Paws off the Boss by Casey Griffin (best summer reads of all time TXT) 📖

She shooed the German shepherd toward the back. Shoving the door open, she bumped into Addison and Zoe, who were listening in. She waved them away before closing the door again.

“So, what are you doing here, then?” she blurted. “I mean, is there something I can help you with?”

“I came in here a few weeks ago to see the manager, Marilyn, and well …” A boyish giddy look crossed his face. “I fell in love.”

Piper felt her shoulders slump. Yes. Stalker would have been better. “In love?”

“With a dachshund.”

“Oh, of course.” She laughed a little too loudly. “They’ll do that to you. Irresistible, aren’t they?”

“I just received a call from Marilyn. Apparently, my application for adoption was approved. She said it would be all right if I came to pick up my dog today.”

Piper recalled him mentioning his new doxie that afternoon in her taxi. “That’s great. Let me check the books.”

Walking over to the desk, she whipped out the communication binder. Her finger slid down the page as she scanned the adoptions in progress and found “Aiden Caldwell.” She read the name of the adoptee and frowned.

“Sophie.”

“That’s her,” he said. “Is something wrong?”

“Wrong? No. It’s just …” she trailed off, thinking about how Colin and Sophie had grown up together. Colin arrived at the center a few months back, and Piper instantly fell in love. But then came Sophie.

They’d been picked up off the streets separately. Sophie had ended up at the pound first, before they brought her to the rescue center. A scan of her ear tattoo revealed that she came from the same household as Colin—one that didn’t want them back.

If Piper had known they were bonded, she wouldn’t have separated the two lovebirds, er … dogs, but she couldn’t very well give up Colin once she’d adopted him. Neither could she adopt Sophie once they’d found her. It was bad enough that she was breaking her tenant agreement by bringing one dog home. She wasn’t sure she could smuggle in two.

Ever since Sophie had arrived, Piper had hoped to adopt her one day, too. That is, once she graduated, got hired as a vet, made some money, and could afford a bigger place where she didn’t have to hide pets. Okay, so it had been a long shot, but now it was an impossible one.

She forced a smile. At least Sophie would have a good life with Aiden. A charmed one, really. “It’s nothing,” she told Aiden. “Follow me.”

Piper led him into the back, past the kennels, and out to the fenced-in yard. Even though it was a small lot with a tall, rickety wooden fence and dying grass, at least the space allowed the dogs to play and stretch their legs. Addison and Zoe were already outside, playing with some of the dogs. When Addison noticed Aiden, the ball dropped from her hand. The dogs dove for it, fighting like a bunch of bridesmaids over a bouquet tossed at a wedding.

“Hi,” she said.

“Hello,” Aiden replied.

Cool Zoe gave an aloof wave, but Piper knew she was eyeing him up behind her sunglasses. Zoe’s lips pursed in approval.

Piper pointed to Sophie, who was gnawing on Colin’s ears and dragging him across the patchy, half-dead grass. “That’s her.”

Chuckling, Aiden bent down. Both Colin and Sophie scampered over to him. Sophie stood on her hind legs and laid her dusty front paws on his suit pants. He didn’t seem to notice.

“Hey, girl. Are you ready to go home?”

Piper could see the lovesickness in Sophie’s eyes. “She must remember you from the last time you were here.”

As Piper watched him kneel on the grass in pants that had probably cost more than her entire tuition for that semester—heck, the whole year—Aiden almost looked like a normal, down-to-earth guy. Not the formal businessman who’d shaken her hand a couple of hours before. She’d always believed the way a man acted around dogs said a lot about him as a person. And Aiden was a natural.

“Well, grab your new best friend,” Piper told him. “I have some forms for you to fill out up front.”

All four of them made their way back to the reception area—even though it didn’t take four people to sign the papers. Colin trotted behind Aiden, a possessive eye on Sophie. Piper’s friends not-so-subtly found tasks to keep them within earshot. Addison started the highly important task of reorganizing the junk drawer while Zoe re-watered all the plants until they were drowning.

