Playing for Keeps (Heartbreaker Bay #7)(21)

Caleb headed into work, which had always been his happy place. He could lose himself there; solve problems, create solutions, whatever was needed and not give his personal life—or lack of one—a single thought.

Not the case today. Today he couldn’t multitask to save his life. All he could do was think about Sadie. The people in his life tended to fit into mental compartments. Employees. Friends. Dates. His family. And in spite of the overabundant richness his life had turned out to be, and all the good people in it, he was alone. He’d never put it into words before, the restlessness in him, but he did so now.

He was sick of being alone.

And Sadie knew what that was like. He’d seen it with how she interacted with her coworkers and friends. They cared about her, but they didn’t understand her, and because of that, she kept a part of herself from them.

He recognized that. He understood that.

As a general rule, he didn’t do denial. He was attracted to her, hugely so. What he didn’t know was what to do with it. The things in his life balanced and added up. But not Sadie. She wasn’t an account or a number or a company. She was a complicated person who represented a puzzle that he couldn’t seem to solve.

Some of it was just sheer physical chemistry. But it was also more. He . . . liked her, a lot. He wanted to know more about her, wanted to spend time and see where this thing went.

Did she feel the same way? He had absolutely no idea. She was very good at hiding her emotions when she wanted to—even more than him, and that was saying something.

She, unlike anyone else he’d ever met, had him off his game. She was fiercely independent and incredibly private and had a lot of walls built up around her, hiding he had no idea what. Walls she had no intention of lowering for him.

And now they owned a dog together.

He’d brought Lollipop to work with him because he hadn’t wanted to leave her alone at his house all day, but also to introduce her to his sisters and find out why the hell he wasn’t allergic to dogs. Unfortunately, Sienne and Hannah were off-site today. Kayla was on maternity leave, busy growing her second baby. And Emory was in New York, having finally gone after her dream of going to graduate school.

His two admins helped him by dog sitting during his meetings, and Lollipop soon had his entire staff in love with her. As often as he could, he sent Snaps to Sadie. She didn’t reply to any of them but he could see by the notifications that she opened each one immediately.

After work, he drove Lollipop home. Holding her hand, of course. When they got out of the car, she did her business on his front lawn. In three different spots. Seemed his dog liked to walk and poop at the same time.

“Maybe we should change your name to Poops A Lot,” he said.

She sat at his feet and panted up at him, quite pleased with herself.

Luckily for him, at that very moment his housekeeper and her teenage son came out of his place, clearly just finishing their weekly cleaning. Reaching into his pocket, he came up with two twenties and offered the dough to the kid to clean up after Lollipop. He turned to take her inside and found her eating something from the flower beds.

“Some other dog’s poop,” the kid said.

Caleb pulled out another twenty and the kid made sure the entire yard was a poop-free zone.

He was going to need more twenties.

Inside, he set up Lollipop’s bed in his living room, and then turned on the TV to make her feel comfortable. He checked his phone and found a text from Sadie.

Don’t let her sleep with you, it’s a bad habit you can’t undo.



No problem, since he had zero intention of sharing his bed. At least not with Lollipop. But not two minutes into an episode of one of his favorite car shows, Lollipop had figured out how to jump up onto the couch by climbing his legs like a jungle gym. With a proud-of-herself huff, she set her head on his thigh. “Okay, but don’t tell your mom.”

At eleven, he carried Lollipop to her bed, told her to stay, and then tried to escape to his bedroom.

Lollipop followed him.

He walked her back to her bed and then looked into her huge golden eyes. “You stay here and guard the house, okay?”

She whined softly, her tail tucked.

Hell. “Okay, I’ll guard the house. And I’ll watch TV with you for a little bit longer . . .”

Back to the couch they went. Several hours later, he found himself deep into a really great dream. A woman was in his lap.

Sadie.

She was licking her way along his jaw to his ear, whispering all the things she wanted to do to him. Oh yeah. He was all in. He opened his eyes and . . .

Came face-to-face with Lollipop, who wriggled her butt when he made eye contact.

“Okay,” he said seriously. “We need to talk. I might not have grown up with dogs, but I know I’m not supposed to cave to you. I’m the adult.” Rising from the couch, he once again walked her to her bed. “Goodnight,” he said firmly and then ruined it by kissing the top of her head.

But as it turned out, Lollipop had zero intentions of staying in the living room. It also turned out that his house was way too big. After walking the hallway from his bedroom to the living room with her no less than a hundred times, he finally figured out that his dog could out-stubborn him to the end of time. “You got that from your mom,” he said, setting up her bed next to his. He crouched down to meet her gaze. “You’re going to stay now, right?”