Page 98 of Puppy Christmas

“I know all about that,” Neil interrupted. He didn’t seem the least put off by Emily’s expression. “Princess Lila taught me. They have to do work when it’s time for work and can only play when it’s time for play. Did you get to meet Andromeda?”

It was the longest conversation Ford had ever seen his daughter hold with a child her age, and he found himself staring openmouthed at the pair of them. The feeling of pleasant surprise didn’t abate any when Emily lowered the thumb that had been moving toward her mouth and said, “No. Who’s that?”

“Oh, man. She was the best puppy I ever saw.” Catching sight of Emily’s expression, he hastily amended this with “Except for Jeeves, of course. She had long hair and blue eyes and thought I was a sheep.”

Emily giggled. “She did?”

“I drew a picture of her. It’s in my room. D’you want to see?”

As she usually did when presented with situations like these, Emily looked to Ford for an answer. Instead of appearing wary of the offer, however, with her eyes desperately begging him to give her an out, she glinted up at him with a hopeful expression. “Can I go see, Daddy?”

“Absolutely, moppet.”

It was all she needed to hear to go bounding off after Neil, the pair of them winding through legs and over furniture and almost knocking over three different adults in the process.

Ford had no idea when or how Lila had managed to teach Neil about service dogs, but he could have kissed her. Hell, he could have kissed her for any number of reasons—including the way she watched Emily go with as much delight as he felt. Maybe it was part of the standard training package to introduce friends and neighbors to the nuances of service-puppy ownership, but he doubted it. From the day Lila had entered their lives, she’d gone above and beyond to make his daughter feel comfortable.

It was everything he’d ever dreamed of. She cared about Emily’s health, she cared about her happiness,andshe cared about her heart. The only problem was, he wanted her to care about his, too. It was terribly selfish of him, he knew, but what else could he do? He didn’t want Lila for six weeks. He wanted her forever.

“Lila, I—”

“So this is the famous Princess Lila!” A laughing voice hailed him from behind, stopping any untimely confessions short. Ford turned to find himself being accosted by Danica DeWinter and Maddie Thomas. Under any other circumstances, he would have been happy to see his friends looking so ridiculously overdressed and already wine-drunk, but not today. Today, he wished them at the bottom of the ocean—or, at the very least, on a pirate ship far away from here.

“For once, Helen didn’t exaggerate. You’re gorgeous. Ford, she’sgorgeous.” Danica extended a hand, which jangled under a long chain of gold bracelets. “I’m Danica, and I wouldn’t have relinquished this man to anyone less, I hope you know.”

Lila’s face flushed with color.

“And I’m Maddie. Maddie Thomas. My daughter, June, is around here somewhere, but with any luck, she won’t surface for hours. Are you really from Canada?”

Lila sent an accusing look Ford’s way—so fierce and so familiar. “No, I’m not. I’ve never even set foot outside the United States.”

Maddie laughed. Like Danica, she’d interpreted the pirate theme to include an excess of jewelry, which meant her long, gold earrings clanked as she did. “I always suspected he made that up just to screw with us. He does that, you know.”

Once again, Ford pictured a deep, tumultuous ocean in which he could cast these two well-meaning women. She couldn’t have picked a worse comment to make—or a worse woman to make that comment to. Lila caught his eye and held it, her stare making him feel as though he’d just been pierced by the plastic sword she carried under the belt of her skirt.

“Believe me,” she said. “I know.”

“Helen has been singing your praises for weeks,” Danica said and wound an arm through Lila’s. “I’m dying to hear more about you and Ford.”

With that ominous statement, she started dragging Lila away from the living room toward the kitchen, where several more women of his acquaintance and a literal cask of grog awaited. That particular combination was one Ford feared more than life itself. Those women would confirm every last one of his bad qualities, and at considerable length. He was frivolous and untrustworthy. He flirted with every single mom at school functions. He once ran a kissing booth at the school fair and made over five hundred dollars in under an hour.

And worst of all—he lied.

Oh, not about anything that mattered, and not to hurt people, but there was no denying it any longer. Since the day Janine had packed up and left, he’d never been perfectly honest with anyone. He spoke the truth, yes, but never in a way that would open him up to censure. Not in any way that would open him up to pain. By hiding his real self behind laughter and flirtation, he’d avoided the one thing that had the power to hurt him the most.

How was that for irony? He’d spent almost six years avoiding this soul-rendering pain, yet here he stood, suffering each agonizing twinge.

“There seem to be an awful lot of women at this party.” Patrick sidled up next to him and stood surveying the gathering. As was Helen’s custom, she’d packed her house to capacity and made no attempts to stem the festive air. Ford guessed there was about a ninety percent chance that the tree would end up toppled before the night’s end. Last year, it had been a seven-foot cardboard T. rex that took the fall. “Kids, too.”

“Welcome to my world.” Ford took the red plastic cup being offered him and held it up in a mock toast. “Or my world as it now stands, anyway.”

Patrick chuckled. “Will you miss it?”

The question surprised him—and not just because it was coming from a man he’d never considered a close friend. He’d been so caught up in what the move to Seattle would mean for Emily that he’d forgotten what it would mean for him. Not just leaving Lila behind, but leaving all these women behind, too. For so long, they’d been his only support system, his onlyfriends. They were a more valuable resource than the gold they’d decked themselves out in for the night, and he had no idea what he’d do without them.

“Like you wouldn’t believe,” he confessed. “I can’t tell you how many times these women have come to my rescue, and with no thought of anything in it for themselves. It’s strange. I know I’m supposed to want stability, especially for Emily’s sake, but I’m starting to wonder if all that economic prosperity is overrated. Why would anyone give this up?”

He cast a look around the hot, crowded room as he said this. To someone unfamiliar with these women and everything they had to offer, it might seem strange that he would prefer a tiny house on a tiny street where he could live a tiny life of his own making, but he did.