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

doorstep. What was he doing here? Right now he should be downtown in the Financial District attending a meeting involving a billion-dollar corporate takeover. Instead he was wasting time on this ludicrous poodle paternity case.
    He could have called Maddy about the poodle of course. He could even have gotten his secretary to call her. But these kinds of meetings were better conducted face-to-face.
    Who was he kidding? He raked his hair back from his forehead with his fingers, something he tended to do when he was agitated. Stop fooling yourself, O’Brien. Truth was, he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about the green-eyed witch since the funeral yesterday.
    This was just an excuse to see her again and he knew it. Unfortunately there was no relevant subsection in the five-year plan to deal with these inconvenient, unscheduled feelings that had been bothering him almost from the moment he’d met her.
    Where was she? The entrance to her apartment was down a narrow pathway leading from the road. The gate had been open when he’d come through. Had she gone out? Or might she be out back?
    He turned the other way and walked down into the garden. An early fog had lifted and the bay was gleaming blue under a brilliant sky. Brutus’s kennel under the jacaranda tree was empty. In front of it sat a big ceramic water bowl painted with the words “One Spoiled Dog Drinks Here” and a single purple jacaranda flower floating in it.
    “Anyone home?” Tom called, but the only reply was the distant sounding of the horn of a ferryboat on the bay.
    He strode around the other side of the house to find the second, larger gate also stood open. He made his way up onto the sidewalk. And there he saw her, walking on the opposite side of the road coming toward him.
    He sucked in a breath of admiration. This girl was hot. Wearing a tight, apple green sweater that showed off her curves and a short denim skirt, her pale, slender legs seemed to go on forever. Her hair gleamed copper in the sunlight. Pow! His body’s reaction was instant.
    “Maddy!” he shouted, trying to keep the excitement he felt at the sight of her out of his voice.
    Startled, she looked up and saw him. Fearfully, she dipped her head. For an astonishing moment he thought she might run away. He stared.
    Hey, this wasn’t the reaction he’d been daydreaming about when he’d engineered an excuse to see her again. In fact, it seemed like he was the last person on earth she wanted to see. But she crossed the road to meet him just the same.
    Close up he could see that she looked agitated, her gaze darting up the road, over his shoulder, anywhere but at him. So much for subsection 2c and letting her down lightly if she got too attached to him.
    “Is something wrong?” he asked. Okay, maybe he’d overreacted to the car-seat-chewing incident yesterday—although wait until Brutus got the bill for the repair. But there was no need for her to look at him like he was an ogre.
    She wrung her hands together. Her lashes fluttered. Reluctantly she met his eyes. “Oh,Tom, I’ve lost Brutus again.”
    He stared at her in disbelief before he exploded. “You what?” What gave with this woman that she could be so careless with a millionaire dog?
    She looked up at him. Her eyes widened. She bit down on her lower lip with her two neat, white front teeth. “Don’t be angry. You know I wouldn’t have done it on purpose. I don’t know how he got out.”
    “Got out?”
    “He was safe in the backyard. I was in the kitchen cooking—I do most of my recipe testing at home. Jerome was upstairs looking through some of Walter’s things.”
    “Jerome was here?” Jerome alone with Maddy? Tom didn’t like the sudden jealousy that jolted him.
    She nodded. “He came by. Asked me if he could get some family photos and mementos of Walter.”
    Tom groaned. “Maddy, you don’t even know this guy. And probate hasn’t been granted yet. Nothing should be removed from the property.”
    She