Just for Today.... Emmie Dark

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СКАЧАТЬ this wouldn’t work,” he muttered.

      “What wouldn’t work?”

      “Me, dog-sitting.”

      “Huh?” Sean dog-sitting? In fact, what was he even doing here? Wasn’t he supposed to be in Sydney by now? “Why are you dog-sitting? Why isn’t Hailey’s cousin looking after Suzie while she house-sits?”

      “Ah, you missed the last-minute change of plans. The cousin dropped out. I’m the house sitter.”

      “You’re looking after Hailey and Rob’s house? For six weeks?” Her voice rose and she heard the shrill note. What had happened to fly-by-night Sean, here and gone again before she knew it?

      “I know.” His shoulders fell, and Jess would have sworn he looked somehow defeated. “I should have known it was a bad idea. I already had to get a plumber in to fix the dishwasher this morning.”

      If Hailey and Rob had been stupid enough to leave him in charge of their home and their dog, they probably deserved to come home to a ruined house, women’s underwear scattered everywhere and a sick pet. But as much as the thought was satisfying, she also knew she couldn’t let it happen—she loved Suzie too much for a start.

      “Well, then, you’re just going to have to put on your big-boy pants and adapt to the responsibility.” Jess put her hands on her hips, preparing herself for a lecture. “If Rob and Hailey trusted you to—”

      “God, not you, too!” Sean threw his hands in the air. “Do you think I didn’t get enough of that shit at the wedding?”

      Jess didn’t want to feel sorry for him. Between that sexy smile and those puppy-dog eyes, she was pretty sure Sean never had to try very hard to achieve anything in life. People must just cave to his wishes all the time. But right now? Right now he looked stressed and slightly panicked, like a cornered dog in an unfamiliar environment.

      “Look, Sean,” she tried again, with a more conciliatory tone this time. “It’s not a big deal. All you have to do is stay home tonight and keep a close eye on Suzie for the next four hours or so. If she hasn’t shown any symptoms by then, you can rest easy.” She nearly said “go to bed easy” but stopped herself just in time. She didn’t want to put bed and Sean in the same sentence, even in her head.

      Sean scrubbed his face with both hands, his palms against his stubble making a rasping noise. “It’s just...”

      He looked at her then, his green-and-gold eyes piercing. “I have a meeting, a teleconference, that’s going to take a couple of hours. It’s a pretty important one and I need to concentrate. I can’t change it, but I don’t want to leave Suzie unsupervised. There’s no one else I can call on.... Help me out, please.”

      Jess wasn’t sure if it was the pleading tone in his voice or the bewitching spell of his eyes, but she believed him. She was probably just a sucker. Mark had used similar tactics to protest his innocence and she’d believed him, too—the first couple of times, anyway. After that, the deception had been on both sides—Mark deceiving her, Jess deceiving herself.

      She didn’t want to give in, but she already knew she was going to.

      “I don’t... Okay,” she said finally with a sigh that she hoped communicated the fact that she wasn’t necessarily happy about it. “I’ll watch Suzie.”

      The lines between his brows eased as his eyebrows lifted in surprise. “You will?”

      Jess rolled her eyes. As if he didn’t fully expect everyone to capitulate to his every whim. “Yes. I’m a chump, but I will. I’m only doing this for Suzie, though. You’d better—”

      “Thank you!” Sean leaped around the table, grasped her face in both hands and planted a kiss right on her lips. Before Jess had even comprehended what he’d done, he’d pulled away again and was crouched down in front of where Suzie sat, rubbing her sides. “Oh, Suzie, Suzie, Suzie. You are a daft dog.”

      Jess managed to stop herself from pressing her fingers to her tingling lips. But only just.

      She knew she should say something, but for a moment all she could do was watch as Sean made funny faces at Suzie. He tickled her chin. “But even if you are dippy, I’m growing kinda fond of you.” Then he grabbed the dog’s head and pressed his lips to her cheek with a loud smacking noise.

      That was how much his kiss meant.

      “Don’t cause any trouble for the lovely Jess, will you?” He stood up and checked his watch—one of those oversize, expensive, diving kinds. “Crap, I’ll only just make it. Thanks, Jess, you’re a lifesaver. I’ll pick up Suzie as soon as I’m done. From your place?”

      Jess nodded dumbly.

      “Cool. Thanks again. See you later.”

      The bell on the front door rang loudly as he made his exit, the building strangely silent for a beat afterward. As if he’d taken some kind of vital energy out the door with him.

      Jess stood still, her brain taking a moment to catch up with everything.

      “So, Suzie,” she finally said into the silent room, “I’m not sure which of us gets the medal for biggest idiot tonight.”

      The dog banged her tail on the floor, recognizing her name. She looked up questioningly, as if asking for an explanation of what had just happened.

      “Don’t look at me like that. He...he has superpowers of some kind.” He must—it was the only way to explain how she’d not only ended up taking on his responsibility for Suzie, but would also end up seeing him again. On the plus side, he hadn’t said anything about her embarrassing departure on Saturday night. Not that the opportunity to do so had really arisen.

      “All right, come on then.” Suzie got up and followed obediently as Jess locked up the surgery again and headed out to the back alley behind the building where she parked her car. It was dark, but the security light she’d had installed clicked on as soon as she stepped away from the door.

      “Don’t get too excited,” Jess warned as Suzie jumped into the backseat and settled down as if she’d been in there a hundred times. “If you start to look any less cheerful, I’m going to make you vomit.” She waggled a finger at the dog as she closed the door. “That’s what you get for indulging yourself without thinking first.”

      Jess didn’t know what her own punishment was going to be for the same crime, but a perverse, contradictory part of her was almost looking forward to it.

      * * *

      IT WAS RAINING by the time Sean’s conference call was over, and he drove carefully to Jess’s place on the slick roads. The meeting had taken much longer than he’d thought and he hoped Jess wasn’t going to be too annoyed by the lateness of the hour.

      His fingers tapped against the steering wheel as he recalled the discussion with his agent and the studio executives. Getting one of his books made into a movie was going to be a thrilling achievement. It would be solid, irrefutable evidence of his success—something that even his family couldn’t deny.

      That was, of course, if it ever actually happened. So far, the whole experience had been one of the most frustrating and aggravating things he’d ever done in his life.

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