“Think about it!” Hank called after him. “It will do you a world of good to be around women that don’t outweigh you!” he said, laughing and making Trevor force himself to keep moving before he did something that would land his ass in jail.
“Zoe?”
“Yeah?” she said, pulling her attention away from the computer. Not that she’d been working. Nope. She’d been too busy trying not to die of embarrassment to get much of anything done.
Although, it was already the first week of October, it was still hot, but not hot enough to run the air conditioner. So, she’d foolishly opened all the windows to let in cool air and unfortunately, she’d heard more than she’d wanted to.
“Zoe?” Jared said, drawing her attention. She looked up at her boss, hoping against hope that he hadn’t heard.
“Yes?” she asked, hoping he wasn’t going to try and comfort her. She hated pity more than anything.
“Are you going to eat that?” Jared asked, looking down at her salad with diced-up chicken and licking his lips as though he was staring at fillet mignon.
Relieved that he hadn’t heard, Zoe sighed as she looked down at her salad. She was pretty hungry, but maybe she shouldn’t overdo it, she thought even as her stomach protested.
“No. Do you want it?” she asked. She’d barely finished asking when Jared reached out and snatched up her bowl. Well, at least she cut out two hundred and fifty calories off her diet, Zoe thought with an inward sigh.
“Thanks,” Jared said, already picking at her salad and snacking on a cucumber slice as he made his way over to the refrigerator. “I need you to run an errand,” he said, grabbing a bottle of creamy French dressing from the fridge and smothering the salad in it.
She licked her lips hungrily as she imagined how good that would taste. For the past two and a half months, she’d forgone any type of condiment on her food, telling herself that she didn’t need any extra calories. After what she’d just heard, she had to agree.
“Sure. What do you need?” Zoe asked, grabbing her purse, glad to have a distraction from what she’d heard.
“Could you run some contracts down to the animal shelter? They need us to build some new kennels and fix one of the buildings,” Jared said around a huge bite of salad.
“No problem,” she said, getting to her feet.
“After that, you can take the rest of the day off,” Jared said, surprising her.
“A-Are you sure?” Zoe asked nervously, even though by this point, she really should be used to Jared’s generosity. It seemed that nearly three months of kindness wasn’t enough to make up for three years in hell, but she was working on it.
Jared simply chuckled. “Yes, I’m sure. Get the hell out of here and enjoy your weekend,” he said as he made his way to the office to get the contracts, but not before he swiped her bottle of water on the way almost as though he couldn’t help himself.
As Zoe followed after him, she couldn’t help but wonder if there was a name for this food obsession all the Bradford males seemed to suffer from. Though, she wasn’t going to complain about it since it was helping her lose weight.
Chapter 9
“Please don’t look at me like that,” Zoe whispered, feeling helpless as large chocolate brown eyes looked up at her pleadingly.
“It would never work out between us,” she added, wishing Tom, the animal control officer, would hurry back so she could leave.
Toby simply cocked his head to the side and let out one of the most pathetic whimpers she’d ever heard, causing her to worry her bottom lip between her teeth.
“I’m sure a very nice family will come along soon and take you home with them,” Zoe rushed to explain, hoping she’d be able to convince him to stop making her feel guilty. “I’m sure they’ll have plenty of kids to play with you and sneak you yummy table scraps. I’m on a diet, so anything I gave you would be gross. You wouldn’t want that, now, would you?” she asked, sounding hopeful.
Instead of losing interest, he wagged his tail and let out an adorable little puppy bark. She frowned. Could a forty-pound dog really be considered a puppy? She didn’t think so, but Tom had assured her that the German Shepherd-Husky mix was only a puppy. She’d have to take his word for it since she knew absolutely nothing about dogs.
“Please don’t look at me like that,” Zoe whispered, feeling herself weaken. “I can’t have a dog, buddy. I’m sorry,” she explained, but the look of adoration on his face said that he simply didn’t care. “I rent and my landlord was very specific in the lease that I can’t have dogs and if I take you home, I’ll have to find another place to live and I really like my apartment, so please stop looking at me like that. I’m sure you’ll have a new home really, really soon, okay?” she said, having absolutely no doubt that someone would scoop up the adorable dog soon.
“Don’t count on it,” Tom said as he walked back into the kennel room.
“What do you mean?” Zoe asked, standing.
“He’s scheduled to be put down today,” he said with a shrug.
“B-But...he’s just a puppy,” she said, throwing a nervous look at the dog who was still watching her.
“I know,” Tom said, not sounding happy about it at all. “But this is a city-funded shelter and this little guy has been here too long. I don’t have a choice in the matter,” he said, frowning up at the clock on the wall. “Actually, he was scheduled to be put down twenty minutes ago, but you showed up just as I was getting the room ready.”
