Anything for Her(22)

When Allie finally waved goodbye to her last customer of the day and closed out the cash register, her mood was strange. Yet there was really no reason to feel such a way.

She’d been exceptionally busy today, and nearly everyone had spent money. With the sale of the quilt added in, she had no doubt she would find the receipts would be her new record. And she’d been able to see Nolan, even if their visit had been cut short. Lately she’d felt a little low in the morning of any day when she knew she wouldn’t see him.

Maybe that was why she felt so unsettled.

We’re dating. We’re having fun. I think I’d like to make love with him.

That was all perfectly normal. So why did she sometimes wonder if the changes he was bringing to her life might not end up doing some damage?

I’m a mess, she admitted to herself, and identified part of her fear: Nolan wanted to know her, and how did she dare let him guess how shallow that self was?

* * *

“HAVE I EVER had a pet?” Dumb question to induce panic, but it had. It was one of those stupid things that made her run a mental check. Taboo, or not taboo? Answer: not. “Um, yes. Not for a long time, though. Why?”

Naturally, it was Nolan who had asked in one of the phone calls she’d begun to live for. They usually came around bedtime. Sometimes they talked for an hour, sometimes only long enough to exchange brief snippets about their days, to say without words, I was thinking about you. He always kept his voice quiet, and she suspected he waited until Sean had disappeared into his bedroom to call. She hadn’t mentioned these conversations to her mother, either.

“I want to get Sean a dog,” Nolan said, sounding pleased with himself. “I thought we’d visit shelters this weekend.”

“Did he ask for a dog?”

“No, but I’ve seen him stop to pet them. He and his grandmother had some kind of terrier mix. I don’t know what happened to it. I hope it died before she did.”

Allie knew exactly what he meant. On top of everything else, he’d feel guilty if the poor, bewildered dog had been taken to a shelter in the wake of Sean’s grandma’s death.

“You didn’t ask?”

“The dog was mixed in with other topics. I try to let him tell me the hard things when he’s ready.”

She wondered if he sensed how deep her empathy for his foster son ran. She should hope not, because there was no way he’d understand it. What did a twenty-eight-year-old businesswoman have in common with any fourteen-year-old boy, never mind one with Sean’s background?

Nothing, that’s what.

Too much.

“I thought maybe you’d like to come,” Nolan said. “You can advise us.”

How a voice so low and rumbly could also be coaxing, she couldn’t have said. But she found herself reluctantly smiling.

“Out of my great store of knowledge? Didn’t you ever have a dog?”

“My mother didn’t like them. She always had a Persian cat. You notice I said she. These were not kid-friendly pets. They made great pillows, but that’s about all you could say for ʼem. Dumb as a box of rocks—and I know my rocks.” Amusement suffused that voice now. “Softer, though. I remember one that I was never sure could actually walk. I swear Mom would carry that damn cat to the litter box and then back again to its throne.”

Curled up in her easy chair, Allie laughed at the image.

“Not exactly a growing boy’s dream pet.”

“A dog was bound to chase the cat, Mom insisted. I thought some exercise would do the cat good.” Plainly, he liked making her laugh. He wasn’t being entirely serious now. “That was assuming the dog ever noticed that the fluffy peach-colored mound at the end of the sofa was alive.”

“So why didn’t you get a dog the minute you left home?”

He was quiet for a minute. “Too busy, I guess. Ironically, I do have cats.”

“No!” she gasped in mock surprise.

“Make fun of me, will you.” There was the amusement again. “They showed up on my property about two years ago, a couple of scrawny half grown, half wild mongrels. Can a cat be a mongrel? Anyway, they’re only distant relations to my mother’s cats. I figured somebody dumped them. So I started putting food out, trapped ’em before the female threw a litter of kittens. They’re still mostly outdoor cats. They let me pet them, but haven’t decided whether to trust Sean yet.”

“A dog might chase them,” she pointed out.