Mistletoe Magic (Paradise Place #6) - Natalie Ann Page 0,50

supportive since Rick was always there for her, but like he did when she was a kid...he kept things to himself.

“Do you want to shower before dinner?”

“Do I stink?” he asked, lifting his arm and putting his nose under his pit.

“Yes, you do.”

She walked out laughing and went downstairs to get the dogs out of the office.

When Rick came down twenty minutes later, she was setting the table and pulling the salad off the counter, then opening the oven to check on the garlic bread.

The dogs noticed someone else enter the room and picked up and ran, Luke almost knocking Leia out of the way to get there first. “Wow, you weren’t kidding about how big they were getting or that Luke was protective.”

“Just put your hand out. He’ll be fine. Leia likes men more and I think it bothers Luke. She is all over Brian.”

He frowned again and she was going to nip that in the bud in a minute. Once her dogs were settled though.

“They are good dogs,” he said. “Pretty well behaved.”

Both of them were licking his hands and Leia jumping up on his legs for more attention, then flopping and exposing her belly.

Rick got down and started to give them both more attention.

She missed him so much. The week he was here was going to go by way too fast, but he loved his life in California and she’d never ask him to give it up. Even at the lowest point in her life, she wouldn’t let him move here.

She got through it on her own just like she knew she would.

“Do you want a beer?”

“I could kill a beer,” he said.

She pulled one of Brian’s out of the fridge and poured it in a glass, then brought it over where he’d just sat down. “I know it’s only four in your internal clock, but I’m starving. I don’t eat any later than six, so seven is my snack time.”

“I got up a few hours earlier than normal so that I’d be exhausted by ten even though, like you said, internally it’d feel like seven to me.”

“You did that today or have been for work?” she asked, looking him over some more. He was even losing weight and she wondered how stressed he really was.

“I do it more than I want to,” he admitted. “So I’ll probably pass right out tonight the minute my head hits the pillow.”

“Dig in then,” she said. “I’ll get the bread. It should be done.”

She pulled it out of the oven and cut the slices and then placed them on a plate. By the time she got to the table, Rick was several mouthfuls in. The least she could do was fill his belly while he was here.

“So tell me more about Brian,” he said once she was sitting and eating herself.

“You know a lot or you just don’t remember?” she asked. She was starting to wonder if all the conversations they’ve had in the past few months went in one ear and out the other.

“Sorry,” he said. “I’m more preoccupied than I normally am. But you’ve got my undivided attention while I’m here.”

“Somehow I don’t buy that,” she said. “I bet you end up doing some work.”

“Not for Google. I’m on vacation. I will have to do some stuff on the other project though. But not today or tomorrow. I promise.”

“The project you aren’t telling me about,” she said, reaching for the salad bowl.

“That’s the one.” He took the bowl from her and put some on his plate. “Now about Brian?”

“You know he’s my lawyer.”

“That’s a conflict,” he said right away.

“He’s not anymore,” she clarified. “He did do my will a while ago, but he had one of his employees notarize it. I told him it didn’t matter.”

“But he’s smart enough to know it might.”

“Are you complimenting him?”

“I don’t know him enough to, but I will find out tomorrow.”

She rolled her eyes. “You can relax. Mom and Dad love him. He’s a great guy.”

“He knows everything about you,” Rick said. “Maybe he’s taking advantage of that.”

“He’s not. It’s actually nice that he knows about Alex and what happened. It saves me from explaining it to anyone. I’d like to put that in my past. Especially since I ran into Alex’s parents at the mall with Brian.”

“That had to be awkward. What happened?”

“Nothing. Alex’s mom misses me, but his father wouldn’t even look at me. They are embarrassed by it and I get the feeling they want to pretend none of