Groomed for Love. Helen Myers R.
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Название: Groomed for Love
Автор: Helen Myers R.
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Современные любовные романы
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“And MG stands for...?”
“Mommy’s Girl. They told me when I got her from the shelter that they’d named her Marnie, but it was soon apparent that we were going to be very close, and she’s seriously maternal. She instinctively steps in to help whenever she decides I need her assistance with an animal.”
Noah was sorry he’d asked. Sure, he believed there were special relationships between some pets and their owners, but Mommy’s Girl? That was laying it on a bit thick.
Unlocking the BMW with his remote, he opened the passenger door for Rylie. Looking over the hood of the car, he considered the grassy area and the woods beyond it where she said she walked. It was more a wild pasture than a park. “Aren’t you concerned about snakes, or getting eaten up by chiggers and mosquitoes?” Texas also had more than its share of wild hogs, coyotes and an increasing number of abandoned dogs, too, he thought.
“We haven’t been bothered yet,” she said, shrugging. “Maybe there’s safety in numbers. In any case, I tend to take a live-and-let-live approach. It’s more important that the dogs get some attention and exercise. They’re missing their homes, and some are overweight, so being constricted in pens for days is just unhealthy.” She began to put the dog on the BMW’s black leather seat only to rear back. “Oh! Please put on the air conditioner and give us a moment for things to cool down. She’ll get burned.”
“Try putting her on the floorboard.” When he saw her stubbornly resist, Noah did get into the car and start the engine. Sure, it had gotten warmer in the short time that he’d been in her RV, but it was nowhere near as bad as it had been in July or August. As the vents quickly blew cold air through the inside of the vehicle, he reiterated, “The floorboard, please. I don’t want claw runs in the leather.”
“But she won’t be able to see, and it’s a rougher ride down there.”
The Mother Teresa of furry creatures really was beginning to push his buttons. “For crying out loud, this car’s shock absorbers are the embodiment of foreign skill in cushion and spring. She has no idea what rough is.”
With a sigh of exasperation, Rylie said to the dog, “Your big brother is determined to be disagreeable, isn’t he, precious?”
Big brother? “Okay, that’s enough,” Noah said, having had his fill of this nonsense. “Put the damned dog in now. Please.” He had to get out of there before she fried what brain cells he had left.
With a mournful glance, Rylie did as ordered. Carefully shutting the door, she backed away.
As Noah cut a sharp U-turn, he decided he was going to tell his mother that her pet’s groomer—cute as she was—was a nut job who needed a reality check. There were kids, even in this area, who needed help with essentials—food, clothing—not to mention finding a safe family environment. Spending any more time on inanity like this was ridiculous. How could a woman be so adorable, yet irritating at the same time?
As he circled around the clinic and cut a sharp turn onto the service road, Bubbles barked at him as the force of the turn tipped her over.
“Oh, put a lid on it,” he muttered.
Chapter Two
As Noah expected, his mother was parked in her wheelchair within sight of the front door and applauded with excitement as he entered Haven Land with Bubbles. Adding to his soured mood, she immediately started complimenting Rylie’s work the instant her precious four-legged princess leaped into her arms. Even if he wanted to pass on Rylie’s comments and messages, he couldn’t get a word in due to her effusiveness.
“Isn’t that shade of purple ribbon adorable, Aubergine?” she said to her housekeeper, who was standing with the glass of tea and the small cup of medications Audra needed to take. “Livie—look at her nails! A perfect match. And she’s so happy to be home.”
Aubergine Scott had been with the family since before Noah had graduated from high school. She was a single mother of two children, now grown, gratefully educated by his parents. Daughter Rachel was a lawyer in Washington, D.C., and son Randolph was a teacher in Houston. Each had tried to make the sixty-year-old retire, to pay her back for all she’d done for them, but Aubergine liked her independence and was devoted to his mother.
Olivia “Livie” Danner quit her RN job when Noah’s mother had been discharged from the hospital in Dallas, and joined their makeshift family. Quiet, bookish and athletic, at fifty-seven, she was as reserved as Aubergine was outspoken, but both possessed a dry sense of humor that Noah appreciated, even though quite a bit of it was directed at him. What he cared about most, though, was that his mother liked and trusted her.
“She’s as pretty as a valentine,” plump and short Aubergine declared.
“Charming,” tall and toned Livie added, with a tolerant nod. “Please take your medication, Audra.”
“In a minute. Oh, she smells good enough to eat,” Audra gushed, all but burying her face in the dog’s fur. “Did you properly thank Rylie for me, dear?”
Ignoring Aubergine’s barely repressed grin, he shoved his hands into his pants pockets to keep everyone from seeing him curl his fingers into fists. “Mother, trust me, she knows how supportive you are of her. She all but rubs it in my face. If anyone should be appreciative, it’s her for having your business.”
His mother gave him a distressed look. “I swear, you are sounding more like an old grouch every day. And you were raised to have better manners. Do I have to call her and apologize on your behalf?”
“No, ma’am, you do not,” he said, with only a modicum of guilt. Also not happy to be scolded in front of the other two women, he continued, “Do you mind if I get back to work now? Vance went home sick, so I’m holding the fort today.”
“What? Then why are you standing there breathing on your mother?” Livie immediately started pulling the chair toward the living room.
“I’ll get the disinfectant spray,” Aubergine assured her partner-in-protection. To Noah she said, “You heard her, get going. You know her lungs don’t need any more work than they already get.”
Noah held up his hands in surrender and quickly backed out of their presence. He knew he’d blundered, and the sooner he made his exit the better.
“Oh, Noah, they’re only being protective,” his mother called after him.
“And they’re very good at it,” he said with a courtly bow. “Don’t worry about dinner. I’ll eat out. Have to work late.” He didn’t really, but it wouldn’t be a bad idea to work ahead.
* * *
Judy was on the phone when Noah returned to the office and Ann, the junior clerk, was either still on her lunch break or in some storage room hunting files. Ann was more Judy’s assistant than any help to Vance or himself, and Noah often forgot she was even employed there. From the looks of the poor woman, whom someone had nicknamed “the beige person” for the way she dressed and behaved, she might have easily just emerged from the bland walls one morning and retreated into them at night. She rarely spoke that he could hear.
Back in his corner, where he was framed by a window, a wall and on the third side file cabinets—the closest thing СКАЧАТЬ