&nbs
p; “I think he likes you.” Gia smiled.
Her face glowed bright like the sun. The way her lush lips lifted at the corners to the way her cheeks puffed up and her eyes sparkled, it chased away the dark clouds that had been dogging him all day. In fact, her sunny disposition warmed a spot in his chest. He was inclined to smile back, which wasn’t like him, but he resisted the urge.
Ric cleared his throat. “Who? The concierge?”
Gia laughed. “No. The puppy. Well, I don’t know about the concierge,” she said in a teasing manner. “Would you like me to go back and ask?”
“No.” Now with the puppy on Gia’s lap, Ric checked his side mirror and then stepped on the accelerator.
“Where are we headed?”
“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. I did some searching and tried to find an available hotel on the island that accepts pets, but it wasn’t as easy as I would have hoped.”
“Oh.”
He glanced over, catching the smile slipping from her face. “But I do have a solution.”
“I’m listening.”
He drew in a deep breath. He knew once he uttered the words, there’d be no taking them back. “You could stay at my place. I have an extra bedroom. And it’s right here in the city, so you’d be close to everything.” Upon realizing that he was actually trying to talk her into this arrangement, he stopped himself. He would not beg. No way.
“I don’t know. You don’t exactly seem like the dog type.”
He cast a sideways glance at the puppy, who was watching him. “We can manage.”
“I... I don’t know.” She seemed genuinely caught off guard. If this was a performance for his sake, she deserved an award.
She wouldn’t be the first person to try to scam him out of his money—not that his uncle’s estate was truly his, at least it didn’t feel that way. It felt odd to take what once had been his uncle’s.
“It’ll make life easier with the dog. And I have a housekeeper who stops in every other day. I’m sure she won’t mind helping out with him.” He wasn’t so sure of that, but he would definitely make it worth her time to puppy-sit.
He could feel Gia giving him a sideways glance. “You’re sure about this?”
“It seems rather logical. And I do feel responsible for the puppy winding up hurt.”
There was a moment of silence as though she were truly debating her options. He was once again surprised by her. Most women would have thrown themselves at such an arrangement, but Gia seemed really hesitant to take him up on the offer.
“Okay. We’ll try it for tonight. By tomorrow, hopefully I can find someplace that takes a dog.”
It wasn’t much but it was something. “Sounds like a plan. I’ll just drop you off at the apartment before I head back to the office—”
“You’re leaving?”
Her outburst caught him off guard. This whole time she was acting as though his presence was a bother, but now that he had opened his home to her and needed to get back to work, she wanted him to stay? What was up with that?
He maneuvered his car through the light midmorning traffic. “I have work to do.”
“But what about the puppy?”
“I was thinking you could watch him.” He slowed and made a right turn. They weren’t far from his place.
“And what makes you think my time is any less valuable than yours?”
She had him there. He couldn’t even throw out that he was on the verge of making a valuable contribution to mankind because he frankly didn’t know if his plan was going to work out. Perhaps it was time to get to know his new roommate a little better. He didn’t like it, but he could work from home that day—or rather what was left of his day.
“Okay,” he said as he wheeled the car into his reserved spot, “I’ll stay home too.”