Free Home to Eden by Dallas Schulze Page B

cut her off, as if uncomfortable with her admiration.
    Modest, too, Kate thought sourly. Good-looking, kind to children and small animals—didn't the guy have a fault?
    "Leroy looks very...healthy now," Kate said, directing an uncertain smile at the large animal. "He's rather large, isn't it?"
    "Just a healthy, growing boy," Nick said.
    "Growing?" Kate's imagination boggled at the idea that the dog might actually get bigger.
    "Sure. He's just a puppy, aren't you?" Leroy wagged a tail the size of a broom, his square face creasing in something that might have been a smile.
    "He seems friendly," she said doubtfully.
    "You're not worried about meeting him when you're alone, are you?" Nick asked. "He wouldn't hurt a fly."
    "I'd feel good about that if I was a fly."
    Nick laughed out loud, and she did her best to ignore the frisson of awareness that ran up her spine. She did not want to be reminded of how attractive he was.
    "Come shake hands with him. Leroy would never bite anyone to whom he's been properly introduced. Come on," he urged when she hung back.
    "Are you scared?" Laura asked, her sandy brows going up in surprise.
    "No," Kate lied promptly. She forced herself to move forward. "I just don't have much experience with dogs, that's all. Actually, I don't have any real experience with them at all."
    ''Lean down and hold out your hand," Nick told her.
    Feeling as if she might as well be holding out a T-bone steak, Kate did as she was told. Leroy eyed her for a moment, his black eyes unfathomable. She hoped he wasn't trying to decide where to bite first but, conscious of Nick and Laura watching, she held her hand steady. When Leroy lifted one massive paw and plunked it into her palm, she jumped in surprise. Kate dutifully shook his paw and then released it. She straightened, aware of a distinct feeling of accomplishment.
    "Didn't you ever have a dog back when you were a little girl?" Laura asked, watching the exchange with curious blue eyes.
    "We moved around a lot. It wouldn't have been fair to drag a pet away from its home all the time." She'd heard the words so often as a child that they came to her automatically now.
    "Kind of hard on a kid, too," Nick commented, and Kate felt her breath catch at the base of her throat.
    She remembered worrying that her parents might decide that constantly moving wasn't any better for her than it would have been for a pet. She'd been afraid they'd leave her behind the next time her father decided that a new town, a new state, would offer better opportunities. When she looked back, it struck her as interesting that it hadn't once occurred to her that they might settle in one place for her benefit— only that they'd leave her behind. Even at a young age, she'd recognized her father's wanderlust as the central, driving force in her family.
    "I didn't mind moving." The lie came easily. It had been repeated so often when she was a child that it was engraved on her soul. "We saw a lot of interesting places."
    "I don't think I'd like to move," Laura said thoughtfully. "I like it here and, if we moved, I couldn't take my friends with me."
    Kate's smile felt as if it was pinned in place. "No, you can't take your friends but you make new friends when you move."
    "They wouldn't be the same," the little girl said decisively, and Kate didn't argue. What could she say?
    Looking for distraction, she reached out to pet Leroy, who had shifted position and now stood between her and Nick. His fur was softer than it looked, and she smiled as she stroked his head.
    "We did have a cat once," she said, memory rushing over her. "He was all black and I named him Spooky."
    "What happened to him?" Laura asked, displaying the unerring knack of the very young to ask exactly the question you least wanted to answer.
    "When we were moving from Atlanta to Baton Rouge, we stopped to get gas and Spooky got out of the car. He got lost, I guess. We were heartbroken."
    "We?" Nick asked. "E>o you have brothers or