“Anna,” she corrected him.
He nodded and reached for her. For a moment, her stomach fluttered as she anticipated his touch. What was he doing? But he simply pulled the strap to her bag from her shoulder—his warm fingers brushing the skin near the scoop neck of her T-shirt—and transferred it to his own.
“Your room is this way.” For some reason, she was surprised when he took it upon himself to carry her luggage, what with the housekeeper standing right beside them. When they’d reached the end of the hall, he placed her bags down on a four-poster bed in a room as big as the apartment she was staying in above Monty’s.
“I’m right across the hall. I’ve been keeping Milo in my room, but now that you’re here, maybe you can get him out more.”
“Surely you don’t keep him in there all day,” she said incredulously, the animal lover in her perking to attention.
“I take him out in the morning and before I go to bed, but it’s the best place for him while I’m working.”
She cringed. “Dogs need exercise and socialization. He’s not a toy you can put away. No wonder he’s having behavioral problems.”
Flinching as if she’d struck him, he collected himself. “Look, I don’t think he’s a toy.” His tone was calm and gentle, completely unlike hers. “The dog doesn’t listen to anyone. He drools all over the house, chews up anything he can get his mouth on, and scares the staff. I lead a very busy life, and Milo’s coming here was unexpected. I’m trying my best to accommodate him.” He spread his hands. “That’s why you’re here. You’re going to teach me how to do this, right?”
She sighed. Maybe she’d spoken too harshly. Many new owners were completely unprepared to care for a dog like Milo. It wasn’t fair for her to expect Kyle to have a lifetime of experience with canine behavior.
“Maybe you should introduce us again. The last time he saw me, he was sick. Better he associates me with a more positive experience.”
He gestured toward the door. “Come on.” Across the hall, Kyle showed her into a room even larger than the first, with a curved wall of windows overlooking miles of forest. The natural IMAX of the great outdoors created the perfect backdrop for the inner lair of the fairy-tale castle. A king-sized bed the width of a small island stood against one wall of the room, but as Laina entered, she couldn’t miss Milo. The mastiff had destroyed what appeared to have been a couch at the far end of an attached sitting room, his guilt-ridden face turning up to hers from the center of a cloud of shredded stuffing.
“Milo!” Kyle dug his fingers into his hair. “Another one?”
“Another—” She darted a glance at Kyle and back at Milo. “Has he done this before?”
“Twice.”
A giggle bubbled up Laina’s throat, and she pressed two fingers over her lips to suppress it.
“I don’t exactly see the humor in this sitch.” He shot her a judgmental sideways glance belied by the ghost of a smile that drifted through his expression.
“How long has he been in here by himself?”
Kyle groaned. “An hour.”
“Oh.” The giggle returned, erupting from deep within her chest. She gave up and allowed the laugh to come full force.
Mouth in an exaggerated gape and hands on his hips, Kyle waited until she was finished before asking, “Can you help me or not?”
She straightened to her full height and strode directly toward Milo, who immediately assumed a submissive posture, head down, tail between his legs. “Oh, he knows what he did. Look how he’s reacting. He’s practically crawling into the floor. That’s a good thing. That gives us something to work with.”
“If he knows, why did he do it?”
She shrugged. “He’s showing you he’s stressed, Kyle. Dogs are pack animals. They don’t celebrate when you leave the house with Netflix and ice cream. He doesn’t know you. He doesn’t trust you’re coming back. He’s bred to be a working dog, but he has nothing to do all day. He needs exercise and playtime. Social interaction. He needs to be with his pack.”
Kyle scratched the stubble on his jaw and stared at Milo with a look of frustration. “I can’t get another dog.”
“Not another dog.You, Kyle. You need to be his pack.” She stroked Milo’s head while Kyle digested that nugget. “Dogs soothe anxiety by chewing. I sense he’s coping with something more than loneliness and lack of exercise. Was Milo always nervous like this? What happened to his last owner?”
“As far as I know, Milo was a great dog. His owner died unexpectedly, and I offered to take him when no one else in the family could. I wasn’t prepared to have a dog, but I thought he deserved better than the pound.” Kyle sighed.
Something in his voice caused Laina’s heart to sink. Milo wasn’t the only one who’d lost someone recently. “How did you know his last owner?”
Kyle slipped his hands into his back pockets, trading his polished exterior for one bordering on exhaustion. “He was my father.”
ChapterFourteen
Kyle hadn’t wanted to share that little tidbit of info with Laina within the first ten minutes of her being in his home, but once again, her presence loosened something deep within his chest, and he found he couldn’t help himself.
