A Daughter's Homecoming

“Whoa! I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you. I’m glad you’ve had such great experiences over the years. Is that why you decided to go into— Are you a vet?”

Great. This was going from bad to worse really fast. “Uh...no. I’m just someone who loves animals, have done every kind of job a shelter could throw at me, and found I was good at running one.”

She didn’t reply right away, and he cringed. Now that he thought of it, his explanation sounded really lame. What kind of idiot just sort of bumbles out of career disaster and into running an animal shelter?

A failed gourmet chef and restaurateur kind of idiot, that’s who. He sighed. “Well, it was great to see you again. I have a new intake who needs a whole lot of attention. See you soon.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her confusion. And who could blame her? They’d been talking like perfectly normal people, and then bam! He’d cut her right off.

“Yeah, see ya.” She picked up the squeak toy again. As he stepped out of the room, however, he saw her glance his way again. “Bye.”

Did he imagine it, or was she as reluctant to say goodbye as he was?

Nah. Couldn’t be. She was a kind, decent person and he was damaged.

He hurried toward the utility half of the building, wishing things might be different. Then he would’ve...

What would he have said to the very unsettling Gabriella Carlini?

* * *

Dumb. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

Why on earth had she gone back to the shelter? Why couldn’t she stay away?

The dog.

She really got a kick out of the stray, but she had to be honest. She’d wanted to see more than the little terrier. She’d wanted to see the shelter director, too.

Zach Davenport was a very attractive man. And more than just in looks. The way he cared for those animals was unexpectedly endearing. A man with such a heart was one Gabi couldn’t resist.

And she hadn’t really been trying to resist him. Even though she should. Gabi had to remember she was in Lyndon Point only to right the sinking ship otherwise known as Tony’s Pizzeria. She couldn’t afford to let her emotions get tangled up with the shelter, much less the shelter’s director.

“You’re here to turn the restaurant into a chic, gourmet Italian eatery,” she reminded herself as she marched back to Tony’s. “And to move Mama and Papa’s way of doing things into the twenty-first century.”

To accomplish any of that, she had to focus all her attention on stopping the restaurant’s downhill slide rather than on the intriguing man she’d just left. The sooner she had everything cleaned up and headed toward a better future, the sooner she could return to her real life, her job and her hard-won independence.