tears at bay. And that was saying something.
Margaret dropped the lead to the biggest of the two dogs and said, ‘Go, Nora. Go to Fenella!’
Fenella dropped to her knees and immediately embraced the large, creamy-haired goldendoodle. ‘You’re absolutely gorgeous, aren’t you lovely? Look, Max! Isn’t she gorgeous? No, I mean don’t look. She’s all mine!’ Then she burst into giggles and dug into her pocket to give Nora a treat. Nora took it then licked Fenella’s face.
There it was. A forever bond made in a second.
Euan was equally over the moon. Max had thought the lad would’ve tried to put on more of a cavalier attitude. Pretend he kind of liked the dog. But when the big old bandy-legged golden Lab bounded over to him and offered a paw? Instant love.
Max gave his jaw a rub then shoved his hand through his hair, willing the scrubbing on his scalp to keep the bottleneck of feelings exactly where it should be. Suppressed. Churning away in his gut. Wherever. Anywhere but on display.
‘It’s pretty amazing, isn’t it?’ Esme had appeared by his side without him noticing. Little magical Christmas nymph that she was. She probably had elf dust or something like that in the small treat pouches she had hanging off her belt. ‘I always cry.’
He looked down at her and, sure enough, she was wiping away a couple of tears. One glistening liquid diamond from each eye.
‘How do you do it?’
Her eyebrows furrowed together. ‘Match them up, you mean?’
He nodded.
‘That’s relatively easy. Well, you obviously have to have the dog trained up for the right job. Then I read the profiles that you send and…’ She gave an unreadable shrug. ‘I just get a feeling.’
Against his better judgement, he laughed. ‘Female intuition?’
Her eyes dropped to half-mast and moved from him to the dogs. ‘No. Past experience, a wealth of knowledge and a finely tuned instinct for my dogs and the types of people they’d suit.’
Well, that told him.
They silently watched Fenella and Euan play with their new dogs as Margaret showed them, in turn, how to get the dogs to sit, shake paws, high five. No doubt they’d get to the ‘serious stuff’ in a bit. For now, it was bonding time.
Damn. He hated to admit it but these two were experiencing exactly what he had hoped would happen when his mum had told him there was a new man in both of their lives. She’d organised a picnic in Glasgow’s Botanic Gardens. Proof, if he’d needed any, that this was no casual boyfriend and that he definitely wasn’t from their neighbourhood.
Max had brought along a football and a chest bursting with hope that this time he and his mum might’ve found ‘their guy’, as she’d liked to put it. She’d never brought men home. Said it wasn’t right as she wasn’t just seeing someone for herself. It was for both of them. She’d get Max the dad he deserved after she’d made such a poor choice the first time round.
A fresh wash of guilt poured through him. He should’ve told Esme he knew the developer. He’d tried to convince himself it didn’t matter because he would’ve fought whoever was trying to crush Plants to Paws. But there was a part of him that wanted to crush Gavin Henshall, too. No. Even that was wrong. Not crush, just…
‘Forgive him, Max.’
He looked across at Euan, whose dog was lolling on his lap, his tongue hanging out of his mouth, his eyes glued to Euan’s. He wanted that.
Bonding. He’d been desperate for it with Gavin.
And he was never going to get it.
Without his having noticed, Esme appeared beside him, her eyes solidly on Euan and Fenella.
‘I know,’ she said softly. ‘That’s why I do this. Pure love with absolutely nothing expected in return.’
He chanced a glance in her direction and when their eyes met? He saw it. The clear-eyed gaze of someone who understood exactly what it felt like not to be enough. And at that instant he fell a little bit in love with Esme Ross-Wylde, though every part of him knew there was no chance of a happy ending. Not for guys like him. Not with girls like her.
Esme shot him that impish grin of hers. ‘Right, then, pal. It’s your turn.’
‘My turn?’
‘Yup. We’ve got a dog for you to do some training with, so you don’t feel left out. He can stay in your room with you, just like the others’ will, or he can stay here in the kennels. On his own. Crying himself to sleep at night.’
‘Yeah, I don’t think so.’
Esme said nothing.
‘I live in a flat. I work all the time. I don’t have a life that’s got room for a dog.’
He decided not to remind himself that he’d made the life that didn’t have room for dogs, or other humans for that matter.
‘No one’s asking you to fall in love with him,’ Esme said neutrally. Her eyes told a different story. She was daring him not to.
‘Do what you must,’ Max said.
‘Nice attitude, mate.’
His stepfather’s voice rang loud and clear in his head. One of the many things he hadn’t been able to shake from his past. The low rumbling voice. The biting quips that never failed to make him feel lower than the mud on Gavin’s shoe. Time to earn your keep, mate. Pull up your socks, mate. Off to military school, mate. Maybe they’ll know what to do with you. As if he were a lost cause before Gavin had even tried to like him, let alone love him.
Euan’s laugh pulled him back into the room. He followed his eyeline, then heard Fenella get the giggles as they all watched Margaret jog in with the scruffiest puppy he’d ever seen. The little puppy was wearing miniature red velvet reindeer antlers and a jumper covered in snowflakes. He could’ve scooped the little mess of fur and quirky ears up in one hand and barely felt the difference. If he was into scooping up puppies and going all doe-eyed, that was.
Esme’s grin split into that superstar smile of hers. ‘Max? I’d like you to meet Dougal. Your very own fur buddy for the next fortnight.’
‘Ha-ha, very funny. Pair the big lunk with the tiny mongrel.’
Esme feigned dismay. She picked the puppy up and nuzzled him, holding his face to hers, both of their eyes all wide and innocent. ‘How on earth could you say no to this poor orphaned pup? All alone at Christmas with no one to love him?’
Hell. He knew what that felt like too. Esme was really punching each and every one of his buttons today and he wasn’t even on the patient roster. He felt Euan’s eyes on him and made the mistake of letting some of the hope in the lad’s eyes transfer to his own heart.
‘Hand him over.’ He held the puppy up so they were eye to eye. ‘It’s you and me, pal. What do you think of that?’ Dougal licked him on the nose and barked.
