Rachel pushed to her feet, the leash clutched in her fist. “Fang’s a girl, you know.”
“The name stays. Let’s get out of here.”
“Fair enough.”
She placed the bag on the seat then shoved at least fifty pounds of puppy into the back of the Jeep. The pup whimpered as she watched her crappy prior owner drive away.
Rachel cursed softly. “Jackass took better care of his surfboard than he did his dog.”
Liam watched her hand curve around the big puppy. Rachel was fierce. Protective. Strong and soft all at once.
To hell with less baggage.
She was everything he’d ever wanted in a woman. He may have fallen in love easily in the past, but damned if he could remember ever falling this hard.
***
On the road again, Rachel opened the food bag on her lap and pulled out a po’ boy for Liam. Disco curled up at her feet. The boxer—Fang—had wedged herself in the small floor space behind Liam, her wide brandy brown eyes never leaving Rachel.
She passed Liam the sandwich warily. “Aren’t you going to chew me out for making a scene?”
“Nope.” He took the paper-wrapped meal from her hand without looking over at her.
He’d gone strangely quiet right after they named the dog. Did he regret taking Fang? Was he pissed off at her? After all he’d done for her, she couldn’t bear it that she’d upset him. Bad enough that she’d turned herself into more of a liability—and added another dog to their pack.
“Come on, Liam. You’re obviously upset. I can see why you’d be mad at me. I was anything but low profile, except I couldn’t just turn away—”
“Hey, stop. Really. I mean it when I say I’m not pissed, so don’t go trying to read what I’m thinking. You needed to let off steam and he needed his ass kicked. A lot less conspicuous than if the guy at the register had called the cops.”
The police. The fishy scents from the bag made her nauseous. “God, what if the cops had shown up anyway? What if the wrong people figured out where we are? What if somebody asks that older couple about us?”
“The cops didn’t come and we’re way off the radar.” He reached for his drink to wash down a bite.
She nibbled a French fry halfheartedly, her appetite fading. “I should have placed an anonymous call to animal services.”
“With our untraceable phone? Maybe. But even if you had, the chances of them finding the guy, much less being able to pursue anything after the fact, are slim.” He glanced over, his eyes… guarded, but not angry. “You should already know that. Didn’t you tell me once that your mom worked for animal control?”
“That’s right. I’m touched that you remember.” She’d heard her married friends complain more than once about being tuned out by the men in their lives.
“Of course I remember. You told me how you mother died working that job. That had to have been awful for you and your father.”
Rachel scratched at a rusty spot on the door. “My father and mother split when I was about eight. He moved to another state. I didn’t see much of him. I still don’t. My mom and I were… everything to each other.”
Her mother had died investigating a dog-fighting ring. The owner hadn’t taken well to seeing so many of his “assets” seized. He’d gone after her mom with a baseball bat to the head. She’d never regained consciousness. The loss, her mother’s fierce bravery—it all welled up inside her until her throat closed.
Liam accelerated, the Jeep plowing deeper into the tunnel of Everglades foliage. “Seeing that guy go ballistic on his dog must have made you think of your mom and how she died.”
“I wasn’t thinking that at the time, but now that you put it that way… Sure. I guess a lot of what I do is ingrained from watching her. She was an amazing woman, strong, passionate about her work being a voice for homeless and abused animals.”
“She sounds a lot like you.”
Chuckling, she shook her head. “I wish. I certainly wanted to be like her. I even got to go to work with her sometimes.”
“To the shelter?”
“Sure. But sometimes I even got to ride along when she went out for a seizure. Not as often as I would have liked, though.”
An eyebrow shot up toward his hairline, the tips of his hair bleached blond from time in the sun. She couldn’t help but think how people paid serious bucks for a look like that, yet he was a hundred percent natural. She’d accepted that she wanted him, but the whole how of a relationship with him boggled her mind. Hell, what did they really even know about each other beyond sharing info about past relationships?