Page 19 of One Bossy Date
“I’m not grumpy.” I leaned my hip against the kitchen counter. “Just busy.”
“Sure.” She seemed unconvinced. “Look, thanks for the clothes. I’ll have them cleaned and sent back to you.”
“You’re not going to stick with the job?” I asked.
I hadn’t explicitly expected her to, but it was worth asking. Was she that scared of dogs that she’d turn down the business? I knew what Caroline had offered her, and I knew from the look of her bleak little boutique store that she could probably do with the cash.
She lifted an eyebrow in question. “You would want me to?”
“Sure.”
“Really? After all the mess I caused, you would still want me?”
“Why not?” I shrugged. It would take me less time to hire her than it would to find someone new.
“Well, my answer is no. Sometimes not even you can have everything you want.” She observed me challengingly.
My brows raised, though more out of amusement than offense. I couldn’t help but think of what I’d said to Dax earlier:She needs to be intelligent, challenging, strong-minded. What the hell? I must really be losing my mind if the sight of all that blinding yellow made me think about sex. “I don’t know what impression I’ve given you, but I certainly don’t always get what I want.”
“Pfft. This high and mighty attitude you’re sporting says otherwise.” She broke eye contact and started gathering her things. “People like you don’t have to struggle to get what you want the way people like me do. So, no, you’re not getting what you want this time—just like I’m not getting what I want.” She muttered that last part almost entirely under her breath.
All right, this was starting to feel like more than just business. I narrowed my eyes curiously. “What do you mean?”
She shook her head. It seemed she was more eager to teach me a lesson than anything else. “Just face it, you’re not getting me as a dog sitter. Just like I’m not getting what I want, which is to find a date to my gran’s birthday party.” Instead of looking at me, she focused on laying her wet clothes and underwear over her arm as she spoke.
“What? That’s hardly the same thing,” I argued. What a weird comparison, yet oddly specific. Clearly, this was a problem she’d had on her mind for a while.
“All right, I’m out. Have a nice life!” Heading for the door, she waved a peace sign over her shoulder.
“Hold on.” I knew I had to give a little if I was going to get something in return. I needed a dog sitter ASAP, and she’d just offered me a lever I could pull. “When is it?”
She stopped in her tracks, silent for a second, then peered at me over her shoulder. “I wasn’t being serious, Mr. Windham.”
“When is it?”
Taking a deep, steadying breath, she shifted to face me. “In two weeks.”
“All right. I’ll be your date. But you look after Ares and Hades until then. Come in every day, feed them, walk them, play with them, the works.”
Her body went rigid and her jaw clenched so hard I could hear her teeth grinding. Waiting for steam to start blowing from her ears, I got to my feet, anticipating her answer.
She shook her head. “I can’t…it’s impossible. Yes, you’d be solving a big problem for me, and I could do with the business—but no.”
“What’s stopping you?”
She sucked in a deep breath, seemingly reluctant to admit her weakness. “I’m terrified of dogs.”
Knew it. She needed the business because opening a cat-only grooming business wasn’t enough to make a profit, not in this part of town. At least she’d admitted why—she was afraid of dogs. Quickly thinking this over, wondering if it was even a good idea, the first part of her sentence registered in my mind.
“Hang on. Why is getting a date a big problem for you?”
9
ZOE
Umm, geez. I shouldn’t have used that wording. Now he thinks I’m some weird chick no one wants to date. Fan-freaking-tastic.
It didn’t help that I was standing in basketball shorts and a baggy T-shirt that made me look like a lame Eminem wannabe. Meanwhile, Mr. Scrooge over here was looking real tasty, half-dressed in his slacks and an open shirt, revealing the cut lines of his perfect, slightly hairy torso.