All I Am. Nicole Helm

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СКАЧАТЬ had made him that way. Well, besides war. She inwardly rolled her eyes at herself. War was probably enough.

      But how exactly did a guy go from soldier to organic dog treat maker? It probably wasn’t any of her business, but curiosity was a hard thing for her to ignore, even if she knew her questions would be really, really, really not welcome.

      “I should get going.” He headed toward his truck. Cara followed, and the German shepherd—Phantom, if she remembered right—put his paws on the side of the truck bed and panted at her.

      “Aw. Aren’t you cute?” Cara held out her hand, letting the dog sniff her before patting his head. He gingerly licked her fingers, much to her delight. “He likes me.”

      “He likes everybody,” Wes said gruffly.

      “Aw, cute little baby.” She trailed her palm over his head, then scratched the soft fur behind his ears. “Aren’t you the sweetest?”

      He gave her a tentative lick on the chin. When she looked at Wes, he was staring at her. Intently.

      * * *

      WATCHING PHANTOM LICK Cara was weird. Like thinking-about-being-the-one-doing-the-licking weird.

      So not normal.

      Which seemed about right. He hadn’t been normal possibly ever. His brief foray into romantic relationships in high school had ended in disaster. So he steered clear of women who made him feel anything. At least then he didn’t have to be a laughingstock.

      And, in all honesty, aside from his market days, he steered clear of all people. Not just women. Everyone.

      Needing to get out of here and fast, Wes opened the back of the truck to get the dogs into the cab. “Move it, guys.”

      Phantom, Flash and Toby obeyed and hopped off the bed, then into the truck cab. Sweetness, the little jerk, jumped on Cara’s legs, pawing and yipping happily until Cara slid into a sitting position on the ground. Then Sweetness curled up right on her lap.

      Toby and Flash jumped out of the truck and sniffed around Cara suspiciously. Only Phantom continued to obey the order, though he looked on from the passenger side window. If dogs had complex human emotions, Wes was pretty sure Phantom’s would be wistful. Or longing. Or something.

      Yeah, his head definitely wasn’t screwed on right. “Get off her, you morons. In the truck.”

      “Aw, they’re sweet. Our dog died a few years ago, and Dad hasn’t had the heart to replace her. I miss her.”

      He liked the way she smiled at the dogs, the way she let Sweetness on her lap without hesitation even though the dog was getting dusty paw prints all over her skintight jeans. And she was right—the dogs did like her. Of course, they weren’t exactly picky.

      “All right, kiddos, do as your daddy says.”

      “Um, no. I am not their daddy. They are dogs. I am a man.”

      Cara grinned up at him. “Thanks for the animal kingdom lesson. I figured a guy who took his dogs everywhere with him would think of himself as a daddy.”

      “No.”

      This time Cara laughed, a low, sultry sound that made him think about making her laugh more often.

      A joke in itself. He didn’t know how to make anyone laugh, let alone a pretty woman. Just looking at her legs folded across each other made his hip ache.

      She stood up, and Sweetness whined after her. “Aw, she loves me.”

      “In you go.” Wes gave her collar a gentle tug until Sweetness jumped into the back with the others.

      He turned to face Cara. “She likes women better than men. Except for me. Usually.” Looking down at her bright red mouth and blue-green eyes, he felt a stirring in his gut that had not been there in a very long time.

      Attraction. Interest. And, weirdly, it didn’t come followed by panic.

      Didn’t matter. Not allowed. So he turned and climbed up into his truck, Sweetness yipping in his ear, trying to get close to the open window and Cara.

      Cara hopped up on the stair. Again. “You’re trying to convince me I need a puppy, aren’t you, little girl?” She leaned in his window. Again. Second time in a week this strange woman was poking into his personal space.

      She reached for the dog, letting Sweetness lick her hand. Which put her breasts about two inches from his face. Uhh.

      When she pulled back, she seemed to realize how weird that had been.

      She chuckled. “Sorry about that.”

      “It’s...fine,” he managed to croak. Which seemed like the polite thing to say at first, but now it seemed...weighted.

      Cara grinned, making a considering sound in her throat.

      “Well, see you around.” And get the hell off my truck. Which he managed not to say only by grinding his teeth together.

      “See you Saturday,” she said, finally hopping off the stair.

      “Huh?”

      “The market. I help Mia out every week.”

      “Right.” God, he was an idiot.

      She waved, and he pulled away from the Pruitt farm. The drive to his cabin was long, winding and slow. Away from New Benton, away from farmland, toward the river and the woods and his refuge.

      It was a decent-size cabin in the middle of a forest. Definitely an escape from well-meaning people and their parade of casseroles and intrusive questions when he’d first gotten back on his feet. Then the cabin had become his life, his sanctuary. And, okay, maybe it still was. Maybe it always would be.

      He’d never be normal, and he’d never be a veterinarian. Those were irrefutable facts.

      He got out of the truck and let the dogs out to yip and prance around with Franco and Monster, the two dogs who hadn’t been trained well enough yet to go everywhere with him. The land around the cabin was his animals’ domain. Six dogs, three cats and one sheep with a limp.

      He hadn’t been able to do the vet thing, what with the nerve damage in his arm and hand, making performing surgery, exams and just getting through vet school requirements impossible, but that hadn’t meant he’d lost his love of down-and-out animals.

      He let the dogs run around outside, Monster and Franco attached to their runner, then trudged into his cabin. It had everything he needed. A big kitchen for the dog treat making, a room expressly for packaging, an office for the business side of things.

      Though the office looked more like the aftermath of a frenzied police search. He headed to his computer. It was nearly six. The video call with Mom was his least favorite part of the week. Hearing about how great Palm Springs was. How amazing her new family was, how successful her little chain of all-natural grocery stores was. She thought she was proving she’d gotten her life together, that she was a mother he could be proud of now.

      She couldn’t СКАЧАТЬ