He walked inside as the puppy wiggled once, then collapsed against him with a relieved sigh. Her pulse was normal, and she appeared well fed.
He strode back into the kitchen and his three dogs glanced from their pillows, ears perking. Lou Ellen rose, clutching her heart. “Oh my heavens. Look at that. Isn’t he the cutest thing?”
“She,” Pepper announced to no one in particular.
“That she is.” The oven timer beeped. “Let me go put her in a crate and—”
“Let me hold her.” Pepper extended her arms.
“You?” he said.
Pepper flushed. “She looks like the dog statue from the park.”
“Davy Jones?” He stared at the little puppy’s face. Pepper had a point.
“Now that’s spooky,” Lou Ellen said with a perceptible shiver. “She’s the spitting image. You’re going to call someone from the rescue hotline?”
“What’s that?” Pepper asked.
“Volunteers who take rescue animals into their homes. We don’t have a shelter in the town.”
“Yet,” Rhett added.
“Yes, yet.” Lou Ellen nodded. “Rhett’s hard at work raising the funds to get one built locally.”
The image of Hogg’s smug face shining out from theExaminerflashed through Rhett’s mind. The foundation hadn’t returned his last call. But right now there was a more pressing one staring him straight in the face. Pepper’s normally guarded eyes glowed.
His gaze fixed on her tiny top-lip mole, seized with an impulse to lick it. His whole body tensed, ratcheting up with desire, the near painful need to take her in his arms.
He’d seen her drop her closed-off look a few times, especially when he did a certain move with his fingers, but this was something else entirely. He knew how it felt, had suffered from the affliction all his life.
Puppy fever.
