Mistletoe Magic (Paradise Place #6) - Natalie Ann Page 0,49

litter, would whine. Luke would bark. It was heartbreaking.”

Brian thought how neither of those dogs whined now. And they had no problem being separated if need be, but still enjoyed sleeping together.

“I can tell you that they’ve come a long way. They are growing daily. Instead of me taking them for a walk, they take me for one. They even won over my neighbors who are here today looking for their own puppy.”

“And we found one, Robin,” Livi shouted, causing people to laugh.

“I’m so happy. Now Luke and Leia will have a new friend to play with,” she said. “As you can see, there are a lot of dogs that need homes, but if you don’t have a place for them, the shelter does wonderful work here and we rely on donations to keep it running. Any little bit you can manage, we’d be very grateful for.”

Robin said a few more words and then got a round of applause and stepped down for the next person to get up and speak.

“Very nice,” Brian said. “I’m ready to break out my wallet.”

“Good. Then I managed to get my point across.”

“Oh, you did all right,” he said, leaning down to kiss her head. “Sometimes we all have to wait for the right thing to come our way.”

21

Changed Your Life

“Rick,” Robin shouted when her brother walked in the door on Monday, a few days before Christmas. She’d just gotten done taking the lasagna out. She’d received his text about twenty minutes ago that his plane had landed and he’d be there shortly. He was going to stay with her tonight and tomorrow, meet Brian first, then go to her parents on Wednesday and stay with them the rest of the trip along with her grandparents.

“There you are,” he said, swinging her in his arms like he always did when he saw her. “You are still just a tiny thing.”

“You don’t think I’m going to get taller at this point, do you? I sure the heck don’t want to grow out,” she said, laughing.

“It smells good in here. If you cook like this all the time and still look like that then you are doing something right.”

“Brian likes my cooking too. Plus I run around so much with the dogs and my job.”

Rick frowned at her. Just like he always got silent when Brian’s name came up on the phone. “He’s not here tonight?”

“No. He’s working late. He’s going to come to dinner tomorrow. But I’ve got the day off and we can spend it together.”

“I’d love that. So where are these dogs?” he asked.

“Take your jacket off. They are in my office. I didn’t want them to charge you. They are good around people, but Luke is very protective of Leia when it comes to strangers.”

“I’m not a stranger,” he said, hanging his jacket up. “Nice house. Big.”

“It is. Let me show you around first.” He picked his bag up while she showed him around the downstairs, then brought him upstairs to his room.

“This is nice. Good thing you didn’t give me the pink room.”

She laughed. “That was Livi’s room. I haven’t had the heart to change it. I just store things in there as you can tell.”

“Livi?” he asked.

“The neighbors in the back. Remember I told you they met here and married right when I bought the house. They just moved into Blair’s house in the back because her shop is there.”

“Shop?”

“Rick,” she said, resisting the urge to slap his arm. “Don’t you ever listen to what I say? I told you all about it.”

“Sorry. Work is just nuts.”

She looked at her handsome brother, saw how tired his eyes were. “When was your last day off?”

“Do Sundays count?”

“I was going to say no, but it sounds like you are working weekends too?”

“I am. I already put in close to sixty hours at Google, but I’m helping a friend out and it’s taking all the rest of my time.”

“With what?” she asked, surprised that Rick hadn’t said anything before now.

“A startup. He left Google a few years ago and wanted to go out on his own. He reached out to me a year ago with an idea he pitched. I decided to join in.”

“What is it?” she asked all excited. “Do you need investors?”

“No. Stop right there,” he said. “That’s why I didn’t tell you. We are good right now. We’ve got investors and we’ve put our own money in. Maybe we’ll get lucky, but most times it’s a flop.”

She wanted to be