he suspected. His expression was so kind that she had to stop herself from blurting out the whole story. The impulse terrified her, and her heart slammed.
Dan regarded her gently for a while, then said, “If you ever want to talk about it, I’m here. I think I’m a pretty good friend.”
“I’m sure you are.” But she didn’t want to talk about it. She tried her best not to even think about it. “At least, you are when you don’t have puppies to get rid of.
What are you going to do with the rest of them?”
“Oh, I already found homes for them. Jazz was the only one left.”
“You stinker!”
He rose, laughing. “Hey, all I did was convince you to take a friend for life!” Still grinning, he went into his office.
Anna sat for a while longer, holding Jazz until the puppy’s eyelids began to droop. Then she put the dog in the carrier and locked the door. Poor little thing, she thought as she returned to her desk. It might be the natural way of things, but eight weeks seemed awfully young to be taken from your mother.
Not that her own mother had been worth much, she thought with a sudden burst of bitterness. The woman wasn’t even fit for the title of mother. No question but that she herself would have been better off if she’d been taken away at eight weeks.
At any time before she had turned twelve, in fact.
But she didn’t want to think about that. With great effort, she forced her attention back to her work.
An hour later, Dan emerged from his office. “I have to go over to the hospital. Candy Burgess had a severe gall bladder attack last night, and they’re doing surgery this morning. I promised to go by and sit with the family.”
“All right. Are you taking your pager?”
He pointed to his belt. “Got it. Also, I asked a guy to come by and take a look at the church roof. Last winter we had some serious ice damming.”
“I remember.”
“I want to see if there’s anything he can do to lessen it. He said he’d pop in when he had a minute and take a look, so if he gets here while I’m gone, will you show him where the damming was worst?”
“Sure.”
“Okay, then. You and Jazz have fun.” He headed for the door.
“Say hi to Candy for me.”
He was halfway out the door as she spoke, but he leaned back in. “If you want my opinion, it’s all that dieting she does that caused this. Remember all those news stories a few years back about liquid diets causing gall bladder disease? I don’t think it’s liquid diets in particular. I think it’s starving yourself that does it.”
“You might be right.”
His eyes twinkled suddenly. “Of course. I’m always right. People should listen to me more often. Bottom line is, God made some of us small and some of us tall, some of us skinny and some of us heavy, but we’re all beautiful in His eyes. And just for the record, I think all this weight consciousness is a conspiracy on the part of men to starve women into submission.”
She burst out laughing and heard his answering laugh as he hurried to his car. What a character! He was such a joy to work for—even if he had foisted a puppy on her.
Jazz was still soundly sleeping, and she found herself wondering how often she should walk the puppy. Probably every time it awoke, until she learned its schedule.
And she’d have to stop off at the store on the way home to get some puppy food and a leash and collar. The prospect gave her something interesting to look forward to.
In fact, she decided, Dan couldn’t have done a nicer thing for her than dropping that pup into her arms so she couldn’t resist.
She was thinking about doggie dishes and leashes, and wondering if she could take care of the shopping on her lunch hour, when a battered pickup pulled up out front. She watched with a suddenly pounding heart as Hugh Gallagher climbed out and walked up to the door. Her mouth went dry, and try as she might to tell herself she was overreacting, she couldn’t stop it. Had he come to see her?
He stepped through the door and gave her a wide, warm smile. “Miss Anna. How are you today?”
Before she could answer, Jazz, disturbed by the commotion, woke up and gave a squeaky bark. Hugh squatted immediately and looked into the cage. “Who’s this little fella?”
“That’s…um…that’s Jazz. Reverend Fromberg gave her to me.” Anna sounded as breathless as she felt, and hated herself for it. She wondered why Hugh was here, and was afraid to ask.
“Jazz? What a cute pup. Irish setter?”
“Partly.”
“A mutt, huh? Well, that just means she’ll be really smart, won’t you, girl? Can I take her out?”
“I guess.”
She watched as Hugh unlatched the cage and reached in with large, strong hands to lift the little pup gently. Jazz decided she liked him and started licking his chin at once. Anna felt a sharp stab of jealousy, then castigated herself for it.
Hugh rose and faced her, still holding the squirming puppy. “Dan asked me to come take a look at the church roof. Something about ice damming?”
“Oh, yes! He asked me to show you where the worst problems were.”
“Well, get your jacket on and let’s take a stroll. This little gal would probably love to get outside.”
“I don’t have a leash for her yet.”
“Just wait a minute. I can rig something with the rope in my truck that’ll do in a pinch.”
She rose to pull her jacket off the coat tree and found herself fascinated again by the sight of Cowboy walking away from her. He had such a nice…sway was the only word she could think of. Something that riveted her eyes to his flat backside and long legs. She felt a twinge deep inside that she hadn’t felt in a long, long time. Embarrassed color flooded her cheeks.
Uh-uh, she told herself. You know better than that, girl.
She pulled on the jacket and stepped outside, taking care to lock the office door after her.
It took only a minute for Hugh to fashion a slipknot leash for Jazz. The puppy was ecstatic to be outside and began to run this way and that, giving a squeaky bark of joy. Each time the loop around her neck started to tighten, she came to a swift halt.
“Smart little gal,” Hugh said, giving Anna a smile. “She won’t give you any trouble.” He handed her the end of the rope. “Now, where exactly were the worst problems?”
They walked slowly around the church, with Anna pointing out the places where the ice had dammed the snow and caused leaking inside.
“It was terrible last year,” she told him. “Reverend Fromberg went into the church one morning
