“Getting another dog would be a goodstart.”
“Towhat?”
“Love, that’s what.” Cait blinked and flashed him a know-it-all smile. “It’s in theair.”
“Not for me.” He turned his back on her and looked down at Sam, whose sad eyes told him heunderstood.
Every love story ended in tragedy. Either dumped ordead.
“Seems strange of you to run a dog matching service for veterans without having a dog yourself,” Cait persisted as only a persistent and absolutely annoying eldest sister woulddo.
“Will you quit bugging me?” Grady hunched his shoulders. Hopefully, once his sister became a mother, she’d have her own brood to nag andpester.
They walked on in an uncomfortable silence while Sam sniffed tree trunks and fence posts. Unfortunately, with Cait, silence was never golden forlong.
“Instead of staying up in that trailer, you should stay here with us,” Cait said. “This cabin is as much yours as it isours.”
The cabin belonged to their parents, so what she said was true, but Grady coveted his privacy, and he wouldn’t get any—even within his thoughts—with Cait yapping all thetime.
“I have to be there to guard the building materials, take delivery, and do the construction,” Gradysaid.
“At least catch your meals here,” Caitoffered.
“I’ll think about it, but don’t you two need yourprivacy?”
“Brian’s already volunteering with the local fire department, and I’m out all day house-hunting,” Cait said. “It might be fun to live above ourstore.”
“I don’t know if this town is such a great location for business,” Grady said. “It’s too remote, and the locals aren’tfriendly.”
“Unless it’s you who’s causing all the trouble.” Cait’s nose wiggled like a bloodhound scenting a particularly intriguingtrail.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Grady’s stomach pinched at her implication. “Are you asking me toleave?”
“Should I?” Her eyebrow cocked as she tilted her head. “Somehow, you’ve turned the entire Colson clan against you. I heard Linx was the instigator. I thought you two had this flirtation thinggoing.”
“We don’t even know each other,” Grady said, kicking a stone from thepath.
“Don’t tell me you tried to hook up with her and got turned down.” Cait’s eyes gaped in mock horror. “That would be a first—a woman actually turning youdown.”
“Oh, you don’t know the half of it,” Grady said. “I’m done with women. I thought I made that clear. No. More.Women.”
“You got shot down.” She smirked triumphantly. “I’m not stupid. You and Linx were flirting your asses off over Christmas. But since her dog hates you, she shut youout.”
Grady ran his hand through his thick pompadour hair. “What’s the big obsession about Linx? I don’t give a rat’s tail abouther.”
“Of course you don’t,” Cait said. “You’re a man of the world, leaving a trail of broken hearts from Alaska to New Zealand. But if you’re thinking of settling here, I’ll put you on notice, brother or no brother—take your ‘hate them and leave them’ stunt somewhere else. I’m starting a wedding business here, and I don’t want you scaring off potentialcustomers.”
“You might want to reevaluate the wisdom of a wedding business in California. Home of the no-fault divorce with the divorce rate over sixty percent.” Grady wasn’t a fan of romance and love—two of the fakest and most insincere concepts ever to plaguemankind.
There was nothing more disgusting than a simpering woman whose only hope in life was to marry a man—as if he’d solve all her problems and whisk her away to a life of luxury. No, thankyou.
He needed someone with abackbone.
Actually, scratch that, he just needed to get his rocks off and a woman who hated him was perfect for thosepurposes.
“To get divorced, they have to be married first.” Cait turned up her nose and shielded her eyes from the slanted rays of sunlight streaming through the forest. “I only care about the beginning, not theend.”
Sam sniffed around a fencepost and marked his territory, but he was well-behaved, not pulling or tugging. What a calm dog with suchpresence.
