Free Explosive Alliance by Catherine Mann

home in Charleston?"
    Bo rested the animal on his thigh again, shadows masking his expression as the sinking sun brought the anonymity of night. "I'm gone too much to have a pet. Wouldn't be fair to an animal, boarding him for months at a time."
    An insightful statement, which made the guy hot and funny and sensitive. Man, she really needed him to say something jerklike soon or she'd be sagging in his hand like that happy puppy. "You're gone that much?"
    "Over half the year on a regular basis, even more lately with all the commitments overseas."
    "Wow, that's rough."
    "I'm seeing the world, playing with the coolest toys the U.S. Government has to offer. Retirement comes around fast enough. I'll have a dog then." He nodded to the sleeping pup on her leg. "Although it looks like the animals boarded here aren't lacking in attention."
    "We try to play with them and let them out as much as possible. Cuts down on the cage cleaning, too.
    Kirstie helps with the walks and treats."
    "Seems she's looking to follow in her mama's footsteps."
    "Maybe she will." Paige toyed with the dog's ear. "Better than following in her father's, I guess."
    Oh, God, why had she said that? She wanted to gobble the words back down and let the acid in her stomach burn them away along with so many painful memories. She forced her eyes to stay on the puppy and hoped Bo would ignore her slip.
    "What does a person do to become a veterinary technician?"
    Thank you. "I have an associate's degree in veterinary technology. It's a two-year degree, much like a two-year nursing degree. I can do lab work, testing, start and maintain IVs, catheters, take X-rays, perform anesthesia on animals, and such. I can give injections even pick up some emergency calls if Vic is out, but can't prescribe medicine or diagnose. And I can't do surgeries." She leaned toward him with a wicked smile of her own. "Although Vic has let me neuter cats on occasion."
    "Neutering, huh?" He grimaced.
    "Uh-huh."
    "You're one tough lady."
    "I'm getting tougher." Her hands curved protectively around the pup while words bubbled up in spite of acid and good sense. "I was going to attend vet school like my brother, but I met Kurt and didn't want to leave the area. We got married and started moving around so much it was difficult to enroll again. Once we settled in Charleston, Kirstie came along. I always figured after she went to kindergarten... But then..."
    He turned his head along the fence to look at her in the dark. "Things fell apart."
    "Pretty much."
    Overhead, halogen lights flickered, sensors kicking in with nighttime. "How did you meet him?"
    His question jolted her more than the lights stuttering to life. She should have expected him to continue the conversational thread that she started not just once but twice. Subconsciously trying to scare him off?
    "Um, we were taking a chemistry class together at Minot State University. We'd both lived in the area all our lives, but went to different high schools."
    "Does Kirstie have other relatives here, then, from her father's side?"
    God, he made it easy to talk, and even though the memories hurt they just kept flowing right out of her mouth, so many stored words. "No. He was an only child of older parents, like mine. His parents are dead now, too, thank heavens, because it would have broken their hearts to see what he became."
    Like it broke yours.
    He didn't say the words but she could almost hear them, anyway. Certainly she could see them in his expressive eyes now crystal-clear blue in the blazing security lights that showed far too much for her to feel at all secure. Still she searched, wondering what more she would read, and found the last thing she expected...
    Understanding.
    Then his face smoothed back into the charmer smile, and he lifted the puppy to eye level again. "What's this fella's name?"
    "Fella? You'd better brush up on your male-female anatomy lessons, pal, because that's a girl."
    "Ahh. I should have guessed. Girls always are