followed. “She’ll be gone a while longer, though, handing out cookies and catching up with Geneva. In the meantime, would you mind taking Mutley out for that walk?”
Jax, still bewitched and bewildered, was grateful for the distraction. “No,” he said. “Not at all.”
They went downstairs, closely followed by Mutley. He was aging—at least ten, Jax figured—and obviously going deaf. The name suited him, since he was of no discernible breed. Millicent produced a leash, attaching it deftly to the dog’s collar.
“When you get back,” Millicent said, “you can have a look at that bathroom door.”
“Er—right.”
“Wonderful!” Millicent trilled. “Now, I have something in the oven, so please excuse me. I don’t want it to burn. It’s for the church bake sale.”
Mutley was waiting eagerly, tail sweeping back and forth.
Jax smiled and bent to ruffle the dog’s ears. “I guess we’re out of here,” he said.
Mutley all but dragged Jax to the front door. There was some terrier in the little guy, he decided. Maybe some spaniel. Could be some border collie in there, too. He was probably too small to be part Airedale...
Jax was like that. He analyzed.
By then, Mutley was definitely ready to roll; he was high-jumping at the door.
“Whoa, slow down,” Jax said with a grin. Good thing he’d never gotten around to taking off his coat. “The great out of doors isn’t going anywhere, buddy.”
It was snowing again, not blizzard-style like last night, but in fat, showy flakes, drifting lazily from a heavy sky.
It all looked perfect. Too perfect.
For a short while, though, he could pretend that walking Mutley was his job. Ditto, fixing the latch on the upstairs bathroom door.
Yep. He could do that.
That and a whole lot more, if Charlotte gave him half a chance.
What he had to do now was relax, trust, let things unfold.
Easier said than done. After all, he’d made a huge emotional investment, moving to Mustang Creek, pretty much staking the rest of his life on a relationship that might be one-sided.
Still, he thought, watching Mutley trot through the snow at the end of his leash, it hadn’t seemed one-sided last night. He was hardly a player, but he knew when a woman was thinking about sex, especially when that woman was Charlie. She’d been...well, thinking.
There was a chance, a good one. If he’d believed there wasn’t, he wouldn’t be here, walking Charlotte’s aunt’s dog through mountains of snow. Wouldn’t be looking forward to starting the new job, finding a place to live, any of that.
There he went, analyzing again.
Time to shake it off. “So what do you think, Mut? Am I wrong? Stupid? A stalker?”
The dog didn’t even look at him, just pitched his ears forward, sniffed the sidewalk and wagged his tail.
No help there.
He was on a conversational roll, though, so he went right on talking. “Let me ask you something else. What should I get her as a gift? Charlotte, I mean.”
Mutley turned, spotted a dog across the street and tried to make a break for it, barking excitedly.
Jax had to laugh. The other dog looked like a beagle mix to him.
A sign?
Okay, part of his shopping list was done.
Charlotte was getting a puppy for Christmas.
THE FIRST THING Charlotte saw when she got back to the house was Jax’s truck parked at the curb.
Now, that was interesting.
Charlotte pulled into the driveway and marched up the steps. She’d forgotten her phone, unheard of for a businesswoman, especially one who worked in advertising. Or used to. She acknowledged grudgingly that if he’d called, she wouldn’t have been able to answer. Usually that phone was her constant companion; she’d carried it everywhere for the past seven years.
Strange how she’d left the thing behind and never missed it. At least, not until she’d decided to call and ask Millicent if she needed anything from the store.
There was a certain freedom in her new circumstances and she knew that, but she mustn’t lose perspective. She’d just arrived, and there was a lot of important stuff on her personal agenda.
Now was probably not the best time to embark on a relationship with an all-too-attractive veterinarian. She needed to get the house in order; she needed to get her life in order, look after her aunt and Mutley and Can-Can, too.
She got out of her rental car—which needed to be returned and replaced with a vehicle of her own. As she did, she heard that familiar woof and turned around to look. What was Millicent thinking, going out with the dog when the sidewalks were still icy in some places and totally impassible in others? She could break a hip, for heaven’s sake!
Only it wasn’t Mrs. Klozz.
No, it was Jax, coming her way.
Mutley was with him, straining at his leash, wagging his tail in welcome, eyes luminous with joy at the sight of Charlotte, as if she’d been gone for years, not an hour and a half. Jax’s boots crunched the snow, and the hint of a smile curved his lips. He drawled in what he must imagine was a cowboy accent, “Howdy, Miz Morgan. Shore is a fine day, ain’t it?”
It was, actually, now that the blizzard had passed, replaced by a gentle snowfall.
The mountains were gorgeous in their glistening blanket of white against the softened sky—a sky that would be the same piercing shade of blue as Jax’s eyes, once the clouds parted.
She wished she hadn’t thought of that but, when it came to Dr. Locke, her mind, normally so well organized and reasonable, tended to run wild.
“Um, yes, it is.” She frowned. Why was he here? “Did I leave something at the hotel?”
“No.” He leaned down and caught the dog by the collar just in time to keep Mutley from flinging himself at Charlotte in his exuberance and covering her in slushy paw prints. When he straightened, Jax asked seriously, “How was your aunt?”
“Fine.” Charlotte eyed him suspiciously. “It’s nice of you to walk Mutley, but what are you doing here?”
“Can we discuss this inside?” he asked. “The storm of the century might be over, but it’s still pretty chilly out here.”
The expression on Jax’s handsome face was a touch too innocent, Charlotte felt as she opened
