wait for you here.”
Lacey glanced over man and dog, waiting expectantly. She wasn’t sure which one looked more desperate. For sure, they were a decidedly sad pair. Could she help them? She had her doubts, but she had to try.
“Give me fifteen minutes.”
Chapter Seven
Mike had no reason to feel nervous as he opened the door to the cabin he’d rented. It wasn’t as if he was welcoming Lacey into his apartment near the Army base in Columbus. Still, just knowing she’d be in close proximity for the next several days made it a little harder to insert the key into the lock.
Because he was still worried about how this slip of a woman might affect Sheridan, of course, not how she might affect him.
When the heavy wooden door swung wide, he realized ruefully that his bachelor pad in Columbus wasn’t nearly as inviting as this place. Built from sturdy logs and recycled building materials, the cabin consisted of one large room in the center that boasted a cozy kitchen against the back wall, a comfortable living room on the left, a dining room on the right, with doors on either side of the great room leading to a separate bedroom and bathroom.
“I always wondered what the inside of these cabins looked like,” Lacey said, gazing around. “It’s nice.”
“Sorry for the mess.” He set down her suitcase and walked forward to slide a pizza box from the breakfast bar into the trash.
“It’s fine. Where would you like me?”
He took in her slight figure swallowed by the voluminous dress and recalled the sensation of having her body snug against his on the ladder. Unbidden, his sex stirred. “Uh…I’ll show you.”
He retraced his steps and reached for her suitcase at the same time she did. His hand brushed hers and a tingling sensation shot up his arm. She pulled her hand from beneath his and their gazes locked for a few seconds. The thought slid into his mind that maybe this woman did have some kind of magical power…but that was ridiculous.
Mike straightened. “This way,” he said abruptly, and strode to the empty bedroom on the left. When he walked into the room and switched on the light, he realized the quilted bedspread on the white pine bed was rumpled with the imprint of his big body. He set her small suitcase on a low chest at the foot of the bed, then leaned over to straighten the cover.
“I came in here a couple of times when Sheridan kept me up, but the sheets are clean.”
She glanced around the room, decorated in muted greens and blues, and smiled her approval, then brought her attention back to him. “So Sheridan’s sleep patterns have changed?”
“Yeah,” he admitted, nodding to where Sheridan had curled up on the floor. “He never used to sleep during the day much unless it was after an assignment. Now he sleeps all day, and if he sleeps at night, he has nightmares. He even wakes up howling sometimes.”
She appeared to to file away the information. “Has anything else changed? His eating habits? Has he become destructive? Has he had any accidents inside?”
He answered her rapid-fire questions as best he could—no, yes, sometimes. She didn’t comment, just seemed to be processing his answers behind those mesmerizing green eyes of hers while nibbling on her candy-pink lower lip.
“Well, I’ll let you get settled,” he said, gesturing vaguely toward the bathroom.
“No need,” she said, moving to the door. “Let’s get started.”
“Okay,” he said, a little surprised by her take-charge attitude. “What’s first?”
“I’d like to see how Sheridan behaves in different environments. Let’s take him for a walk.”
Mike opened his mouth to say he hadn’t been able to coax Sheridan to venture outside unless nature called, but he was bumped from behind as Sheridan got to his feet and trotted to the front door.
“I guess he understands the word walk,” Lacey said with a little laugh as she moved ahead of Mike.
“It must sound different coming out of your pretty mouth,” Mike said, then bit down on his tongue. Where had the word pretty come from? He cleared his throat and hoped like hell she hadn’t heard.
* * *
Pretty? Lacey kept walking, pretending she hadn’t heard. Mike Nichols didn’t think her mouth was pretty…did he? She glanced up to his stony expression and decided she must’ve misunderstood him. She gave herself a mental shake.
“Will you keep him on a leash for now?” she asked Mike.
“I usually do, although lately it hasn’t been an issue—he doesn’t