bones inside. Have a good evening, and be good to my girl.” She walks to her door and goes inside without another word, and I shake my head.
When I reach Anna’s landing, I knock and look down at Bane, who’s sniffing and whining to get in. “Down,” I order, and he falls to his bottom as the door opens.
“Hey.” Anna eyes me nervously, then laughs when Bane jumps up, placing his paws on her chest.
“Bane, heel,” I growl, and he licks the side of her face before landing on all fours.
“I see training is going well,” she says cheekily, smiling at Bane as he wanders into her place with his nose to the ground.
“You’re lucky my hands are full, Anna. If they weren’t, I’d kiss that smart mouth,” I say, and her eyes flare while her cheeks turn pink. I step inside when she steps back, and I notice again what I saw yesterday. Her place is small: just big enough for her bed and a little table in the kitchen area that’s pressed to the wall, with two chairs on either side. There’s a lone painting of the ocean on the wall, and a couple of gray-blue throw pillows on the bed. Everything else is white. I know Edie used to rent the space out during peak seasons, which made her enough money to keep her fed and warm through winter. I imagine it doesn’t look any different now than it did then. There are no personal touches in the room, nothing that shows that a woman as vibrant as Anna lives here.
“Do you want to eat out on the deck?” she asks, taking the pizza box from me and setting it on the counter.
“Yeah.” I hold up a beer. “Want one?”
Her nose scrunches adorably, and she shakes her head. “I’m not a big fan of beer, but I have wine. I just need to open the bottle.”
She pulls a bottle of pink wine from the fridge, and I take it from her. “Where’s your opener?”
“I can open it.”
“I know.” I still take the corkscrew from her and open the bottle, then pour her a glass.
“Will Bane be okay out on the deck, or should we leave him inside?”
“He should be okay. Then again, I got home today to find he’d eaten half a cushion from my couch, so I don’t know what to expect from him right now.”
“He ate a cushion?” She looks to where he’s nosing the ground. “Is he okay?”
“It’s not the first time. This is just the first time in a while. He should be fine.”
“How old is he?” she asks, lifting up on her bare feet to grab plates off one of the open shelves.
“He turns two next week.” I lean back against the counter with my beer and take a moment to appreciate the way her hair looks down, the dip of her waist, and the way her ass looks in her jeans.
“Then he should be out of the puppy stage soon.” She grins at me over her shoulder. “My mom got one of those little yippy dogs when I was about sixteen, and he was annoying and destructive until he was about two and a half.”
“Good news for me.”
“Yeah.” She tips her head to the side. “Do you want to carry the pizza out?”
“Lead the way.” I pick up the pizza and follow her out to the deck, where there’s a small table and two adirondack chairs. I place the box on the table and take a seat while she does the same before handing me a plate. Once we both have a slice of pizza and Bane is settled near the top of the steps, I break the comfortable silence that’s settled between us, even though I don’t want to. “I went to talk to Max today.”
“I had a feeling that’s what you were doing when you left the shop this afternoon,” she says quietly, and I focus on her, hating what I’m about to say. “You warned me she was going to run the story.”
“I knew she’d run the story, but I thought she and I had an agreement that your name would be left out.”
“I’m not in witness protection, Calvin. It’s not a big deal she used my name. I mean, it was weird having people come into the shop asking for me