The Cowboy's Sweet Redemption by Kacy Cross

Author:Kacy Cross
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: contemporary romance, Entangled, Bliss, sweet romance, romance, cowboy; ranch; rancher; college; grad student; dog; trainer; support animal; veteran; military; romance; boss; employee; lie; redemption; ugly duckling; Bliss; Kacy Cross; art; widow; doctorate; forced proximity; mistaken identity; opposites attract; tortured hero; love; under your nose; service dog; USA Today Bestseller; Kat Cantrell; Texas; rural
Publisher: Entangled Publishing, LLC
Published: 2022-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Caught off guard, Zero hit the water at exactly the wrong angle. Sludge and maybe some dog hair gushed into his half-open mouth. Nice.

He rolled, planting his feet underneath him, and came up out of the water sputtering, a few choice words slipping out as he spat. Water poured from his clothes in rivulets.

Those blasted dogs. First the sugar and now this. They’d be lucky if he didn’t put an ad in the paper—free to a good home. Free to any home that wasn’t his, regardless of the quality. He might throw in a dog trainer for free.

Delilah stood there on the shore, hand over mouth in silent horror. Then her shoulders started shaking. Was she crying? Concern shoved everything else out of his head as he started toward her, bent on assuring her he was fine, no harm done. He didn’t really want her gone, despite the wisdom of the idea.

A squeak wormed its way through her fingers, and that’s when he realized she was laughing, not crying.

“It’s really not that funny,” he said, which just made her laugh harder. “Those dogs are a menace.”

Which he would have thought had been made abundantly clear, hence the need for training. Why was his own mouth twitching in response to her gales of laughter? This was not a situation that would normally amuse him, but there was something about the pureness of Delilah laughing that lightened everything inside. Against all odds.

“I know,” she gasped. “It’s not funny at all. It’s terrible. You’re going to fire me and I’ll be homeless. It’s a disaster.” Tears leaked from her eyes, giving the impression she really had started crying, but since she hadn’t stopped laughing, it was hard to sort out which reaction she’d picked.

“I’m not going to fire you,” he told her gruffly, mostly because he was trying to sort his own reactions, none of which made sense.

He should be firing her, if for no other reason than to get her off his property before he did something dumb like try to rescue her again. He was a sucker for someone who needed his help.

“You should,” she said in an echo of his thoughts. “That wasn’t exactly an accident, and I’m not sorry. I’m the best thing that’s ever happened to you, and you needed a minute to think about that.”

She’d knocked him in the water on purpose? Well, well. Two could play that game. Without weighing the consequences for the first time in longer than he could remember, he wrapped a firm hand around her shoulder and pushed her backward. Into the water.

Except he forgot she still held the dog’s leash. It tangled around his ankles as she went down, taking him with her. Instinctively, he tightened his grip on her, twisting as they fell so he wouldn’t land on her.

The splash drenched them both, dogs happily barking and frolicking in the water around them. Water dripped from her hair into his face as she sucked in a shocked breath, but he couldn’t breathe at all.

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