Four

I closed the door behind me, thinking I was glad neither of them was my mother!

When I returned to the desk, Zelda fluffed her hair one more time. “How do I look?”

“Eager and lovely,” I said.

She left to get the results of Macon’s survey.

The reception lobby was quiet. Twinkletoes sat on the desk, carefully washing her face. Ben hadn’t returned with Huey. I wondered where they had gone and hoped all would go well for them.

Ben’s apartment wasn’t big enough to hold my shoes. It would be a tight fit for Huey. Then it dawned on me that they didn’t allow pets in Ben’s building. Maybe Ben had finally decided to buy a house? It didn’t make sense that he suddenly wanted a dog.

The doors slid open and Cooper the yellow Lab trotted inside. Trixie ran to greet her new friend. Their tails wagged happily at meeting again.

A nice-looking guy in his late thirties followed Cooper.

What if he was Gustav? “Please don’t tell me you’re Gustav Vogel.” I looked at him hopefully.

He tilted his head and little wrinkles etched his forehead. “I don’t know Gustav, but it sounds like you’ll be happy to know that I’m not him. I’m John Adele.”

He said his name like I was supposed to recognize it, but I had no idea who he was. He missed six feet by about an inch. His hair parted on the left and while I gazed at him, he brushed it back a bit with his hand. It didn’t hang in his face but was casually mussed—no hair gel for this guy. A round face and mischievous blue eyes gave me the impression that he was fun. But I was confused by his presence. We had filled all our rooms. Surely we hadn’t overbooked! “Do you have a reservation?”

“You’re Holly, right? It’s working already.” He motioned toward Trixie and the Labrador. “Cooper loves your dog! That must be Trixie.”

Cooper and Trixie clearly liked each other. Both tails waved high as they gave the formal doggy bow that meant let’s play.

John grinned at me. “So you live in Wagtail? Perfect. What time do you get off? Maybe we could go for a drink? What’s your favorite watering hole?”

I stared at him in confusion.

He gazed at the floor and then back up at me, his mouth bunched. “You don’t have a clue who I am.”

With relief and a great deal of embarrassment, I admitted, “I’m afraid not. Have we met before?”

“We were matched on the Live Love Bark questionnaire for dog people.”

That was curious. I didn’t fill out a questionnaire. I pondered how to handle the situation. I’d been determined to stay out of the matchmaking scene, but John was cute and seemed like a decent guy.

“I’m sorry, John. I think there’s been a mistake.”

He blinked at me before withdrawing a sheet of paper from his pocket and studying it. He showed it to me. “There’s no error unless there’s another Holly Miller who works at the Sugar Maple Inn and has a Jack Russell named Trixie.”

And then Twinkletoes had the nerve to walk over and head-butt John’s chin.

He ran his hand over her head and scratched her cheek. I could hear her purring.

“This has to be Twinkletoes.” He tapped the paper with his forefinger. “See? It’s all here.”

Slightly alarmed by the information he had about me, I scanned the sheet. “I’m sorry. I don’t understand how this happened.”

“Okay. I get the message.” He tucked the paper into his pocket. “Is it me or Cooper that you don’t like?”

At the mention of his name, Cooper stopped playing, looked straight at me, tilted his head like he was confused, and pawed the air with his right front foot. He was adorable.

I ventured around the desk to pat Cooper and offer him a Sugar Maple Inn treat. Cooper wriggled from end to end at the attention.

“Cooper is great. It’s just that—”

The glass doors slid open, and Ben walked in with Huey.

Trixie barked at him, and Twinkletoes hissed.

“Whoa,” said John. “They really don’t like that dog.”

“It’s not the dog,” I muttered. “It’s Ben they don’t like.”

John’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “I never saw anyone get such a strong reaction. What did you do to them?”

“Nothing. I have no idea why they don’t like me.” Ben shrugged as though he didn’t care.

John shot me a curious look, but said to Ben, “You must be putting out some pretty negative vibes for them to act that way.”

“Holly and I get along great. It’s just these animals she picked up that don’t care for me. When Holly was fired from her job, I asked her to marry me. She would have if it hadn’t been for them.”

“I wasn’t fired!”

Ben’s eyebrows raised. “Short memory?”

“Okay, I was fired, but it’s not like it sounds. There were complicating issues.” John didn’t need to hear all the details or think poorly of me.

“You two were engaged?” asked John.

Ben said, “Yes,” at the exact time that I said, “No.” I was surprised that I cared what John thought of me and rushed to say, “We dated a long time ago but were never engaged. Ben, don’t you need to take your bag upstairs?” I fetched it from the office and handed it to him. Unfortunately, he didn’t take the hint.

“People keep asking me what breed Huey is. Do you have any idea?”

As though John knew what I was thinking, he said, “Shepherd. Maybe some husky? Two very intelligent breeds.”

Huey studied us with warm brown eyes.

“Would you like another dog?” I asked John. “Huey seems very sweet and well behaved.”

John turned to Ben. “You don’t want him?”

“It’s a long story,” Ben said. “I was supposed to be set up with a small dog for the weekend, but they gave me Huey. I called WAG and tried to trade him in for a Chihuahua or some small dog that doesn’t have a lot of energy—”

John looked at me, clearly astonished. “Is he for real?”

“He doesn’t know much about dogs. Not anything, really.”

“Listen, Ben. Bad news, buddy. Little dogs can be hyper. Just because they’re small doesn’t mean they lie around all day.”

“I did not know that,” Ben said. “Women carry them in their purses, so I thought they would be less active. It doesn’t matter anyway, though. They’re out of small dogs at the shelter.”

That was actually good news. Not for Huey, of course.

John stroked Huey’s back. “I hadn’t thought about another dog.” He shifted his attention to me. “I was more interested in meeting a girl.”

I felt the red blush of embarrassment flooding my face and the tops of my ears. “Maybe you could ask Macon to match you to someone else.”

There was no mistaking his disappointment. “Think she’ll be as perfect for me as Holly Miller of Wagtail?”

Ben fell into a coughing fit.