The Secret Seduction

Fletcher shrugged, his emotions as tightly under wraps as hers were on the surface. “My guess is the canine equivalent of severe food poisoning. I think he’d been eating out of garbage cans while he was on the lam and got something particularly nasty, which isn’t surprising in the summer heat. Bacteria grows like wildfire. Anyway, he’s on the mend now, and I’ve got to find a new home for him.” The playful grin was back on Fletcher’s face as their eyes meshed again. “I spoke to him about it this morning and he told me he kind of fancied the pretty blonde who had been in here hassling me yesterday, so I promised N.L. I’d propose pet adoption to you.”

Very funny. And designed to pull on my heartstrings. “He can’t talk,” Lily pointed out.

“Come on.” Fletcher assumed the boldly enthusiastic tone of an aggressive salesperson. “Look at those big brown eyes and tell me you don’t know what he’s thinking.”

That was the problem—Lily did. And it was breaking her heart to admit she was not the person for the job. A dog like Spartacus needed someone knowledgeable in canine care. Telling herself it was for the best, Lily turned away. “Have you talked to his previous neighbors?” she asked.

Frustration tightened the corners of Fletcher’s mouth. “They’re all in their golden years. None of them can handle a three-year-old Labrador retriever who is going to have plenty of energy as soon as he recovers all the way.”

Lily nodded in understanding, even as she forced herself to harden her heart. “I’m sorry about his owner,” she said sincerely.

“So is N.L.” Fletcher knelt down and opened the cage. The Lab struggled to his feet, and clamored out on wobbly legs. Spartacus’s tail wagged, then stopped as he caught the wary expression on Lily’s face.

“But I can’t help you with this, Fletcher,” Lily continued firmly as the Lab sat down in front of them and looked up. “But maybe you could take him,” Lily suggested as Spartacus continued to gaze at them woefully.

“Can’t,” Fletcher said, his attitude every bit as stubbornly resistant as her own. “I live in an apartment. This dog needs a house and a yard.”

Lily crossed her arms in front of her. Spartacus’s well-being aside, she resented the way Fletcher was trying to make this her problem. “Like the one I live in, I suppose,” she said dryly.

Fletcher’s golden-brown eyes gleamed. “It is big.”

“It’s huge.” And way too much for one person, Lily thought. But the property, which had been in her family for generations, had been entrusted to her, so she couldn’t sell it any more than she could get rid of Madsen’s Flower Shoppe. But none of that had anything whatsoever to do with what was going on here. “And I still don’t buy your excuse for not taking him since there are walking trails that lead to the park that start right across the square.” Fletcher could manage if he wanted.

“Only one problem with that,” Fletcher shot back while Spartacus sat patiently at their feet, his head moving back and forth like that of a person watching a tennis game. “When I’m not here at the clinic working, I’m out on ranches and farms, taking care of large animals.”

“So get Spartacus obedience trained to the highest level by your cousin Susan Hart—” who was famous for her work with search-and-rescue dogs “—and take him literally everywhere you go. You’re certainly in a business conducive to it.”

Fletcher rejected her suggestion with the same fervor he attached to her desire to date Carson McRue. “A good vet knows better than to get emotionally attached to his patients.”

“So, adopt Spartacus and get another vet to take care of him,” Lily said.

“N.L. is relying on me to get him well.” Fletcher reached down to pet his head, and was rewarded with a single but heartfelt thump of tail. Fletcher straightened and stepped forward slightly, further invading her space. “Besides, there is no room in my life for a dog,” he told her, looking deep into her eyes, his smile widening once again. “You, on the other hand, could use the company and protection a big handsome dog like Spartacus offers. He’s been through a lot, losing his owner and all. So he’s going to need a lot of TLC, especially for the first few weeks.”

Lily stepped back a pace, putting a necessary distance between them. “Thereby putting the kibosh on my pursuit of Carson McRue?” she volleyed right back.

Fletcher nodded solemnly. “You know what they say. For all worthwhile endeavors, sacrifices must be made.”

Lily rolled her eyes. “You’re shameless. You know that?”

Fletcher grinned but didn’t deny it as the phone rang in the other room. Abruptly sobering, he said, “Look, just stay with him for a few minutes, will you?” Fletcher rushed off to answer it.

Spartacus scooted closer. He looked up at Lily with those big sad eyes, silently beseeching her, and wreaking havoc on her tender heart.

“I really have to go,” Lily called after him. She was not going to do this. She was not….

Hadn’t she promised herself she wouldn’t let anyone or anything else tie her down, or distract her from having fun, fun, fun? She did not need to be sitting home babysitting a traumatized dog, no matter how lovable…. She needed to be out, fancy-free, kicking up her heels, recovering her lost youth….

“I mean it, Fletcher Hart!” Lily continued.

Fletcher stuck his head back in the room, the still ringing cordless clutched in his hand, his expression reproving. “Really, Lily. What’s two minutes petting Spartacus going to cost you?”

