Page 18 of Honor ’N’ Duty

She released Smoke’s paw. “I’m studying to be a veterinarian.” Pie in the sky though the dream was, her new motto was to live life to its fullest, even if she did, at times, fail in her endeavors and fall flat on her ass.

For a long moment, Kade didn’t say a word. He just stood there, as if processing what she’d said and not knowing how to respond. “That explains the textbooks in your office. I’m impressed. But I thought banking and finance was your thing.”

Hardly. “My mother channeled me down the path to finances, but it was never my passion.” She went to the grill and lifted the lid, inhaling the meaty smells of burgers and hot dogs. She closed the lid. “Mom wanted me to have financial stability, and I did, but it never made me happy. Now that I’m on my own, I’ve decided to turn over a new leaf and pursue what makes me happy. What makes Rosa and me happy.”

Kade leaned back against the deck railing and crossed his legs at the ankles. “Sounds like a good plan.”

“It is.” She leaned against the railing beside him. “But it’s been a lot of work. It’s taken me two years to make up all the prerequisite courses I need before I can even apply to vet school. I’m going to try for an internship with a vet at a local shelter first. My grades are good, but I need to do something extra to bolster my application to the University of Pennsylvania.”

“That would be in Philly.” Kade frowned. “You’d have to move.” The creases on his forehead deepened, although why he’d care whether she moved to Philly or the moon, she didn’t know. “Have you put out any feelers yet for an internship?”

“Not yet.” Only because she hadn’t had the time.

“Maybe I can help. I volunteer at a shelter in Westfield. That’s where I found Smoke.” He smiled down at his dog, who cracked his jaws, as if smiling back. “He was found wandering along the shoulder of Route 22, covered in mud, oil, grease, and enough ticks and fleas to start an army platoon of insects.”

“He’s beautiful and intelligent.” Laia shook her head, astounded at how many animals were callously abused or discarded by people as easily if they were just taking out the trash. “Why anyone would want to give him up, I can’t imagine.”

“True that.” Kade nodded. “Their loss is my gain. For a dog that wasn’t bred and raised by a K-9 facility, he’s got the best nose for narcotics I’ve ever seen, and he can take down a perp in seconds.”

“If you like, I can put together an ice wrist wrap for him.” Again, she knelt beside Smoke. “You apply it right here.” She pointed to the impacted joint. “Fifteen to twenty minutes, several times a day.”

“Thanks. I’ll take you up on that.”

The light stubble on his jaw that she’d noticed earlier in the day had thickened some, looking even sexier. Yet another of the man’s physical attributes that she needed to stop ogling. And since when did a man’s five o’clock shadow become a physical attribute?

The burgers took that moment to sizzle and pop. Kade lifted the barbecue lid and flipped them. “I asked Ashley to look after Rosa tomorrow while we go to the DHS office to look at mugshots.”

“You what?” Laia shot to her feet. “Without asking me first? How do you expect me to leave my baby in the hands of a total stranger? I don’t even know her.” Other than the fact that she was an Amazonian blond bombshell.

“No, but I do.” He opened the bags of buns and set them on the top rack inside the grill. “I would never leave Rosa with someone who wasn’t completely reliable and trustworthy. Don’t judge a book by its cover.” He jabbed the spatula at her in an admonishing gesture. “Ashley has a PhD in psychology, and she’s great with kids, so cut her some slack.”

She crossed her arms. “Why can’t we take Rosa with us?”

He took a step closer, towering over her as a gust of wind brought with it his cologne or whatever it was that made him smell so indecently good. “Do you really want your five-year-old daughter looking at mugshots?”

“What’s a mugshot?” Rosa’s face screwed up as she pulled out another sanitary wipe.

“A picture of someone who’s done bad things,” Kade supplied, making his point.

Neither of them wanted Rosa anywhere near this mess. “Fine.”

“Good.” He returned to the grill and plated up the dogs, burgers, and buns. He set the plate on the table, then helped Rosa pick out a hot dog. “You want this one, right?” He pointed to a hot dog that had golden brown grill marks.

Rosa nodded, and Laia’s heart squeezed just a little. Most kids didn’t want a hot dog with grill marks, but Rosa had always liked them that way. Somehow, Kade knew that. Not even Josh had known all of Rosa’s food preferences. Especially the whipped cream thing.

When Kade began cutting up pickle slices for Rosa to put on her hot dog, Laia nearly choked on the lump in her throat. Rosa didn’t like pickle relish, but she did love cut-up bread-and-butter pickles. How and when had Kade learned that?

He jabbed the hot dog with a fork and put it on the bun.

Whipped cream squirted from a can…grill marks on hot dogs…chopped pickles…all the gifts Rosa had come home with after visiting her in-laws…

She’d known Kade had visited with his parents when she’d occasionally left Rosa with them for an overnight. To find out he knew this much about her daughter told Laia he’d spent a lot of time with Rosa. Just never when Laia was there. He wasn’t an absentee uncle. Just an absentee brother-in-law.

“Here you go.” He helped Rosa spoon chopped pickles on her hot dog.

The tightness in her chest eased, her heart softening as she wondered if Josh had painted an unjust picture of his brother, one of a selfish man so hung up on getting ahead in his career that he didn’t have time to visit with his family. Speaking of family…

“After we go to your office, we need to pick Rosa up and visit with my mother.” She selected a burger from the plate Kade held out to her. “She lives in East Brunswick at a senior-living community. We visit her every Sunday, and that’s nonnegotiable.”