Page 47 of Perfectly Matched: Harbor Falls Romance Collection

Mack Roberts stared at the contract in front of him until his eyes blurred. The notes he’d made in the margins earlier were barely legible. Too long a day. He’d taken a six o’clock morning flight out of Asheville, which meant he had to be at the airport no later than four-thirty, leave Harbor Falls at three, and up by two a.m. He was now sitting in a hotel room in San Diego after a four-hour meeting with a client he was trying to schmooze. He wanted their business. His Internet marketing company was doing well but should he be able to snag this particular client, his company would reap the benefits.

The realtor had a nice concept going. Since property sales were down, and San Diego prices were extravagant anyway, the realtor was offering a service for house swapping that was suddenly becoming all the rage. His web-design team had worked up a unique package for the client, including a substantial social network-marketing platform that they thought the client would salivate over.

They were wrong.

Teach him to hire twenty-somethings to plan a marketing strategy for a set-in-his-ways sixty-something property mogul.

Aw, well.

Rubbing his eyes, Mack punched the button to extinguish the desk light and decided to turn in. Pacific Time always did him in the first day. Retiring early tonight meant he could be up and fresh in the morning, ready to tackle the day. He wanted this contract tied up within the week.

Sooner, if possible.

As he unbuttoned his shirt with one hand and pulled back the covers on the king-sized bed with the other, he registered the vibration of his cell on the bedside table.

“The pups,”

he whispered. He picked up the phone, read the incoming message, and smiled. Good. Ms. Larkin finally answered. And the babies were fine.

He hated leaving them behind, having only had them for a few weeks. He wouldn’t have made the commitment at all, had he known he’d have to travel to San Diego so quickly and be gone for several days. But this was an opportunity the company couldn’t refuse…and good thing he did come. The team of “boys”

he had hired would have been on a redeye back home in a flash, had he sent them.

He thumbed off the email, sat on the edge of the bed, and removed his shoes and socks followed by his trousers. Chuckling, he smiled at the thought of Paws and Buttercup. Such a nuisance, and he was in total love with them already. And yes, they had done the one thing he’d set out to accomplish by bringing them into his life—cured his loneliness.

Somewhat.

****

No matter how she held the leashes, Paws and Buttercup zigzagged in front of her, happily leading the way, their ears flopping, and their panting dog lips curled into twin smiles.

She needed one of those coupler things and put it on her mental list.

She’d untangled their leashes six times that morning already as she strolled downtown. Part of her puppy nanny business, of course, was dog walking as well as puppy sitting, but she’d never met up with a pair like these two. First, they were always so darned happy to see her. Second, there were two of them, almost identical. And three, she was falling in love with the rascals, even after only twenty-four hours.

It was pure bliss sleeping with the fur balls last night.

This wasn’t supposed to happen. One thing she prided herself on by being a puppy nanny was that she could easily separate herself from her client’s pets. It was essential. When she’d taken that dog-care class online, it was the top objective of the online professor, and one that she’d drilled into their heads often.

Puppy nannies do not fall in love with their client’s dogs. Number one rule.

She was breaking the number one rule.

She also broke another rule last night. The one about always following her clients’ wishes, no matter her beliefs.

But she just couldn’t put those babies in the crates last night. Just couldn’t.

You’re a softy, Larkin.

Her cell buzzed at her hip and they halted in front of the library. The pups jerked and twisted, eager to resume their walk. She struggled to hold the leashes in her left hand, while fishing out her cell with her right. Suddenly she was glad she had no other clients’ dog to walk this morning. She might not have been able to handle more with these two frisky pups.

When she hit the button to light up the screen, she noticed she had a text message. Strange, she rarely got text messages and she didn’t recognize the number. She punched the button to open it anyway.

How are Paws and Buttercup doing today?

M?

Then another buzz. She scrolled.

Have they had a walk yet?

How did M. get her phone number? Then she remembered. She had a signature line on her emails with her cell number. Okay, she supposed that was all right.

Plopping on the street side bench, she pulled at the leashes to get the pups to come closer.

“Lay down, kids,”

she crooned and patted their heads.

“let Mama do a little business here. Your…”

Hm, what was M? Mama or daddy.

“your master is on the phone.”

She felt compelled to respond right away, since she’d been remiss the day before. We’re walking right now, she typed. All is fine. And then, not really knowing why, she added. How is your week?

Male. M. was male, she decided right then and there, although she couldn’t really know that. Still, she felt it was true. She waited for a moment. No response. After another couple of minutes, she shrugged and gathered her fluffy friends, and stuffed her cell back into her pocket.

She’d not taken three steps when it happened again. Her hipbone vibrated with the buzz.

They stopped. Paws peed on a lamppost. Buttercup sniffed at her sandals.

She opened the message. The sun is shining. The meeting is long. I’m tired. And I wish I was home walking the babies instead of you.

Frowning, she stared at the words. Certainly, he didn’t mean anything against her walking the dogs, just that he wished he was here…walking his dogs. Not that he was saying he wanted to be there, with her. No, of course not, silly. He didn’t even know her. He wanted to be home, with his pups. It just sounded like he wasn’t having a good day and wanted to be home.

She thumbed the words back. I’m sorry you’re having a bad day, M. Just know that the babies are safe with me.

Pause.

I know. Within another three seconds flat, he added. Mack.

What? Oh. Your name is Mack? Yes. Of course. He is male! She knew it.

Yes. And you’re Alyssa.

My friends call me Lyssa.

May I? Call you that?

She hesitated. What was happening here? Her tummy just got all jittery. Sure.

Pause.

Okay. I must get back to my meeting.

Feeling rather unsettled and not sure why, she returned, Have a good day. Then she chastised herself every way to Sunday. Have a good day? That was something you said to people to just end an informal conversation. Just to be polite. But she didn’t even know M., er, this Mack. Have a good day?

Yes, it was an appropriate response. Definitely. This was an informal conversation.

Wasn’t it?

The pups jerked her forward.

“Oh, all right, kids! Let’s get this walk done.”

Struggling to look at her watch, she realized she had only a little over an hour before she had to be at Suzie’s for Speed Lunch Date number one.

****

Mack slipped his cell phone into his jacket pocket and took his time heading back into the meeting. The small resort he was staying at in Mission Bay was quaint and relaxing. He wished he felt relaxed.

Far from it. Looking out over the bay, he dreaded heading back into the meeting room. He wanted to tie this up and soon but this morning he’d been forced to call in his “boys”

and get them on the next plane out to the west coast. His client wanted to work through the entire plan with them—systematically. Suddenly, the client was into learning more about social networking, since his grandson told him about Facebook and Twitter the evening before.

It was going to be a long week. He wished he was home.

Walking the pups.

And learning more about Lyssa Larkin, Puppy Nanny, extraordinaire.

He was borrowing trouble. Why he was enamored with her, he didn’t know. Hell, he’d not even met her face to face. He’d not been enamored with anyone since Caroline. But for some reason, he wanted to know more about Lyssa. In fact, he’d even resorted to Googling her name a few nights ago. Wasn’t much there, as he had suspected, but he did find an archived news photo when she was Harbor Falls’ Homecoming Queen years ago.

For some reason that brought a smile to his face.

Her crudely designed Web site for her business left a lot to be desired. He was sure she’d created it herself with one of those free templates. Her picture there, more recent than the Homecoming Queen picture, was blurry and a little pixilated.

Perhaps he could help her out in that department, with the building of her site, helping with marketing, and so on….

No. Never mind. Borrowing trouble again.

Still, he was intrigued. He couldn’t put his finger on why.