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The teen nodded, looking both serious and nervous, but Justin knew the kid would do fine once he actually got started. “Why don’t you start with Sleepy, since she’s the most patient?”
Lamar knelt down next to the dachshund–bassett hound mix. Sleepy lay on her side, lazy as ever and ready for a nap. Already starting to panic, Lamar looked at Justin. “How am I going to wash her?”
“Start with what you can reach.” Justin drizzled a line of shampoo down Roamer’s spine and began working it into his soaked coat. “She’ll get up.”
Lamar looked over at Justin and mimicked his actions. The teenager frowned at the dog’s fur. “It’s not lathering.”
“Did you use shampoo? Or conditioner?” Justin asked, belatedly figuring out what had happened. It was an easy mistake to make—the white plastic bottles all looked the same. Only the labels were different.
“Oh. Conditioner, I guess.”
“It’s okay. Just rinse it out and pour on some shampoo.”
Lamar seemed frazzled. It didn’t help matters when Woof, who was still waiting his turn, began to bark hysterically.
“It’s okay, Woof,” Justin said firmly. “Calm down.”
Reacting to the excited hound, Fetcher strained at her leash then took it between her teeth. Justin knew it wouldn’t take much to chew through it and reprimanded the Labrador–golden retriever mix. “Fetcher, drop!”
Assuming they were involved in a tug-of-war, Fetcher pulled all the harder on the woven fabric lead. Anxiously, Woof intensified his barking and howling. Professor—the poodle–black Lab mix who hated chaos of any kind—began to look for a way out. Any way out.
“Fetcher! Stop!” Justin warned, reaching past Roamer to comfort Professor.
Meanwhile, apparently hating the feel of the shampoo on his back, Roamer rolled around on the deck, trying unsuccessfully to rub the soap out of his coat.
Realizing it would have been better to hook up two hoses, Justin waited while Lamar rinsed the foam off Sleepy.
Justin handed the teenager the appropriate bottle with one hand; with the other he worked to pry the leash out of Fetcher’s teeth. “Condition next,” he instructed.
Lamar frowned, perplexed. “I already did. Before I shampooed, remember?”
Justin grimaced as Fetcher clamped down harder on the leash and tugged with all her might. Meanwhile, Woof continued making a racket.
Justin had to shout to be heard over the growing commotion. “Condition after you shampoo!”
Professor, deciding he’d had enough of the ruckus, began yanking against his leash, using all his weight to pull free. Justin leaped to put a stop to that. Which was, as it turned out, all the opportunity Roamer needed. One jerk of the German shepherd–border collie’s long elegant neck and he was out of his collar. Still covered with swirls of shampoo, Roamer left the dangling leash and collar behind, bounded over the backs of Woof and Sleepy and raced across the long veranda just as an unsuspecting Amanda rounded the corner.
* * *
ONE MOMENT, AMANDA was on her way to see what all the hubbub was about. The next, eighty-five pounds of wet black dog rammed her legs. The impact knocked her off her feet and sent her sprawling so hard onto the wooden floor of the deck that the wind was knocked from her lungs. Roamer splayed awkwardly over her, equally stunned by the collision. He whimpered and licked her face as if to make sure she was all right. Dimly, Amanda was aware the barking and howling had stopped. She blinked again and saw Justin hovering over her, his handsome face taut with concern. Then she noticed Lamar, who was apparently just as worried.
“Amanda!” Justin physically removed his still-confused dog who sat, suddenly compliant. “Are you okay?” he asked, kneeling down beside her.
Feeling a little better, but never comfortable as a damsel in distress, Amanda started to rise. Justin slid an arm around her waist and helped her into a sitting position. “I’m fine.” She looked over at the half-bathed dogs, realizing why there had been so much commotion. She made a face. “You were bathing the dogs all at once?”
“It’s what I usually do,” Justin admitted defensively.
Lamar edged away, shoulders slumped, mouth tight. “Except this time I screwed it up.”
Knowing the last thing the youth needed was another setback, Amanda shook her head and answered in the same tone her grandfather used when she needed bolstering, “No, you didn’t. No one did.” She paused to give the skeptical teen a long, level look. Then she smiled, letting both guys know she really was okay. “Dogs just get excited sometimes.”
His hands still cupping her shoulders, Justin shot her an appreciative look that warmed her almost as much as his tender, protective touch.
“Do you have a dog?” Lamar asked, coming closer.
Amanda let Justin help her all the way to her feet. Realizing belatedly how soggy her T-shirt was, she plucked it away from her chest. She smelled like wet dog—as did the guys. “No. I always wanted one, though.”
Lamar leaned down to pet the now-quiet circle of animals. He regarded her curiously, and the sense of near-familial intimacy between the three of them deepened. “Why didn’t you get one, then?”
Amanda was aware that Justin was listening intently. “None of the adults in my life wanted to take responsibility, so I knew if I got a pet, I’d be completely on my own. I guess I was worried I’d let him or her down.”
“You wouldn’t do that,” Lamar protested.
It was good to know someone thought so. Unfortunately, Amanda knew better than anyone that she was better at short-term relationships, in general, than anything requiring a lifetime commitment. Only with her grandparents had she been able to forge something lasting. And that hadn’t happened until they had taken her in and put her on solid footing.
Lamar turned to Justin, not above pleading, “Maybe Amanda should help us finish giving the dogs a bath. Then we could do her a favor by helping her with the carpentry.”
