Until We Touch (Fool's Gold #15)

She crossed her arms over her chest. “I just want to be a part of something. I want...” She paused as yet another uncomfortable truth rose to the surface. “I want what my sisters have. A conventional, normal marriage with a couple of kids and a great husband.”


A muscle twitched in Jack’s jaw, but what he said was, “I want that for you, too.”

“With another guy?”

“Unless you’re playing for the other team these days. If so, I know a really cute girl who might be your type.”

“Ha ha.” She sighed. “I’m so boring.”

“You’re not. You’re lovely.”

“I’m nearly thirty, single and desperately in love with a man who has no interest in me. The only thing that would make me more of a cliché was if you were married. Honestly, how did this happen?”

He shrugged. “You couldn’t help yourself, Larissa. You never had a chance. I mean, come on. It’s me.”

Which was both funny and completely the truth, she thought as she smiled at him. “You’re not all that.”

“I would agree with you, except for this situation between us. It kind of proves my point.”

“You’re so annoying.”

He held out his arms.

She hesitated for a second, then stepped into his embrace. It wasn’t like the one from a few nights ago. There was no erection, no kissing. Just the familiar feel of Jack’s arms around her.

“Friends?” he asked.

She nodded. “I wonder if Kenny would like to go out with me.”

“Aren’t you the funny one? Want to go get dinner?”

“Sure. I’m going to order the most expensive item on the menu.”

“That’s my girl.”

* * *

ORDER WAS RESTORED to the Score family, at least on the surface. Larissa was grateful to have something close to normal in her relationship with Jack. They hung out together, she gave him massages—without him getting aroused—and together she and Percy teased him mercilessly about his somewhat pathetic attempt to have the birds-and-bees talk with a streetwise teen.

But in her quiet moments, when she was alone, she wondered how she was supposed to move on with her life. How was she supposed to fall out of love with Jack and in love with someone else? Score sucked up all her time. While she hung out with her friends a lot, she rarely saw any man who didn’t work at Score, and the ones she did were engaged or married to her friends. While it seemed Fool’s Gold had a few good men around, she wasn’t meeting them. If only she’d been more excited about cowboy Zane.

Larissa confirmed Jack’s foursome for the Pro-am, answered a couple of emails from previous recipients of Jack’s largess on the transplant front and was about to start on putting away the clean linens that had been delivered when her cell phone rang.

“Hello?”

“Larissa? It’s Dan. We have an emergency. Remember the lady in Stockton with the chiweenies? We finally got in and it’s as we feared. We have a hoarding situation. It seems like she started out with the best of intentions and then it all got out of hand. We’re heading down within the hour.”

Larissa closed the linen cabinet and walked into the hallway. “What do you need?”

“Help with the dogs. We’re going to take the rescue van with us. That should hold most of the dogs. Two other people are bringing SUVs so we have enough cargo space. What we need is help walking, feeding and watering the dogs. It’s only going to be a day or so. We’ll meet in north Sacramento tomorrow morning at seven and then drive down. Her place is east of Modesto by about thirty miles. We’ll collect the dogs and drive them back here. Once they’re evaluated, we’ll get them into foster homes. We’re going to need help with that, too.”

She nodded. “I can be there at seven, no problem. As for fostering, just tell me how many dogs we’re talking about and I’ll find temporary homes.” She’d had great luck a couple of months ago with placing cats.

“You’re a lifesaver.”

Nothing that dramatic, she thought, but it was nice to be needed.

* * *

THE NEXT MORNING, Larissa was on the road by six, heading to Sacramento. She met up with the small caravan that would make its way down to Modesto to rescue forty chiweenies and they started south. She was a little tired from not having slept that well, but she must not have been the only one who was lagging a little. Halfway to their destination, they all pulled into a Starbucks for a pick-me-up.

“It’s always the same,” one of the women was saying as Larissa joined the group. “Somebody thinks he or she can start breeding dogs, with absolutely no experience, of course. They get overwhelmed and suddenly they have fifty animals running around.”

“Are they charging her with something?” a man asked.

Dan shook his head. “No. She’s surrendering all the animals voluntarily, so she won’t be charged. The court will insist she not have more than two pets at any given time. If she has more, she can be charged with contempt.”

“If you ask me they should stick her in a too-small cage for a few months,” another woman said, her expression fierce. “Then we’ll see how she likes it.”