Falling For The Rebound Bride

Then again, maybe listening to them was proof she had more balls than she was giving herself credit for—

“Oh!”

Her cry wasn’t enough to scare off the coyote, although the thing did glance her way, as if to ascertain whether Emily was worth its consideration. The critters weren’t really much of a threat to the horses, apparently—at least, Josh only shrugged when she’d told him she’d also spotted one on her last run—but City Girl Emily still felt it wise to steer clear.

Until she noticed something fuzzy and small in the dirt about ten feet from the coyote. A possum? Squirrel? She couldn’t tell. But the gray varmint, who’d clearly decided to ignore Emily, was closing in, and—

“Get out of here!” she yelled, flapping her arms like a madwoman and running toward the whatever-it-was, startling a bunch of birds from the top of the nearest piñon and spooking a trio of horses in the nearby pasture. “Go on! Get!”

The coyote hesitated, giving her a what-the-hell? look.

“I said—” Emily snatched a fair-sized stone off the ground and hurled it with all her might at the animal, where it pinged harmlessly in the dirt three feet in front of it, raising a cloud of dust. “Get!”

And damned if a spurt of pride didn’t zing through her when the thing actually took off, loping up the road without looking back. Her heart hammering in her chest, Emily approached the small, now whimpering animal, her chest fisting when she realized it was a puppy. What kind and how old, she had no idea. And what to do next, she had even less. But she had to do something. Unfortunately, Dee and Josh were running errands separately with the kids, and while she knew Josh’s brother Zach had his veterinary practice in town, she had no idea whether he was there or not. Besides which, her cousin and her husband had taken both trucks—

The puppy released the most heart-wrenching, plaintive cry ever, and Emily sank cross-legged onto the dirt to pull him into her lap, which was when she noticed dried blood on one of his paws. She carefully touched the spot and the poor little thing cried out in obvious pain. Damn. Hauling in a breath, Emily glanced over at the foreman’s cabin a hundred or so yards away. The rental car was there, meaning Colin was probably home, but...

She gingerly hugged the mewling baby dog to her chest, stroking his soft fur and making soothing, if probably unhelpful noises. Despite Colin’s living within spitting distance of the main house, they hadn’t seen each other since that silly encounter in the grocery store. Dude had serious hermit tendencies, apparently. Although truth be told, given her reaction to him back there in the meat department Emily had been just as glad. Not because of the silly, awkward part, but definitely because of the dry-mouthed, wanting-to-plaster-herself-against-him part. Which flew in the face of everything she was. Or thought she was, anyway. As in, logical. Levelheaded. Not given to fits of insanity.

Never mind that simply sitting here thinking about Colin’s mouth and jaw and eyes, ohmigod, and that little hollow at the base of his neck was making her feel as though molten ore was flowing through her veins.

“Jeez, girl,” she muttered. “Get over it.”

As if it was that easy. Because despite keeping busy, and running her butt off every day, and her determination to not think about her shattered heart and the bozo who’d shattered it, her heart had other ideas. In fact, the longer she was away, the more hurt and angry she got that she’d been played for a fool. That she’d let herself be played for a fool, taking the path of least resistance because...why? Because everyone else had been happy?

Clearly, she needed to majorly overhaul her definition of that word. Not to mention her expectations, she thought as her mouth twisted. Meaning she knew full well all this fizzing and bubbling was nothing more than a knee-jerk reaction to Michael’s betrayal, a primitive—and completely ludicrous—urge to get even.

The pup whimpered again, nuzzling her collarbone...

Telling her wayward loins to shut the hell up, Emily heaved herself to her feet, the puppy cradled against her chest, and marched toward the cabin.

She thought maybe this was called taking back the reins.

* * *

Colin nearly jumped out of his skin when he caught Emily standing outside the front window with something furry clutched in one hand, waving like crazy at him with the other. And apparently yelling. Ripping out his earbuds, he set aside his laptop and reluctantly pushed himself off the leather couch, not even bothering to adjust his expression before opening the door. It’d taken two days before the right words had finally started to settle in his brain to accompany this particular photo. And now they were gone. So, yeah. Pissed.

Emily’s flinch—and blush—should’ve given him more satisfaction than it did. Instead he felt like a jackass. For about two seconds, anyway, before all the reasons he’d gone out of his way to avoid her this past week came sailing back into his befogged brain. Because of that blush, for one thing. That her running togs left little to the imagination, for another. Toss in exercise glow and whatever the hell that scent was that she wore, the one that marched right in and rendered him an insentient blob of randy hormones, and—

His eyes dipped to the puppy, looking about as blissful as Colin imagined he would be cuddled against those breasts.

“Some coyote was trying to get him, or at least that’s what it looked like, and I think he might be hurt but I don’t have any way of getting him to the vet. If your brother’s even at the clinic.”

Colin dragged his gaze away from the pup—and her breasts—and to her eyes, a move which jarred loose his libido’s stranglehold long enough for Oh, hell, to play through his brain.

“Let me see,” he said, his knuckles grazing those breasts—damn—before he took the dog from her and carried him into the house. Emily followed, shutting the door behind her and sitting across from Colin when he sat back on the couch.

“Heaven knows how he got here—”

“Dumped, probably. It happens,” he said to her stunned expression, then tenderly examined the bloodied paw. The pup whimpered again.

“Don’t think it’s broken, but I’m not the vet.” He paused, gaze fixed on the dog and not on those worried blue eyes. Clearly his afternoon was shot. Not to mention his resolve. “I had dinner with Zach and them the other night, he said he’s in the office every afternoon, all day on Saturdays, so...” Still holding the pup, he got to his feet. “So let’s go get this little guy fixed up.”

“Oh! Um...” Emily stood as well, rubbing her hands across her dusty bottom. Colin looked away. “If you’d lend me the car, I could take him, you don’t have to come. I mean—” There went the pink cheeks again. “It’s pretty obvious I interrupted you. I’m sure you want to get back to work.”

She had. And he did. However...

“You know where the clinic is?”

“In...town?”

Pushing out a sound that was half laugh, half resigned sigh, Colin walked over to the door, snagging the keys off the hook that’d been there probably from long before he was born. “Somebody needs to hold the dog. And it’ll be quicker since I actually know where the clinic is. So come on. Unless...” Against his better judgment he gave her outfit a cursory glance. Okay, maybe not so cursory. “You want to change?”

She pff’d. “I think as long as I’m not naked, I’m good.” And, yep, she blushed again. “What I mean is...”

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