“I KNOW WHAT he’s doing,” Lily told Spartacus as the door shut behind Fletcher, and she heard him start talking on the phone. Unable to help herself, she bent down and gently petted the silky soft back of Spartacus’s blond head. “He’s trying to get me to bond with you so I’ll want to adopt you and take you home with me. That might be a good idea in theory because the old mausoleum I live in could use a little livening up. But the truth is that I’m not sure I still have any love left to give.”

Lily swallowed hard around the ache that rose in her throat. “Losing Grandmother Rose was so hard. I kept thinking I’d feel better.” But instead she had remained so numb inside. So depressed and alone and hopeless, all at once. Lily stroked him behind the ears, and heard him give a little moan in the back of his throat, not so very different from a cat’s purr. But unlike a cat, a species known for its aloofness, Spartacus seemed to want desperately to attach himself to her. And Lily understood that, too. She desperately missed having a family to call her own; the party at Helen Hart’s the night before had reminded her of that. “But then I guess you know a lot about that, too, don’t you?” Lily continued softly, still petting the extremely gentle-natured dog. “Having lost the only family in your own life.”

“Okay—” Fletcher burst back in, abruptly all business “—you can go now.”

The only problem, Lily thought, was that she didn’t want to go, since she and Spartacus were just starting to get acquainted.

“I mean it.” Fletcher shooed her toward the door. “Hasta la vista, baby. Vamoose. See you around.”

Lily straightened with as much dignity as she could manage, wishing she were a lot taller than five foot five inches. She propped both her hands on her hips and demanded indignantly, “Where did you learn your manners?”

“Didn’t,” Fletcher retorted briskly. “Can’t you tell?”

Lily blew out an exasperated breath, unsure whether she wanted to kiss him again or kick him in the shin. “Some things are glaringly apparent.” To her frustration, he looked pleased—instead of annoyed—by her insult, as if there was nothing he would rather do than work her into a temper and stand there trading insults with her. Spartacus, however, just looked upset to see her leaving. Her heart clenching, despite her efforts to stay emotionally uninvolved, Lily paused at the door. She swallowed hard around the ache in her throat. “Seriously, Fletcher, what is going to happen to N. L. Spartacus?”

The mirth left Fletcher’s expression. “I can keep him here another day or so.”

Lily’s heartbeat sped up another notch. “And then what?” she demanded.

He regarded her steadily. “Like you said, it’s really not your problem, Lily.”

Silence fell between them, more poignant than ever.

“I’m hoping to find a family for him,” Fletcher continued seriously.

“And if you don’t?”

He regarded her brusquely. “That’s not something you need to worry about.”

“Then why did you introduce me to him, bring me over here, have me pet him?” Lily demanded.

Abruptly, the artifice, the teasing fell away. Lily thought she got a glimpse of the real, unguarded man behind his customary mask of cynicism and what-the-hell playfulness. “Because I thought—” A shadow passed over Fletcher’s eyes. His expression tightened as he swept a hand through his hair. “It doesn’t matter what I thought,” he told her in a gruff voice, as Spartacus went back to sit on Fletcher’s foot. “I was wrong.”

AN HOUR AND A HALF later, Lily discussed the situation with the other bridesmaids as they congregated at a department store in Crabtree Mall in Raleigh, trying on shoes for Janey’s wedding. “He’s trying to get me to fall in love with N. L. Spartacus.”

Janey eyed her. “Seems to be working.”

“He thinks if I have a dog I can’t continue to try and win my bet with you-all.” Lily turned to Susan Hart, Janey’s cousin. “Which is why I was thinking…maybe you could take him?” Susan not only operated her own kennels on her farm outside Holly Springs, she headed up the North Carolina Labrador Retriever Rescue Association.

Susan, a voluptuous thirtysomething with champagne blond hair, shook her head wistfully. “I wish I could. But I’m at capacity and then some right now, with dogs that are coming into Labrador Retriever Rescue. You know how it is. Everyone wants their kid to have a puppy at Christmas. Six to nine months later they realize maybe this is too much work after all, and they just take the dog to the pound.”

Emma sucked in a breath. “That’s terrible.”

“I know,” Susan agreed. “But a lot of the dogs I get are able to be either adopted out to good homes, or trained to work with police and fire departments around the state. But it takes time to make a placement. Dogs that have been abandoned—like Spartacus—have issues, and require an awful lot of tender loving care, to feel secure again. That’s why Fletcher won’t take him—he doesn’t have the time to give Spartacus the TLC he needs.”

“Or so he says,” Lily grumbled, wishing Fletcher hadn’t made it seem to her like she was N. L. Spartacus’s only hope. He had to know—from the way she had let her own needs and desires go unmet when she was taking care of her grandmother—what a soft touch she was. And how very hard it was for her to say no to someone who asked for her help, even when it was for the best. She also wished Spartacus hadn’t looked at her with such sad, lonely eyes.