A Convenient Proposal(13)

“Got it.” The elevator doors opened at the garage level, and she held the door while he stepped out. “That makes me anxious to see what kind of car you do drive.”

“The car was an indulgence, I admit.” She led the way down the aisle of vehicles. “But I’ve kept it for six years now, and it still moves like there’s a wild animal under the hood.”

Griff stood motionless, an expression of reverence on his face, when she indicated the gold Jaguar and popped open the trunk. “I was hoping this would be yours.” He set the suitcases and Igor’s bag inside, along with the small bag he’d retrieved from a locker when returning the rental boat. “Do I get to drive?”

Arden held out the keys. “Be my guest.”

Before he went to the driver’s side, he opened the passenger door for her. But she hadn’t even started to move when Igor jumped in and took his usual place on the right front seat.

Griff looked from her to Igor and back again. “I have a feeling he won’t appreciate any effort on my part to move him to the back.”

The warning light in the dog’s eyes confirmed that assumption. “Get in the back,” Arden told him. “Go, Igor. In the back.”

Instead, he curled into the tan leather seat and put his chin on his paws.

“No, Igor.” She snapped on the leash. “I’m riding there.” She tugged. “Down. Get down.”

Expressing reluctance with every line of his body, Igor climbed out of the car. Arden opened the back door and indicated the seat with her leash hand. “Get in, Igor. In the car.”

He jumped in easily enough. As she started to close the door, though, he climbed over the console to reclaim his place in the front passenger seat.

Griff laughed as Arden stamped her foot. “Igor, no.”

She went through the process twice more, with the same result each time. “Igor!”

“Maybe you ought to drive for a while,” Griff suggested. “I’ll ride in the back.”

Appalled at the idea, Arden gazed at him for a long moment. “What did you say when your fiancée told you she couldn’t go through with the wedding?”

With his hands in his pockets, he shrugged one shoulder. “Um…not much.”

“You didn’t argue? Try to change her mind?”

“I doubt that would have been worth the effort. She and ol’ Al looked pretty good together.” He rubbed a hand over his hair, rumpling it into curls. “I’d never noticed that before, in all the time we spent together. Maybe I should have.”

“You just left town?”

“Ran away. Yeah.” He avoided her gaze, turning his head to look at the cars on either side of them. “I couldn’t stay to have people feel sorry for me.”

Arden didn’t tell him just how well she understood that perspective. Griff would want to know why. “Well, you are driving, so Igor and I will simply have to come to some kind of agreement about the other seats.” Keeping a tight hold on the leash, she sat down quickly in the front, pushed a button to move the seat as far back as possible, then allowed the dog to jump in at her feet.

“We’re set,” she said. “Ready to go?”

“Sure.” But the shadows hadn’t left Griff’s gaze. He closed the passenger door and rounded the back of the car, then slid into the driver’s seat. “Georgia, here we come.”

His rich voice conveyed no enthusiasm whatsoever.



THANKS TO THE HOLIDAY and New Year’s Day football games, the lanes on Interstate 95 were practically empty of traffic.

“The only problem is holding down the speed,” Griff remarked. “This baby wants to go fast.”

Arden smiled. “That’s why I bought it.”

“Eighty feels like forty. We could be in Jacksonville in time for dinner if I let her run full throttle.”

“With only two or three speeding tickets to show for the trip.”

“True.” He eased his pressure on the gas pedal and set the cruise control. “I’d have a hard time getting back to work with a suspended driver’s license.”

She turned her knees so she could sit sideways in the seat. “You said you’re a veterinarian. Do you work in an office?” Igor huffed as she changed position, then wiggled himself into another arrangement of legs and head and bushy tail.

“We see small animals in the office in Sheridan. But we also see large animal clients, usually at their farms, and for those we take an SUV with the equipment and supplies we need.”