None of them were spoken for yet. He didn’t even know if they’d have the characteristics necessary to be search-and-rescue trained.

  But if they weren’t suited to SAR, they could still make great service dogs for the too many veterans who needed them. Or companions to kids who might need an extra friend.

  Like himself?

  He’d like to blame his harsh words to Ruby on the nightmare she’d helped pull him out of. She’d calmed him, and he couldn’t explain that to himself in any way that didn’t set him on edge.

  He’d been fighting the effect she had on him as much as he’d been reeling from the news that she had some secret guy in the wings.

  Whether the guy was the one vandalizing his place or not.

  And that’s where his defenses flew sky-high. Why on earth—other than as the possible source of the violence—should Ruby not telling him about her boyfriend matter to him at all?

  The only thing that needed to matter right now was the health of the puppies she was tending to. He’d called one of his employees, Andy Martin, to head to his place and sit with Jasmine and the other puppies, to watch over them just in case any of the others started exhibiting signs of unconsciousness, rather than mere sleep. If they couldn’t be woken up.

  He pulled up to the back entrance of the clinic as Ruby instructed, was out of his seat the second he’d turned off the truck, flinging open the back door and reaching for the box, while Ruby climbed out her side.

  She hadn’t said what she thought was wrong. He didn’t ask. Didn’t want to distract her.

  He just assisted, following all her instructions to the letter, as she checked vitals, drew blood, looked in noses and mouths.

  He knew enough about dogs to write a book. About breeding them. Raising them. Training them.

  Medically, he only had enough knowledge to be deeply concerned. Three lives... In all his years at Crosswinds, he hadn’t lost one.

  She’d told him to stay with the puppies while she went to the lab. Was back sooner than he’d expected.

  “They’ve been poisoned,” she said, as she worked over all three dogs with an efficiency that left him in the dust. “It’s some kind of petroleum-based something,” she explained, no longer asking for his help. “Maria, one of my most experienced techs, is on her way in. We need to get IVs started, but first, I’m administering an absorbent demulcent. We don’t want them to vomit. Petroleum-based poisons can do permanent damage to the lungs...”

  He held up his hand. “Hold that thought,” he said, and then, phone in hand, dialed Crosswinds to check on Jasmine and the other puppies, only hanging up after being assured that all were breathing fine, had normal temperatures and heart rates.

  As he hung up, he heard the back door open and shut.

  “It might be best if you wait in my office,” Ruby said then.

  She had other help. Didn’t want him around.

  He got it.

  Knew he deserved her rejection.

  Headed to the door.

  “Sebastian?”

  He turned back in time to see her glance up at him. “If we caught it in time, their chances are good. Only one in one hundred healthy dogs die of poisoning that’s caught in time. We should know within a couple of hours, at the most...”

  Their chances were good, not great. They were dealing with less-than-two-week-old puppies. Not healthy grown dogs.

  And petroleum-based poison? Like paint thinner?

  The puppies were in a secure crate. No way they could get into anything.

  If Ruby hadn’t driven out to check on them, if she hadn’t continued on to her task after he’d been such a jerk to her, those puppies would have died.

  After turning on the light as he entered Ruby’s office, he sat on the edge of the desk and called the detective who’d been assigned to his case. He’d been given a number to use, day or night. Glen Steele, the detective who picked up, said he’d send a team out to Crosswinds immediately.

  After hanging up, Sebastian called Andy to let him know the police were coming.

  And then, with too much pent-up energy coursing through him, he stood again, knocking a folder he hadn’t even seen to the floor. He was going to do as she instructed, wait for her in her office. But cooped up in one room when someone had been on his property? Poisoned puppies?

  Who did that?

  It took a special kind of sickness to attack babies of any kind.

  He picked up the folder, telling himself not to let his thoughts venture back to Ruby dating such an individual.

  Whether the perp was someone she knew or not, Sebastian’s property had been invaded again. Someone had actually been inside a locked building. Purposely attacked innocent puppies.

  His employees had all checked out already, as he’d known they would.

  Who else had been at Crosswinds since he’d stopped to see the puppies after dropping Elise back at the kennels upon returning from Colton Ranch?

  A piece of paper had half slipped out of the folder. Sebastian opened the folder to right it.

  The police would once again interview each of the four Crosswinds employees. Get an accounting of anyone they’d seen on the property.

  And...

  What was that?

  Express Medical Clinic.

  Ruby’s name typed clearly on the first line.

  He noticed that part last.

  After he’d seen the result marked positive.

  She was positive for something.

  He closed the folder quickly. Put it back on the desk.

  Didn’t want to process what his one accidental glance had seen first.

  Pregnancy test.

  Chapter 6

  It was almost eleven that night before Ruby walked into her office. She’d called Sebastian earlier. Told him he could go. Maria had offered to drive her out to pick up her SUV when they were through, but she’d declined. She could call any one of her brothers or sisters to take her, yet that night, or, she finally decided, in the morning.