Amanda didn’t want to cut into Justin’s time with Lamar. However, she did want to boost the teen’s confidence. And, given the mess the two guys had made of the doggie baths, it was clear they needed help getting back on track. “Okay.”
Justin blinked in shock at her quick acquiescence, which probably surprised him given the irate way she had walked out on him the evening before.
A little embarrassed that she had been so emotional last night—she could have just said no and left it at that—Amanda continued matter-of-factly, “I’ve got some heavy lifting that needs to be done, and I was headed over here anyway to see if I could borrow you both for an hour or so. Now I won’t have to feel bad about asking since I’ll be helping you fellas out first.”
“We would have helped you anyway,” Justin countered, in a way that let her know he was thinking about her curt refusal to his request for aid the night before.
Amanda refused to feel guilty about that. It had been a bad idea. It was still a bad idea.
She squared her shoulders and lifted her chin. “Yes, but this way we’ll be even.”
Lamar squinted at them. “Am I missing something?”
“No,” Justin and Amanda said in unison, despite the chemistry sizzling between them.
Again, Lamar took note.
Wanting to move on, Amanda took a deep breath and asked Justin, “So which dog do you want me to bathe?”
Justin paused. “Probably better take Woof. Fetcher’s still pretty rowdy.”
No kidding, Amanda thought, watching her recommence rolling around on the deck as if wrestling an invisible opponent, her leash once again clamped in her teeth.
“I’ll finish Roamer and then start on Fetcher,” Justin continued, getting back down to work. “Whoever finishes first can handle Professor.”
“So how long have you had your dogs?” Amanda inquired, picking up a bottle of shampoo.
“I adopted Sleepy and Woof when I was still living in Fort Worth and working at a nonprofit there. They came from a shelter. Professor and Fetcher came from families here in Laramie who thought they could handle having a pet and then discovered they couldn’t.” His voice thickened with emotion. “I found Roamer on the side of the road. He was painfully thin and infested with fleas and ticks. It looked like he had been driven out to the middle of nowhere, abandoned and forced to survive on his own.”
Amanda’s eyes filled just thinking about it. “That’s awful.”
Lamar’s jaw clenched in youthful indignation. “How can people do that?” he asked fiercely. “When you adopt a dog—”
Or have a kid like Lamar, Amanda thought.
“—it’s supposed to be a lifelong commitment!”
Only sometimes it wasn’t, Amanda thought sadly. “I guess some people aren’t cut out for that kind of responsibility.” She waited for her turn with the hose, then wet Woof down and lathered shampoo into his fur.
Lamar became even more irate. “Well, you can count my parents in that tally,” he muttered.
Deciding the only thing that would comfort Lamar was total honesty, Amanda confided, “And mine.”
Lamar’s jaw dropped. “You got ditched by your folks, too?”
Beside Amanda, Justin went very still. She realized these were the kinds of intimate details that Justin had wanted her to share with his dinner guests—to help them understand the plight of an abandoned child, from the child’s perspective—and she had declined.
Having shared it once with a man she trusted, and suffered the fallout, she wanted to keep the miserable story to herself.
Yet, realizing it might make Lamar feel less alone to hear her story, Amanda forced herself to continue. “My parents divorced when I was two. I spent the next twelve years bouncing back and forth between their houses.” She sighed heavily. “Both remarried and divorced, more than once, so to say it was chaotic is an understatement. I wasn’t happy about it, and I showed my displeasure by acting out.”
Lamar finished bathing Sleepy before turning his attention to the patiently waiting Professor. “How?”
Amanda shook her head in regret. “I skipped school. Shoplifted. Raided the liquor cabinet of a friend’s parents’. Threw parties. Secretly sneaked out to movies I wasn’t old enough to see.” Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Justin listening intently.
“Wow.” Lamar sounded impressed.
Amanda held up a cautioning hand. “It’s not as glamorous as it sounds, Lamar. I came really close to ending up in juvie. Luckily, before that happened, I tried to run away. The local police found me and took me to the station, where I officially entered the system, and a sympathetic social worker decided I needed more stability than either of my parents were able or willing to give. She talked my grandparents into taking me in.”
Amanda paused, remembering. “They had rules. Lots of them. I had to study for my GED and be respectful, help my grandmother around the house and work as Granddad’s apprentice when I had any spare time.”
Lamar reached for a bottle, paused, as if unable to decipher the labels. “And that was a good thing.”
Noticing he needed the conditioner, Amanda handed it over, and was rewarded with a grateful smile. “Yep. For the first time in my life, I really felt safe. And loved. And cared for.” She paused to towel off Woof, taking care to dry his face and ears before his body, just as she had seen Justin do.
That accomplished, she continued her story. “The point is, even though my parents couldn’t handle me or my problems, I eventually ended up in a better place. I was happy.” She paused to let her words sink in and saw Justin was a captive audience, too.
She turned away from Justin’s tender expression. Swallowing, she pushed on. “Even more important, for the first time I saw what a good marriage looked like. It made me realize how important it is to marry the right person from the get-go.”
Lamar turned to Justin, a question in his eyes. “Do you think that, too?”
Justin nodded as he toweled off Roamer. “Yes. My parents have a very strong and happy relationship.” He smiled at Lamar then turned and caught Amanda’s gaze. “Having that kind of love and commitment as a foundation makes for a very good marriage.”
“And happy marriages,” Amanda concluded softly, pleasantly surprised to find them all on the same page, “make happy families.”
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