Against his better judgement, he laughed. ‘Female intuition?’
Her eyes dropped to half-mast and moved from him to the dogs. ‘No. Past experience, a wealth of knowledge and a finely tuned instinct for my dogs and the types of people they’d suit.’
Well, that told him.
They silently watched Fenella and Euan play with their new dogs as Margaret showed them, in turn, how to get the dogs to sit, shake paws, high five. No doubt they’d get to the ‘serious stuff’ in a bit. For now, it was bonding time.
Damn. He hated to admit it but these two were experiencing exactly what he had hoped would happen when his mum had told him there was a new man in both of their lives. She’d organised a picnic in Glasgow’s Botanic Gardens. Proof, if he’d needed any, that this was no casual boyfriend and that he definitely wasn’t from their neighbourhood.
Max had brought along a football and a chest bursting with hope that this time he and his mum might’ve found ‘their guy’, as she’d liked to put it. She’d never brought men home. Said it wasn’t right as she wasn’t just seeing someone for herself. It was for both of them. She’d get Max the dad he deserved after she’d made such a poor choice the first time round.
A fresh wash of guilt poured through him. He should’ve told Esme he knew the developer. He’d tried to convince himself it didn’t matter because he would’ve fought whoever was trying to crush Plants to Paws. But there was a part of him that wanted to crush Gavin Henshall, too. No. Even that was wrong. Not crush, just…
‘Forgive him, Max.’
He looked across at Euan, whose dog was lolling on his lap, his tongue hanging out of his mouth, his eyes glued to Euan’s. He wanted that.
Bonding. He’d been desperate for it with Gavin.
And he was never going to get it.
Without his having noticed, Esme appeared beside him, her eyes solidly on Euan and Fenella.
‘I know,’ she said softly. ‘That’s why I do this. Pure love with absolutely nothing expected in return.’
He chanced a glance in her direction and when their eyes met? He saw it. The clear-eyed gaze of someone who understood exactly what it felt like not to be enough. And at that instant he fell a little bit in love with Esme Ross-Wylde, though every part of him knew there was no chance of a happy ending. Not for guys like him. Not with girls like her.
Esme shot him that impish grin of hers. ‘Right, then, pal. It’s your turn.’
‘My turn?’
‘Yup. We’ve got a dog for you to do some training with, so you don’t feel left out. He can stay in your room with you, just like the others’ will, or he can stay here in the kennels. On his own. Crying himself to sleep at night.’
‘Yeah, I don’t think so.’
Esme said nothing.
‘I live in a flat. I work all the time. I don’t have a life that’s got room for a dog.’
He decided not to remind himself that he’d made the life that didn’t have room for dogs, or other humans for that matter.
‘No one’s asking you to fall in love with him,’ Esme said neutrally. Her eyes told a different story. She was daring him not to.
‘Do what you must,’ Max said.
‘Nice attitude, mate.’
His stepfather’s voice rang loud and clear in his head. One of the many things he hadn’t been able to shake from his past. The low rumbling voice. The biting quips that never failed to make him feel lower than the mud on Gavin’s shoe. Time to earn your keep, mate. Pull up your socks, mate. Off to military school, mate. Maybe they’ll know what to do with you. As if he were a lost cause before Gavin had even tried to like him, let alone love him.
Euan’s laugh pulled him back into the room. He followed his eyeline, then heard Fenella get the giggles as they all watched Margaret jog in with the scruffiest puppy he’d ever seen. The little puppy was wearing miniature red velvet reindeer antlers and a jumper covered in snowflakes. He could’ve scooped the little mess of fur and quirky ears up in one hand and barely felt the difference. If he was into scooping up puppies and going all doe-eyed, that was.
Esme’s grin split into that superstar smile of hers. ‘Max? I’d like you to meet Dougal. Your very own fur buddy for the next fortnight.’
‘Ha-ha, very funny. Pair the big lunk with the tiny mongrel.’
Esme feigned dismay. She picked the puppy up and nuzzled him, holding his face to hers, both of their eyes all wide and innocent. ‘How on earth could you say no to this poor orphaned pup? All alone at Christmas with no one to love him?’
Hell. He knew what that felt like too. Esme was really punching each and every one of his buttons today and he wasn’t even on the patient roster. He felt Euan’s eyes on him and made the mistake of letting some of the hope in the lad’s eyes transfer to his own heart.
‘Hand him over.’ He held the puppy up so they were eye to eye. ‘It’s you and me, pal. What do you think of that?’ Dougal licked him on the nose and barked.
‘ALL RIGHT IF I hang out with Euan and Fenella until we set off?’
‘Go for it,’ Esme chirped a bit too enthusiastically, trying to resist the urge to touch Max’s arm, his hand, his anything really because each time they so much as brushed a pinkie finger…fireworks. For her anyway. Twenty-four hours in and, despite her best efforts, that same heated attraction that had lit her up from the inside out the first time she’d laid eyes on him refused to be tamped down. If anything…it was worse.
She watched from a distance as Fenella and Euan showed Max the tricks they’d just learned in the clinic. They ‘shot’ their dogs to get them to play dead. He laughed appreciatively. Then they ‘shot’ him, after which he picked Euan up and tried to carry him away, only to have Euan’s dog cut in and ‘save’ him as they’d done in one of the practice sessions. If she hadn’t known better, she would’ve thought he was a father trying to do his very best by his son. Did he want children of his own? Marriage? Though he came across as gruff and spiky with her, Fenella and Euan clearly adored him. They must think he was heaven sent. They probably thought a lot of things. None of which probably included being scooped up in his arms, flung onto a four-poster bed and having their wicked way with him.
Nope. She hadn’t thought of that once.
He glanced over and caught her eye. The gold sparks that lit up his brown eyes whenever he let himself relax became shadowed.
Well, then. At least she knew who, of the two of them, wasn’t fizzing with frissons.
‘Shall we get going?’ She rubbed her hands together then pointed towards the path they would be taking.
Max passed on the instructions to Euan and Fenella then walked over to her as if she were an obligation to fulfil.
Esme’s heart sank a little. She didn’t want to be an obligation. She wanted to be… Her breath formed into a little cloud as she huffed out a frustrated lungful of air. She wanted to be loved, that’s what she wanted. What she didn’t want was to have it be unreciprocated, so she needed to nip this whole light my fire vibe in the bud.
‘The place hasn’t changed much since I was here last,’ Max observed.
‘Oh, yes!’ She clipped Dougal’s lead onto his collar and tried to match