Free Love Is a Four-Legged Word by Kandy Shepherd Page A

we’ve got to go look for him.”
    Jerome ground out the butt of his cigarette with his heel. “By all means.”
    “Which way did he go?” asked Tom, looking around.
    “Tom, maybe you could try gro—”
    “Don’t say it,” he said in a passable imitation of a growl.
    “Why, isn’t that the recalcitrant pooch itself?” said Jerome with a languid wave.
    Trailing his leash, Brutus came bounding through the rows of headstones, followed by a sweet-faced Border collie. The dogs came to a halt nearby and then cavorted playfully around each other. The Border collie was way bigger than Brutus, but size had never daunted him when it came to female playmates.
    “I might have known.” Maddy sighed, exasperation mingling with the relief that flooded her.
    “Might have known what?” asked Tom.
    “That he’d find himself a girl dog from somewhere.”
    “Huh?” She liked the way he looked puzzled, the tough lawyer suddenly lost for words. “I don’t get it.”
    She stooped to grab Brutus’s leash and pulled the protesting animal toward her. She looked back up at Tom.
    “Didn’t Walter mention it? Brutus is a lady’s man, uh, dog. If there’s a doggy word for a womanizer, that’s him. He’s a little dog with big appetites. And not just for cupcakes and peanut butter cookies.”
    Jerome laughed. Maddy nearly laughed at the expression on Tom’s face.Was it fair to tease a man at a funeral?
    Tom scowled. “That damn dog. It gets worse by the second. I wish you’d told me this before.”
    “Why? What good would it have done?”
    Tom scowled some more. “I could have made more sense of the message that I’ve just got from the office. A poodle named Coco is slapping a paternity suit on Brutus for support of her five puppies.”

Seven
    Coco the poodle was proving to be as determined a litigant as Tom had ever encountered. Its owner just wouldn’t let up. The damn woman was bombarding Tom with constant phone calls, asking ridiculous questions that only Maddy would be able to help him answer.
    That was why, early the next afternoon, Tom found himself again at the door of Maddy’s apartment. He knocked loudly and tried to ignore the delicious aromas that wafted through the keyhole. What was she cooking today? He inhaled, trying to identify the taste. Pastry perhaps? Buttery, cholesterol-laden pastry.
    Inwardly he groaned. Did that mean that today Maddy herself would smell of her own sweet femaleness, lavender, and hot apple pie? The combination could prove to be irresistible. And that wasn’t good. Because he intended to resist his attraction to the too-cute Maddy Cartwright. All the way.
    With her appealing homey ways she had “commitment” written all over her. He was certain she was not—in spite of his earlier way-off-the-mark imaginings—the type for a no-strings affair. In fact, it was likely, with all that brownie baking going on, she was in the market for a husband.
    Hell, he was only two years into his current five-year plan. At age thirty-three he would commence a new one—and would seriously consider writing “marriage” into the goals for that sector of his life. But that was three years away and right now the partnership at Jackson, Jones, and Gentry was his priority. His absolute priority. He had to prove to himself that he could achieve what his father had doubted he could.
    Where was she? He rapped again on the door—impatiently this time. He could hear music coming faintly through the door. Was that the soundtrack from Shrek ? She showed good taste in movies and music. Yet another reason he found her so appealing.
    He felt—no, he feared—Maddy Cartwright would be dangerously easy to get attached to. But subsection 2a of the five-year plan stated “no serious girlfriends.” And he wouldn’t want to hurt her by bailing if he saw signs she was starting to get attached to him—as per strategy outlined in subsection 2c of the aforesaid five-year plan.
    Tom tapped his foot against the