Page 57 of Puppy Christmas

“It did go either way, to be honest,” he said, doing just that—being honest. As inreallyhonest; not just telling the truth, but allowing himself to speak from the heart. It felt surprisingly good. “At first, it was the superheroes. My dad cut out when I was really young, so Mom raised me on her own. The comics were a kind of escape. Nothing cures boredom like epic battles of good versus evil. She worked a lot.”

“Grandma Louise?” Lila guessed.

“The one and only. She’s retired now, but she lives out near Pullman with her countless feathered friends, so we don’t get to see her as much as we’d like.” He made a vague gesture over his desk. It was especially untidy now that he’d made a mad dash to hide all his secret Lila drawings, but there was no denying that it never looked very orderly. “It’s one of the main reasons I lead such a fascinating life drawing coffee makers. After Janine left, I promised myself that I’d be around for Emily, even if it meant cutting back on the finer things in life.”

He shifted his attention to the window overlooking the backyard, so he missed Lila’s expression. Which was probably for the best, since he wasn’t sure he cared to see her reaction. His own feelings on this subject were so mixed—those promises he’d made himself shifting under the stifling weight of the job offer. He had yet to make any kind of decision, but the clock was definitely ticking.

“The drawing side came later,” he added as soon as he was able to wrench his attention away from Jeeves and Emily and back to the conversation at hand. “I didn’t start appreciating the artistry of graphic novels until I was a little older. It might have been right after that kiss with Katie Barnes, actually. She sparked both my sexual and artistic awakening. It was probably thet-i-t-sthat accounts for it. I spent years after that perfecting the art of the areola.”

Lila put a hand down on his desk, her palm lying flat against the picture of Jeeves. She didn’t make physical contact, but there was barely the breadth of a pencil between them. “Don’t do that,” she said.

He stared down at where their hands didn’t touch. “Don’t do what?”

“Make it into somethings-e-x-u-a-l. Make it into a joke.” Her voice softened and her pinkie twitched, but by no other signs did she betray her feelings. “You take amazing care of her. I know you worry about how withdrawn she can be, but she’s a good kid. Ahappykid.”

He didn’t dare tell her what he was thinking—that it was the advent of Lila and Jeeves into their lives that had truly transformed Emily. A few weeks ago, she’d been a good kid, no doubt about it. But happy? He wasn’t so sure. He’d never gotten around to explaining to Lila how he’d come to be separated from Emily the night of the ball, but it hadn’t been an accident. His daughter had taken one look at that room full of polished strangers and hightailed it for the nearest exit.

And who could have blamed her? The overwhelming press of people, her inability to distinguish the sounds of so many voices rising up at once… It was enough to overset anyone, let alone a little girl who wasn’t used to moving too far out of her comfort zone. The only safe place she’d seen had been a woman standing proud and tall in a pink gown—a princess, a queen, a woman so confident in herself that she could have been stark naked and no one would have questioned her right to do exactly as she damn well chose.

Every minute that Emily spent in Lila’s company, she seemed to be absorbing some of that confidence. Gone was the little girl who refused to look strangers in the eye; no longer did she rear back from situations that might present a challenge. And instead of her thumb working toward her mouth, as it always had in moments of stress, it moved to her puppy’s soft, curly head instead.

Jeeves was changing her.Lilawas changing her.

They’re changing me, too.In what was rapidly becoming a habit whenever Lila was around, he felt himself torn between the man he’d always been and the man he wanted to be. All those flirtatious games he played, the steps he took to ensure that no one—including himself—was allowed to get too close, were starting to feel all too real.

“You’re a great dad,” Lila added softly. “There aren’t a lot of guys out there who could have pulled off half the things you’ve done for her.” A wry smile twisted her mouth. “Or made it look so good.”

His pulse gave an involuntary leap. “I thought we weren’t going to make this into somethings-e-x-u-a-l.”

“I guess your bad habits must be brushing off on me.” Her fingers skimmed over the top of his before pulling away. His own instinct was to take those fingers of hers and press them against his lips, his heart, hiscock, so his bad habits couldn’t have had that much of an effect on her. “I hate to ask it of you when you’re already hurting for sleep, but could you set a couple of alarm clocks for tonight? We don’t want Jeeves to get complacent at night, so it’ll be good for him to be caught off his usual guard. Maybe just after midnight and around three?”

Ford heaved a sigh that was only partially faked. He didn’t mind the extra work with regards to the puppy—at this point, he considered Lila nothing short of a dog whisperer and would do literally anything she asked where Jeeves was concerned—but the fact that she slipped so easily back into working mode was sobering. Not even the prospect of their date beckoning in the distance had the power to sway her.

“Sure thing, boss lady,” he said. As he caught sight of Emily bounding toward the door with a snow-covered cockapoo at her side, he added in a quick undertone, “But if I fall asleep in your lap tomorrow, you have no one to blame but yourself.”