“What?” Lilah started guiltily. How the hell did everyone know this? “I don’t… I haven’t…”

“Main Street, Lilah,” Jade said patiently. “You might as well have sent a clip to You Tube yourself.”

Oh, good grief. “Dell said there was a check…?”

Jade laughed, but took mercy on her. “In his office.”

Lilah made her way through the crowded reception area to the offices. Dell wasn’t behind his big desk, but there was an envelope leaning up against his computer with her name on it. In it was the check for services rendered, plus three hundred bucks in cash. “Oh, hell no.”

“Not enough?” he asked, coming into the room. He was wearing scrubs and a white lab coat, both emphasizing his tall, lean form in a favorable way. His charming smile only added to his appeal. It was the smile of a man who knew it rendered most females stupid.

“Don’t you smile at me.” She pulled out the three hundred dollar bills and slapped them down on his desk. “I don’t take pity cash.”

“Noted, but that’s not what that is. It’s a loan.” Clearly seeing the ready denial on her face, he added softly, “We just want to help, Lilah.”

Damn if that didn’t melt her. “You can. By believing in me.”

“I do.”

She sighed and hugged him hard. “The kennels are doing better this year, really. I’m going to be fine.”

Hopefully.

He held her a minute, cheek pressed to the top of her head as he let out a long breath, a good indicator that she was being a pain in his ass. With a sigh of her own, she patted his chest, took the check, and left him. She was back at the main counter saying good-bye to Jade when the front door opened.

Brady strode inside, moving with that easy economical grace that spoke of a lifetime of discipline and military training. His T-shirt was snug around his broad chest and biceps, loose over his flat abs. He was streaked with grease and looking hot enough to be on the cover of Aviation as he stopped in front of Jade’s desk with a bundle in his hands. “Either of you know what the hell this is?”

Lilah took a look at the small brown dog, though its color might have been due more to the dirt and mud that was stuck to its tangled and matted fur. His floppy ears nearly covered his sweet soulful eyes. He sneezed once, hard, and then the ears did cover his eyes. With a violent shake of his head, they fell back into place.

“It was sitting in front of my truck,” Brady said, frowning.

“It’s a dog,” Jade said.

Brady lifted the scrawny, clearly neglected dog up a little higher and inspected it. It licked his chin.

“Aw,” Jade said. “He likes you.”

Brady looked so horrified, Lilah laughed.

Brady turned his head and narrowed his razor-sharp blue eyes on her. Probably he wasn’t used to being a source of amusement. Probably, mostly women just lay down at his feet and begged him to take them.

Not that she was even close to doing that. No siree. She had some pride. She did all of her begging in private.

“It looks hungry and thirsty,” Brady said. “And maybe he has a cold, I don’t know. I thought I’d bring him inside, out of the sun.”

Oh. Oh, damn. He cared.

Either she made a sound or he sensed her softening because he thrust the dog at her. “Here. I think it needs to be checked out by Dell.”

The dog wore a midnight blue rhinestone encrusted collar, though most of the rhinestones were missing: TWINKLES.

“Cute,” she said, but didn’t take the dog. She couldn’t have said why. She automatically gravitated to all animals, especially lost, hurting ones, but there was something so innately sweet about seeing the little thing in Brady’s big, capable hands.

“Twinkles,” Brady said with disgust. “It should be illegal to name a dog that.”

“Twinkles is a perfectly fine name for a little girl dog.”

Brady shifted the dog, rolling it easily over in his big hands, revealing his distinct boy parts.

“Oh,” Lilah said. “Huh. Well, maybe he’s named after someone.”

“Not my problem. You’re the humane society.” He was still holding out the thing as if maybe the dog was a ticking time bomb. “So it’s your job to take him, right?” He looked to Jade for confirmation of this.

“Yes,” Jade said. “We do get abandoned animals dropped off here all the time. Since we’re the biggest animal center in this part of the state, we get a lot of business from the outlying areas, so who knows where he could have come from. If there’s no owner to call, we get them to Lilah here.”

“Hopefully he has an owner nearby.” But Lilah could tell by the look of the little guy that he’d been on his own for a while, and in her experience that meant there’d probably be no owner forthcoming. “I’ll put up flyers and get it on the website.”

Brady nodded, looking a little impatient that neither she nor Jade had relieved him of his burden. “Here,” he said again.

She couldn’t explain even to herself why she did it. Temporary insanity owing to a severe lack of sugar. That, or a case of severe unfulfilled and overworked hormones, she decided as she turned the sign-in sheet toward him. Because how many times had he kissed her now? Three.

Three.

She felt like she was going to self-combust. And she’d even self-combusted in the shower that morning. “Dell’s pretty busy today, but I’m sure Jade can squeeze you in to see him at some point. Does your dog need any vaccines?”

Brady scowled. “My dog? Is that supposed to be funny?”

Lilah smiled and stepped on Jade’s foot when the receptionist opened her mouth to speak. “As I said, I’m sure Jade can work Twinkles in, but there’s a bit of a wait at the moment.”

Brady stared at her for a long moment. She’d bet that there’d been many who’d cowered beneath that look. And she might have, except that the pathetic little creature quaking in his big hands, the one her heart was dying to grab and snuggle, was looking up at him like he was salvation.

She recently felt the same way.

“You’re the humane society,” Brady said a little tightly.

“I am. And you know where my kennel is, if you decide to abandon the animal.”

Brady glanced down at the dog’s miserable face and his own took on a pained expression. “I didn’t abandon it. Someone else did. Christ,” he muttered when she just looked at him serenely. “Is this about me telling your ex you rear-ended my truck?”

“Cruz?” Jade asked, surprised.

“Cruz?” Brady slid a look at Lilah. “I was talking about Nick. How many exes do you have?”

“None of your business.”

“Two,” Jade told him. “She doesn’t get out much since her grandma passed on.”

“Really?” Lilah said to her, heavy on the disbelief. “You’re going to go there?”

Jade lifted a shoulder. “Sorry. It’s been a long day.”

Brady gave Lilah a long look she couldn’t begin to interpret to save her own life before turning to Jade. “Book me for the last appointment of the day. I’ll be back.” He glanced down at the dog. “He looks like he’s healthy enough to make it until then.” Clearly frustrated with the lot of them, he made his way back toward the door to leave, the dog tucked against his chest.

The sexy cuteness, Lilah thought. Oh good Lord, the sexy cuteness…

Jade was brows up. “What was that?” she whispered.

“Don’t start. And why did you bring my grandma into it?”

“It slipped out. I’m telling you. I need a nap. But seriously, what was that, making him keep the stray? What are you up to?”

Lilah watched Brady stop just outside the door and stare down at the dog in his arms. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Really? Because forgive me if I’m wrong,” the receptionist said dryly, “but I was under the impression that you take in all the neglected, forgotten animals around here.”

Lilah shrugged.

Jade’s smile came slow and proud. “You wanted him to suffer. Nice. So what did he do to you exactly-besides kiss you into apparent insanity?”