Free Once Upon a Proposal by Allison Leigh Page B

founded her small agency that trained and placed assistance dogs around the country, and even though the rest of Gabe’s family thought she was more than a little eccentric for working so hard for so long when she didn’t have to, he’d admired her for it.
    In her way, Fiona Gannon was as much the oddball in the family as he was.
    â€œYou’re doing a good thing,” he told Bobbie now. Truthfully. He pushed tiredly to his feet. “And for the record, I’m certain that you’re good at a lot more than raising puppies. But I still think it’s gotta be damn hard to give them up when it’s time.”
    Her lashes swept down for a moment. “It’s always hard to say goodbye. But I get to meet the person they’re partnered with when they finish their training, and the dogs always remember me.” She looked up then with a crooked grin. “And I receive a ton of Christmas cards with the dogs’ pictures in them.”
    â€œWell, you’re still a better person than I am.” He picked up the heavy bucket, lifting it away from Archimedes’s inquisitive snout. “I probably wouldn’t want to let them go.”
    â€œYou really don’t have to finish the floor today, you know. It’s not going anywhere. Take a break.”
    Her gaze danced over him, then away again, and he wished to hell he knew what he could do to ease her obviousnervousness. But he wasn’t ready to hear her tell him again that he was on his own when it came to the fake fiancée business, so they were both stuck. Unfortunately, every day that ticked past was a day that took him closer to the judge’s courtroom.
    â€œIt’s not like you haven’t been working hard enough already, covering for your injured guy,” she continued.
    Unlike his ex-wife, who’d quite vocally considered Gabe’s injured worker to be a personal inconvenience to her. “It won’t take me long to grout the floor.” Not when her bathroom was barely large enough to turn around in.
    â€œAnd then you’ll go and have dinner with your children?”
    â€œI’ll take them to dinner,” he clarified. “They’re none too happy right now to begin with, since their mother decided to go to D.C. with Ethan a few days ago for some meetings. The last thing to help that situation would be my cooking.”
    She worried her soft lower lip with the pearly edge of her teeth for a moment. “Lisette and Todd have been staying with you, then? When is their mother coming back?”
    â€œTomorrow, and it was surprising that Steph was willing to leave them with me.” Particularly when she’d learned he was putting in even more hours on the job than usual, until she’d realized the advantage the situation might afford her. “But then she realized that I might do such a rotten job of caring for them full-time for a few days that she’ll have extra ammunition against me when we go to court again.”
    Bobbie’s soft lips tightened. “No wonder you’re tired. Extra work on that job site on top of your usual load, plus having the kids and getting them to and from school?” Shaking her head, she walked over to him and wrapped her free hand around the bucket handle, unsuccessfully trying to dislodge his hand in the process. “Give me that. My floor can definitely wait.”The curls coiled on top of her head tickled his chin, smelling faintly of lemon.
    He still didn’t let go of the bucket. “I’ll let the floor wait if you’ll come to dinner with me and the kids.”
    He had to steel his nerves against the soft gaze she turned toward him. “I think that’s bribery or something.”
    Bribery and a good dose of self-torture. “Is it working?”
    â€œYou’re as bad as your grandmother,” she accused. But there was a faint smile on her soft, soft lips.
    â€œThat’s probably one of the nicer