Free Sheltered by the Millionaire by Catherine Mann Page A

daughter with her into work. The familiar chorus of barking dogs greeted her, reminding her of her responsibilities here, to all of the animals still in need of homes. Saturday’s placement of twelve cats had been an amazing coup for such a small shelter. She couldn’t afford to turn down Whit’s generous offer of his plane, but she also couldn’t put her heart at risk again.
    The weekend with Whit had been better than she could have dreamed. He’d been charming, helpful, generous. He’d been amazing with her daughter.
    And he’d been a perfect gentleman.
    She was the one who’d gone off the rails and kissed him. She’d literally thrown herself at him. Again. Sure, he’d responded, but then he’d pulled away. She was starting to feel silly.
    Except she knew she hadn’t misread the signs. He wanted her too. So why did he keep pulling away? She’d all but promised him a night of no-strings sex and he’d still walked.
    Usually guys bailed out because she had a kid. Those guys were easy to spot. They were awkward with Evie. But Whit wasn’t that way.
    Had he freaked out that there was a child in the picture at the last minute anyway? She didn’t think so. His eyes had still smoked over her at every turn Sunday. But she hadn’t felt up to the embarrassment of doing a postmortem on how he’d walked away from taking that kiss to its natural conclusion.
    Damn it, she didn’t have time for these kinds of games in her life. Which was the very reason she’d wanted one night, just one night with him.
    She nodded to Beth at the front desk and walked past to settle Evie in her office on the small sofa. Evie had chosen a doctor’s costume today, to cure all the people and animals hurt in the tornado. The post-Halloween sales had filled Evie’s costume box to overflowing. Every time Megan or one of her friends offered to buy her a toy, Evie shook her head and picked another outfit. Megan had thought about counseling, even discussed it with the preschool director. Sue Ellen had pointed her in the direction of some videos the other children in the preschool had watched together, but so far those hadn’t effected any changes in Evie.
    Megan sagged against the open door frame.t
    Beth waved from the desk. “Good morning. How was your weekend?”
    She dodged the question that she didn’t even really know how to answer. “You’re here early.”
    Beth cradled a mug of herbal tea, the scent of oranges and spices drifting across the room. “The kennel supervisor let me in. I wanted to see your face when you came to the shelter today.”
    Alarms sounded in Megan’s mind. “Is something wrong?”
    “Things are very right.” Beth set aside her mug. “A dozen guys—and women—from the Cattleman’s Club spent the weekend volunteering.”
    Another reason to be grateful to a man she’d spent the past three and half years resenting. “Whit said he intended to ask them to help out....”
    And she was grateful. She’d assumed a couple of them would come by to play with the dogs.
    “Well, they did more than help out. In addition to doing the regular cleaning and exercising the dogs, they fixed the broken kennel run and cleared an area behind the play yard that’s been full of debris. They said they’ll be back after Thanksgiving weekend to build an agility course for the dogs and add a climbing tree for the cat house.” Beth winked, her eyes twinkling with mischief. “You must have really impressed him.”
    Megan’s knees felt wobbly. He’d coordinated all that effort this weekend while she’d been thinking about a quick fling? She’d had Whit Daltry all wrong. All. Wrong.
    “Whit mentioned putting in a call, but I had no idea how much they would do. Especially when everyone is still dealing with the upheaval in their own lives.”
    “They care about each other and our community. They just needed pointing in this direction to help. It’s okay to ask for help every now and again, Megan. You don’t have to be a