Читать книгу A McCabe at Heart - Cathy Thacker Gillen - Страница 5

Chapter Two

After all this time, Sam still had the ability to turn Robin’s heart inside out. Maybe because she had never gotten over him, never stopped wishing that she’d had what it took to say yes to his proposal. But she hadn’t. And like it or not, they both had to deal with that. Not afraid to square off with him, she stepped closer. “Why don’t you think I should bring Molly over to see the puppies?”

Sam locked the front door and strode back to his private office. “She’ll fall in love with them.”

Robin hurried to catch up, feeling as dwarfed by his tall, sturdy frame as ever. “You don’t know that.”

Sam stopped and shrugged out of his lab coat, looking very handsome in a rugged, all-male way. “Obviously, you’ve never spent time with golden retriever puppies,” he drawled.

Robin pushed aside her reaction to his overwhelmingly sexy presence. “It’s not my fault my younger brother was allergic to dogs. I’ve never had much exposure to them.”

He grinned. “Maybe you should think about getting a kitten, then.”

“I’m allergic to cats.”

“A salamander?”

Their gazes locked and Robin noticed how his chambray shirt brought out the blue of his eyes. She shot back, “Very funny.”

The awareness between them increased.

Sam sighed. “It would be cruel to let Molly interact with the puppies and then tell her she has no hope of actually getting one.”

Robin flushed—she hadn’t thought of it that way. “We don’t even know if Molly is going to like dogs.”

Sam leaned closer. His five o’clock shadow, the same inky black as his short, tousled hair, gave him a faintly dangerous edge. “She’ll like ‘em, all right.”

“You’re so sure of yourself!” Unlike her. She never had been, never would be. Not enough, anyway, to keep up with him…

Sam flashed her a sexy smile. “Then let’s put it to the test,” he offered. “Come home with me. And we’ll see.”

***

Robin didn’t know why she was doing this, following Sam home, when for years she had managed to avoid all intimate interaction with him.

Of course, that was mostly because there’d been little chance of them actually running into each other until a few of months ago, when she’d left Fort Worth and returned to Laramie.

The rest was because every time she saw Sam she felt a wave of regret, followed swiftly by the even more devastating knowledge that in walking away she had done what was right for both of them.

She’d never had it in her to make Sam happy.

Or for that matter, to make any man happy.

But she did have what it took to help an orphaned child get on with her life. And the puppies Sam was overseeing were the key.

At least Robin thought so until she actually saw them.

Ten golden-blond balls of fluff, with adorably cute faces and ferociously wagging tails were running, tumbling and fighting their way to their momma’s side.

Sam hunkered down to pet the beautiful full-grown golden retriever. Robin knelt beside them. “Meet Gorgeous,” he said proudly.

Robin blinked, so startled she almost fell over. “You actually call your dog that?” The pet name he’d given her, back when they were still an item!

Sam put out a hand to steady her. His gaze swept her, head to toe, before returning with laser-like accuracy to her eyes. “You’re asking if I named my dog after the only other female in this world who had the power to turn my heart inside out?”

For a moment, she thought Sam was serious. Then the familiar gleam of mischievousness shone in his dark eyes.

“Of course I did,” he drawled with a wink.

Knowing he couldn’t still be as hung up on her as she was on him, Robin pulled her tingling arm away. “A laugh a minute, as always,” she muttered. Or was that a thrill?

Sam grinned and got slowly to his feet, then gave her a hand up, too. “So I’ll see you and Molly Saturday afternoon?”

Warming from the inside out, Robin nodded. And in the meantime, she’d try to keep her own fragile heart intact.