Ignoring her audience, Piper gathered the approved paperwork for him to sign. He was just another applicant, after all. That was why he’d come. For Sophie. Not for her—not that she cared.

She laid the paper on the counter in front of him. “Sign here, please.”

Placing Sophie down on the floor, Aiden picked up the pen to sign. “I’m sorry about your job today, by the way.”

“Jobs, in the plural form. I also lost my pizza delivery job.” She waved it off. “It was my fault.”

“That reminds me.” Reaching into his back pocket, he pulled out his wallet. “I didn’t give you a tip.” He planted a hundred-dollar bill on the counter in front of her.

She gaped at Ben Franklin and then at Aiden. Who was this guy? Throwing around money like it was nothing?

It reminded her of the time she went to dinner with her brother after her father’s funeral. He’d whipped out his largest bill from a Dunhill wallet—which she only knew about because he’d pointed out the brand—to tip the server at Applebee’s. Applebee’s, for God’s sake. The tip amounted to more than the bill. It was a nice thing to do for the server, but Piper knew it wasn’t for her benefit. He’d practically waved it around in the air like a flag for all to see.

Very decidedly, she slid the bill back toward Aiden. “I appreciate it, but I don’t need your handouts. I’ll be fine.”

Aiden pushed it back toward her, amusement tweaking the corner of his mouth. “It’s not a handout. It was an impressive performance.”

She snorted but found herself smiling too. “And I definitely don’t need your pity.”

“I’m serious.” He held his hands up. “You have a pretty voice. Did you write that song yourself?”

“Yes, I did. The agency pays more when you write the songs.”

Aiden seemed to loosen up a bit, the business facade fading. “So …” He planted his elbow on the counter and laid his hand on his fist. “You really think my eyes glimmer?”

Behind Piper, Addison sighed. “Yes.”

Piper laughed but pushed the bill back toward him again. “I didn’t even know you when I wrote that.”

Zoe set the water jug down with a bang and rounded the counter. “But now she does and yes, they do.” She swiped the money off the counter, shoved it into Piper’s back pocket, and patted her on the butt.

Piper threw Zoe a warning look.

“And Piper thanks you for your contribution to her tuition fees.” Zoe slung an arm around her friend’s shoulder. “She’s putting herself through school, you know.”

“Are you?”

“Thanks, Zoe,” Piper said through a tight smile.

“No problem.” With a cheeky smirk, she spun away to join Addison on her perch next to the ladies, who, strangely enough, also seemed to enjoy the show from their tank.

Piper glared at her friends, who had given up pretending to work. She shifted her eyes to the back door in a desperate, silent plea for them to leave. They managed not to notice.

“What are you studying?” Aiden asked Piper.

“I’m training to become a veterinarian.”

“You must really love animals.”

“I do.”

He was still leaning on the counter, his glimmery eyes on her. They were back in full flirt mode even though she wore sweats that left everything up to his imagination.

“So, what do you plan to do now that you lost your jobs? How will you pay for tuition?”

“I still have my singing telegram job. And I’m a big girl. I’ll think of something.”

He tapped the counter with his knuckles, thinking for a moment. “Well … my company keeps me pretty busy during the week.”

“I would imagine so.”

“And I’d hate to think of Sophie cooped up in my place all day.”

“I’m sure she’d hate that,” she said, wondering what he was getting at. Or hoping, more like it, that it was a lead-up to asking her out. A doggy date of some sort, like a walk in the park. Not that she wanted a date with him or anything.

But Colin liked walks, as dogs tend to do. And there was Sophie to consider. They’d both be devastated if they never saw each other again. So, it was for the good of the dogs. Yes. She could do it for them, she supposed.

“I was wondering, you know, if you’re free,” he hedged, “if you would like to be my dog walker.”

She blinked. “Your dog walker?” Of all the things she would have liked to be of his, she hadn’t seen that one coming.

“I’d pay you well,” he said. “And it would really help me out.”

Addison piped up. “Yes. She says yes.”

“I’ll take it from here, Addy. Thank you,” Piper said. “You too, Zoe.”

Grinning, they waved goodbye and disappeared into the back. But they didn’t get