Page 79 of Ruff and Tumble

“Oh, they’re not here for the show,” Cole assured her. He turned to the men and added in a slightly louder tone, “The puppies in blue bandannas are mine. Hailey’s are in red. This little guy here is already spoken for, and I doubt Garrett will give up Cleopatra without a fight, but the rest are up for grabs. The more of you who adopt a puppy, the more our luck increases.”

He lifted a brow at Hailey. “Unless you’ve started adopting them out already?”

Understanding was beginning to dawn—and with it, an anger unlike any she’d felt before.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she hissed.

“This is what you wanted, isn’t it? For the puppies to find good homes?” He gestured at his team members, who were starting to disperse in pursuit of the various animals running around the warehouse. “They won’t find better homes than these.”

“You can’t bring a bunch of men in here and start handing out puppies. That’s not how any of this works.”

Some of the confidence started leaking out of his expression. “They’ll go through all the regular channels, of course. Fill out the forms, pay the fees, whatever.” He tried for a grin, but it fell wide of its mark. “You once said that the puppies don’t do teams or competitions, either, but we’ve come this far without a hitch.”

Without a hitch?Was he serious? She’d spent the past three nights sleeping on her floor because she couldn’t stomach the idea of lying in the bed or on the couch where they’d once shared so much. Philip spent all his waking and sleeping hours curled up next to Rufus by the front door, certain that Cole would walk through it any minute.

Worst of all were the half-dozen messages on her phone from Cole’s parents. They were worried about her and how she was handling the press. Mia wanted a playdate with Rufus, if it wasn’t too inconvenient. They wanted to know if she could come over for dinner on Friday and were terribly sorry but the Wegmores would be there, so could she please bring some kind of French wine to shut them up?

She’d finally called Paula back over that last one with a pathetic excuse about nonexistent preexisting plans—and even that had been a disaster. No sooner had Cole’s mom offered to reschedule the entire dinner for Saturday than Hailey had to feign a disconnection or risk sobbing the whole story into the phone.

“You coward,” she said, the words shooting out before she could stop them.

He started, obviously expecting a different response. “I don’t think you understand. The puppies will have homes now. Not temporary ones but real ones. Forever ones. I only brought the guys who were willing to go all the way in. Even Garrett says he’ll have a hard time giving Cleopatra back after this.”

As if just remembering that Garrett wasn’t the only football player who had recently become a foster parent to a four-legged friend, Cole reached down and gave Philip a loving pat. “I was hoping he could come home with me today.” Quieter this time, he added, “I was hoping you both could.”

“Coward,” she repeated, mostly for the strength it gave her. She wanted so badly to fall under his spell again, to let him lull her with his strength and his goodness and his wonderful, beautiful family, but she held herself firm. “I’m not going anywhere with you, and neither is Philip. In fact, none of these puppies are leaving this warehouse with anyone except their handlers, so you might as well call your team off.”

“But…” He lifted his good hand toward her and dropped it again, devastation in every line of his bearing. “You love these puppies. Everything you do is for them.”

“That’s because they’re all I have, remember?” she asked, hands on her hips. If his wince was any indication, her words hit home, but she wasn’t done. “I’m all alone in the world except for them. Or—wait—that wasn’t quite it, was it? I don’t have a family, but I also don’t have arealdog either. I can’t commit to one.”

“You’re twisting my words,” Cole protested. “I know I said… I’m aware that I acted…Dammit, Hailey. I’m trying to do the right thing here.”

She knew he was, which was why her chest hurt so much. He was operating at peak Cole Bennett, swooping in with a grand gesture to make her heart gopitter-pat. He’d save her puppies. He’d save her show. He’d smile and get his way, and everything would fall exactly where he wanted it to.

And it might work—for a little while, anyway—and they could even find some happiness together. But Hailey had learned a long time ago that big words and big gestures weren’t what made the most impact. She didn’t need a Kickoff Cup win or a huge puppy-adopting coup. She didn’t need a professional quarterback with million-dollar hands and a billion-dollar smile.

Those things were nice, obviously, but more than that, she needed someone to sit patiently in front of a television with her, teaching her the rules of football because it was the only thing he could think of to bring her out of her shell. She needed someone to make her pancakes every Sunday morning—Lumberjacks-shaped or not—and talk to her about her day as though it were the most important thing in the world. She needed someone to hold her tight and kiss her forehead and tell her that she was worth being loved.

Because she was worth being loved. Shewas.

“Do you want to know the real reason why I don’t adopt any of the dogs I foster, Cole?” she asked, tears pricking at her eyes. The last thing she wanted to do was cry at work—and with an audience of thirty pro football players, no less—but she was going to anyway. She always did. “Do you know why I’m so determined to see these little guys placed somewhere safe?”

“Tell me,” he said, his voice hoarse.

So she did.

“You know that my dad died when I was nineteen, right?” She didn’t wait for him to nod. If she stopped, if she let the thick feeling of oppression in her throat take over, she’d never get the rest out. “Well, the part you don’t know is that he wasn’t my dad until I was twelve years old. Legally, he wasn’t my dad until I was thirteen, but we always celebrated the day he became my foster parent, not my legal guardian.”

Cole’s look of surprise was very real—and all the more difficult to see because of it. “Hailey, I didn’t—”

She held up a hand to stop him. “You didn’t know. I’m aware of that. No one does. It’s not something I talk about very often, but I’m telling you now. I never knew my birth parents. I entered the system before my first birthday and stayed there for twelve long years. I lived in foster homes and group homes, grew up alongside dozens of kids whose lives were just like mine. Sometimes, I liked where I lived. Other times, I didn’t. There was this one house, though, that I can remember from really early on. It was before I started school, so I must have been about Mia’s age at the time.”

Cole winced, and Hailey could tell that the reference to his niece hit home.

“Yeah. It’s a rough life for a kid that age. But that particular home was nice—reallynice, and I thought for a while that I might get to stay there forever.” She shrugged. “But the mom, a doctor, got relocated to another state, so that was the end of it. I still think about them, though. How nice they were, how loving, and for no reason other than because it was the right thing to do. It’s one of the only memories I have of a woman hugging me. Can you believe that? People don’t really think about it, but that’s the one thing kids in the system miss the most. Touch. Hugs. Affection.”

She really was crying now, and she was pretty sure that she was speaking loud enough for several of the people around them to overhear, but she didn’t care. She was tired of trying to be someone she wasn’t, of being ashamed of the emotions that rose—literally—to the surface. Penny seemed to like her for who she was. Jasmine, too. Not to mention her dad.