  She wasn’t eager to have another conversation with Sebastian Cross that night. Whatever he’d been going through, whether it had been real or the result of an episode triggered from his past, she’d felt as though she’d been stabbed by his words.

  Hurt beyond one friend speaking harshly to another.

  She’d been hurt like a woman got hurt by a man she’d slept with. As though there’d been something romantic between them.

  Because she was pregnant?

  The knowledge had surfaced to taunt her any time her head hadn’t been filled with medical thoughts over the past couple of hours of monitoring puppies. And waiting.

  She was pregnant.

  Couldn’t wrap her mind around the test results, the fact that they said what they did. Let alone get any further along than that.

  The doctor at the clinic had told her to make an appointment with her ob-gyn sooner rather than later. At two months, there were many things they could determine already.

  And she needed to be on vitamins.

  Some of it she’d remembered from going through Hannah’s pregnancy with her.

  Nothing that felt at all real to her.

  Or as if the information was part of her own life.

  The three puppies were showing marked signs of improvement. She expected them to be just fine.

  And wanted to just go home to bed with that victory the last thing on her mind for the day.

  Instead, she was going to her office to sleep on the couch. The pillow and blanket she kept in the closet for that purpose would do just fine. She’d already set the alarm on her phone to wake her every two hours.

  She opened her office door, ready to give up her concerns and rest, and stopped. The one person in the world she absolutely did not want to talk to that night was still there. Sitting on what was supposed to be her bed in about five minutes.

  “I thought you went home.” Over an hour before. She’d told him to go.

  He’d never actually said he would. He’d just asked after his puppies.

  “You said the little ones would need two-hour checks throughout the night.” He didn’t stand, or grab keys from wherever he’d stashed them, or make a single move to vacate what was soon to be her bedroom.

  “That’s right.” She stood in the doorway. No way she was going to be in a bedroom with the man. Not ever again. “I’ve already set my alarm.”

  “You can’t be getting up every two hours. You need your rest.”

  What was he? The veterinarian police? As well as the dating general?

  “You need to go.”

  “I need to apologize,” he said instead, his hands on his jean-clad thighs as he met her gaze straight on. His beard was like a picture frame to the straight line of his mouth.

  Drawing attention to his lack of smile.

  “I want to tell you why I overreacted as I did tonight, except that I have no idea how to do that. But I know I was one hundred percent wrong and I’m truly sorry.”

  She wasn’t in the mood to be forgiving.

  She was tired. Hurt. And apparently pregnant, too.

  “I just want you to know, if you need anything... I know your family gets a little overwhelming for you sometimes, and, you can, you know... If you need someone to spout off to...”

  What the hell? He couldn’t still be hallucinating?

  Was she?

  She moved into the room far enough to drop down to her chair. With the desk in between them. An office, not a bedroom. “What on earth are you talking about?”

  “You were there for me that night Oscar was hurt. And then again tonight. You’ve seen me at my worst—at least more of it than anyone else has ever seen. And... I’m hoping that... We’re friends...”

  “Sure. I guess we’re friends,” she said, truly confused. And too tired to figure things out. “What’s going on, Sebastian? Are you sick or something?” Were his struggles more than residue from his past? Was it something physical? Something that was going to get worse?

  Her heart pounded and her stomach felt sick.

  “I know,” he said.

  She frowned. Tears of frustration pushed at her. She held them back and asked, “Know what?”

  “I was on the phone, leaned on your desk. I accidently knocked the file off, Ruby. I saw the test results.”

  The file. Results.

  Her gaze landed on the only such item on her desk. The one she’d left when she’d folded up Sebastian’s copies of the paperwork and put them in her satchel.

  Cold, hot, nervous as hell, panicking, she stared at him. He was so calm.

  And offering to be there for her?

  “You know?” she asked. Was this something he wanted, then? Something he’d welcome?

  She hadn’t, for one second, considered that possibility.

  They’d never even been on a date.

  He was Wade’s friend.

  His nod was slow. Seemed to be filled with compassion. “Does the father know yet?”

  She blinked. Shook her head. Wanted to stamp her feet. Or kick something.

  “What do you mean ‘does the father know?’” she asked, her tone low. Filled with warning.

  He shrugged the big strong shoulders she’d run her tongue all over. “About the test results. They’re dated today. And you were at my place shortly after you’d have finished here.” With a sideways nod of his head, he kept right on talking. “This boyfriend... I figure, since you’re keeping him a secret from your family...there might be some challenges, and in spite of my earlier words tonight, I just want you to know that I’m here to support you in...”

