Tails of Love by Lori Foster

Author:Lori Foster
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group

CHAPTER THREE

Adam drove on autopilot toward his Northeast D.C. home. Despite the work waiting for him at the restaurant, he needed to think. Why had seeing Claire again rattled him so badly?

The cell phone in his pocket played “Neutron Dance,” and Adam sighed. He regretted the day he’d let Émile program his phone with the ’80s hit. But his maître d’ had decided it was an appropriately named ring tone for the owner of Nuclear Fusion.

He slowed for a red light and answered his cell.

“How’s the patient?” his bookkeeper asked.

He should’ve known Martha would be waiting to hear. “Dr. Mendelsohn said he just needs some food and attention. She’s going to check for reports of missing cresties.”

“That hairless stray was a Chinese crested?” Martha laughed. “You know, they often win the Ugliest Dog Contest.”

Adam almost snapped that the poor animal wasn’t ugly, just half-starved. Instead, he reined in his unexpected irritation. “Well, Claire will get him fixed up and find his owners.”

“Claire, is it? You move fast, Nuke,” Martha teased him.

Damn. Just because he’d dated a few starlets in his years with the 49ers, he had a rep as a player on and off the football field. And now his friends figured he was always on the make. Before his nosy bookkeeper could pry any further, Adam changed the subject. “Listen, I’ve got some errands to run, so I won’t be in until six. Can you hold down the fort?”

Martha assured him she could, and he ended the call. The last thing he felt like doing was explaining how he knew Claire.

Besides, he didn’t really know this woman, this competent, compassionate veterinarian. The Claire he’d loved in college had been a shy bookworm, the exact opposite from the blond party-girls his fellow jocks had dated. But Claire had been anything but quiet with him . . . especially when they’d made love.

Regret clenched his gut, and he gripped the steering wheel with whitened knuckles. He’d had his share of bed partners over the years, enough to know now how special Claire was and how good they’d been together. If only he’d realized it in college.

The streets became residential and affluent, as he drove in silence with his remorse. By the time he pulled into his drive and punched in the code to open the gate, Adam was cursing the arrogant kid he’d been. How could he have pushed Claire away?

He parked the BMW in his garage and let himself into his McMansion—his parents’ nickname for the stone Colonial he’d purchased several years ago. Thanks to a decorator, the main floor was furnished and comfortable, but the only livable room upstairs was his bedroom. The place had great security and was convenient to his restaurant, but it’d never felt like a home.

Adam took the stairs to the second floor two at a time, then strode to the small bedroom at the end of the hall. Inside was a jumble of boxes he hadn’t unpacked since leaving San Francisco. He found the carton labeled “UVA” and placed it on the window seat by the room’s large, mullioned windows.

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