Mistletoe Magic (Paradise Place #6) - Natalie Ann Page 0,48

might want or play with them. In about ten minutes some of us are going to talk about our success stories with adoptions.”

“Are you okay with getting up and talking in front of people?” he asked. She always acted like she wanted to be in the background.

“I won’t say much. But I do love talking about my babies.”

They both turned again when they heard their names called. He was shocked to see Troy’s cousin Sarah Walker there. “What are you doing here?”

“Robin told me about this last night. You know Harris got his dog at a shelter. Actually I adopted Nicks for Harris at the time because he didn’t want to write his name down.”

“Did you get him here?” Brian asked.

“I did. I told Robin that too. I thought I’d come and check some dogs out. I’d love to get one, but right now I can’t in my apartment.”

“So you just want to torture yourself by looking in the window for a shiny new toy and hoping the day will come when it’s yours?” he asked her.

“Pretty much. There isn’t anything wrong with looking,” Sarah said. “Kind of like my love life.”

Robin laughed. “I know the feeling. I was there for a while before I made my move.” She threaded their fingers together and leaned up to give him a kiss.

“Oh, you went after Brian. You go, girl! I think he is used to women chasing him though.”

He scowled at Sarah. “Go look at those dogs.”

“Bye, you two,” Sarah said and moved away laughing.

“Do I have to worry about women throwing themselves at you?” she asked. She was grinning, but he could see the uncertainty in her eyes.

“No. I’m well and truly taken. Even had a little talk with a man that had been hitting on you.”

“Who?” she asked, looking around. Her eyes landed on Cooper. “Oh. What did you two talk about?”

“Nothing much. He came up to introduce himself and say that he hadn’t known you were dating someone and meant nothing by it asking you out for a drink. I get the feeling he wanted to make sure I knew he wasn’t going to make you feel uncomfortable and didn’t want anything awkward. He said this was his life.”

“I’m not awkward around him. He was nice about it all. He’s not the first person to ask me for a drink in my life that I’ve said no to.”

Brian knew that and shouldn’t feel any jealousy over it, but for some reason he was filled with massive vats of green goo.

“I know. I told him you haven’t said anything to me so I assumed it was all good.”

“It is. And now I’ve got to get on stage and go talk. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

He watched her walked away and stand by the microphone with a few other people while Cooper talked.

“Thank you all for coming,” Cooper said. “We are here for a few hours. Our goal is to find each of these dogs a home for the holiday. Even if you can’t bring a puppy home today but would like to adopt, this time of year we will make exceptions and hold the dogs.”

He looked around and saw some relieved faces on adults. Probably Christmas gifts for kids.

“I’m going to call a few people up here to tell you how their lives have changed since they adopted a dog from our shelter,” Cooper said, looking at the few standing by him. “First is Robin. Not only did she adopt a brother and sister, but she is one of our favorite volunteers here.”

Robin moved to the microphone. “Hi, everyone. Dr. Winslow is right. I do volunteer here. I’d wanted a dog for a long time but just had to wait for the right one to come my way.” She paused and made eye contact with Brian, then smiled. “Little did I know I’d get two bundles of fur. But one day they showed up and Luke, he’s the big brother, was just so protective of Leia.”

There were some chuckles in the crowd that got the play on the names.

“There was just no way we could separate them,” she said. “And I couldn’t take the chance someone wouldn’t want both. One of my jobs here is to bathe the puppies before they are ready for adoption. I’ll admit I have a lot of fun playing with them too. We normally separate them for bath time, but these two couldn’t be separated. Leia, who was the runt of the