  “Stop it.” She bit out the words. Stood. Everything he’d thrown at her earlier cascaded down on her. Along with the boatloads of hurt his words had generated. “How could you think that of me?” She raised her voice. Didn’t care. “Aside from the fact that we owe each other nothing in the dating department, how could you possibly think that I’d have some secret guy and, in the light of ongoing events, not tell anyone?” Or, in light of the fact that we had sex, not tell you? The words were there, wanting to be said. She stifled them for all she was worth.

  “Hey, I’m just an innocent bystander here. My earlier outburst aside. I still take full responsibility for that.”

  “Move on, then. Tell me how you’ve drawn such a demeaning conclusion about my private life.”

  “I was at Colton Ranch today,” he said, looking as weary as she felt. “With Elise.”

  He’d been avalanche training, she translated, with a definite lack of patience.

  “Wade came up to me and asked me if I knew who the guy was. He thought maybe it was someone you’d met through Crosswinds. Like a handler who’d come in for training, or something.”

  “What?” The scream filled the hallway of the vacant clinic as she sank back down to her chair. “Has the whole world gone mad?” Or was it just her small part in it?

  Pregnant? Her brother claiming she had a secret boyfriend? Sebastian accusing her of putting everyone at risk by not exposing the guy to the police investigation?

  “Wade said Hannah came to him today. She was apparently really upset. Which, for Hannah...”

  Ruby slumped back, every bit of energy draining out of her.

  Hannah had promised not to mention the baby.

  “According to Wade, Hannah had irrefutable proof that you’ve got a secret boyfriend, and they both think that he might be the one after you. They’re afraid your secret is putting you in danger.”

  Which was why Sebastian had been so upset earlier.

  At least one thing in the world made sense.

  Until she thought about telling the man sitting on her couch, who was being so kind to her, that the baby he thought belonged to someone else was his own.

  Her stomach jumbling with nerves, she waved toward the lone folder on her desk. “That was her proof,” she told him, slowly. Hoping maybe he’d figure things out on his own and need some space as badly as she did.

  That he’d just go and leave her alone.

  Because alone was how she was going to have to handle the next phase of her life. Even without thinking ahead, she’d known from the instant she’d heard the second results that she was going to be doing it by herself.

  Maybe she was hoping they were going to point at folders, then talk around the issue and leave it at that.

  When he sat there, looking at her expectantly, she said, “I fainted this afternoon. Hannah was...”

  Sebastian sat forward, frowning, his gaze creased with concern. “You fainted? Are you okay? And you’ve been standing out there all night tending to my dogs? You should have said something.”

  He was a compassionate man. She’d known that about him...always. The way he was with dogs—he got them, just like she did. Accepted, and gave the unconditional love without reservation.

  “I’m fine,” she said, looking at the folder then, not at the man across the room. Thankfully, Sebastian was taking his seat again. Him towering over her was not a good thing for her equilibrium, either.

  “Apparently the smell of coffee is going to be off my list for a while,” she said inanely. Something she’d only just realized. “Hannah and Frannie were here having lunch,” she continued, buying herself time because she was too tired to just take charge and get what was coming, over with. “They insisted we head over to Express Medical, and I did so just to quiet their fears.”

  “You didn’t know?” More of that compassion was showing from his eyes. She hadn’t realized how much she’d noticed that about him.

  Because it was always focused on his dogs. Or people his dogs rescued. Or the veterans who needed his dogs.

  She shook her head. “I was sure it a mistake, and told them both so. And forbade them from telling anyone about the false result. I went back for a second test after work. To prove myself right.”

  Would he piece it together now? She’d had the test and then driven out to his place.

  Sitting forward, Sebastian rubbed his hands together, lightly, as though uncomfortable. “So...who is he, Ruby? Why the need for secrecy?”

  He still didn’t get it.

  “It’s you, Sebastian.”

  * * *

  It’s you, Sebastian. He couldn’t have heard her right.

  No way did his name have anything to do with this one. Coming at her with accusation in his tone—yes. But...being a secret boyfriend?

  Because he sure as hell couldn’t be what she was trying to tell him he was.

  No matter what.

  He was going to live without human beings in his home for the rest of his life. That decision had been made years ago.

  His dogs were his family.

  Being a secret boyfriend, one who still lived alone... He could, perhaps, in the future, wrap his mind around that one, but...

  He shook his head.

  There was just no way.

  “I used a condom,” he said quietly. Careful to be respectful of any emotional state her news would have flung her into. “A fresh one. All three times.”

  Three times in one night.

  What a night that had been.

  “I know.” Ruby nodded, seeming far calmer than the situation warranted. “That’s one reason I was so certain the test had produced false results.”

  One reason. There were others? He waited to hear them. Needed to hear them. To build his case against what she was trying to make him out to be. It wasn’t happening.

  When she didn’t elaborate, he pushed. “What were the other reasons?”

  “My cycle. I’ve had it.”

  Oh. Maybe a bit too much information there. For a friend trying to be supportive. That was maybe better left to the secret boyfriend.