If the three-inch strappy shoes were a clue, he’d imagine they were completely boner-inducing.
“Just let me get the dogs inside.” Unable to take his eyes of Melanie, he yelled, “Lady, get in the house.”
When the dog didn’t listen—big surprise there—he looked out across the yard and spotted her with her paws on a tree, panting up at a squirrel or a bird or some other wild creature nestled in the branches above. “Get your ball, Lady,” he called. “Time to go inside.”
The black lab looked at him, wide pink tongue lolling out the side of her wide open mouth, pushed off the tree, and put her nose to the ground, hunting for ball trail, Gabe assumed.
“I think Beau has the right idea,” Melanie said, and she sat on the top step on the other side of him. The spoiled dog groaned when she patted his side. He pawed at her knee, seeking more attention, and she laughed, petting him vigorously between the ears, which Gabe knew he enjoyed. Gabe certainly enjoyed when Melanie had her hands on him. And that dress? As if the woman wasn’t distracting enough in shorts and a tank top, she had to go and put that on. Mercy.
Gabe returned to his seat on the other side of Beau, trying to remember he was a gentleman and that he could get through an evening without jumping Melanie’s bones in a fit of uncontrollable lust. Yeah, right.
Lady returned, dripping drool on the steps at his feet as she dropped the retrieved ball again. “One more,” Gabe said, “and then you need to go inside.”
He doubted she’d follow that instruction, but he was very much looking forward to taking Melanie out on the town and showing her off, so Lady’s fun would have to come to an end.
Gabe picked up the sopping-wet ball and heaved it across the yard. Lady sped after it joyfully, hitting it with her paws an inch off center. The ball popped forward and bounced out toward the road.
A billow of dust rose up in a long trail as a vehicle sped down the gravel road toward the house.
“Expecting someone?” Melanie asked.
“Nope.” He didn’t see many vehicles out this way, but it wasn’t entirely unusual for the locals to use this road.
Lady chased the ball closer and closer to the road.
The old rattling pickup sped closer and closer to the house.
The ball bounced out into the gravel. Lady bounded after it, oblivious to the approaching truck.
Gabe’s heart froze, and he jumped up, scarcely aware that he was racing down the steps and across the yard “Lady! Stop!”
She stopped just short of the road and glanced back at him, tongue lolling, as she gave him one of her speaking glances. This one seemed to say, What? Do you think I’m an idiot?
He released a breath of relief and drew to a halt, turning his attention to the truck. It was going far too fast on the gravel road. Fucking idiot. As the rusty vehicle flew past his mailbox at the end of the driveway, Gabe yelled, “Slow down!” even though there was no way the driver would hear him over the rumble of tires on gravel.
The passenger side wheels grazed the grass of Gabe’s front yard, sending the truck lurching in the opposite direction as the truck slid in the loose gravel. The driver overcorrected the skid and drifted back into the yard. Gabe didn’t have time to process what was happening. There was a thud, a pained yelp, and the crunch and spray of gravel as the vehicle came to a skidding halt.
“Oh my God,” he heard Melanie say behind him. “Lady!”
That’s when he saw the unmoving mass of black fur lying in the grass several feet from the truck. Gabe knew he was running toward Lady, but he couldn’t feel himself move. He couldn’t feel anything but an undeniable rage welling up inside him.
He dropped to his knees next to Lady. Blood covered her side and the grass beneath her. Her left foreleg was bent at an unnatural angle. She blurred out of focus as he laid a hand on her head. She wasn’t whining, wasn’t drawing air, wasn’t moving at all.
“Is she okay?” A voice came from the open window of the truck.
Beyond shock and the grief came anger. As it was the only emotion Gabe could handle at the moment, he went with it. He sprang from the ground and stalked toward the truck. He wrenched the passenger door open, reached across the ragged bench seat, grabbed the driver in both hands, and yanked him bodily from the vehicle. Fists clenched in his shirt, Gabe slammed the driver’s back into the side of the truck.
“Why in the f**k were you driving so fast?” Gabe yelled.
The kid cowered, and some rational shred of Gabe’s senses realized he was just a child. He couldn’t beat the ever-loving shit out of a minor, no matter how much he wanted to. “How old are you?” he asked, because if this kid was over eighteen, he was about to get the ass-whooping of his life.
“F-f-fifteen,” the kid said, the unmistakable smell of alcohol wafting from his mouth into Gabe’s face.
“You’ve been drinking,” Gabe said.
“No, I—”
Gabe cuffed him on the side of the head. “Don’t f**king lie to me. You hit my dog, you little shit.”
“Is she… is she dead?”
The kid tried to peer around Gabe to see the damage he’d done, but Gabe slammed him against the truck again.
“If you’ve been drinking, why the f**k are you driving?” Gabe yelled, memories of one horrible, drunken night in high school rising up to haunt him. “Bad enough that you killed a dog. What if it had been a little kid? Would you be able to live with yourself? What if you’d hit a f**kin’ tree? Is a little drunken fun worth your life?”
“I didn’t mean to hit her. I have to get home before my grandpa finds out I took his truck.”
“And his whiskey?”
The kid lowered his eyes.
“Gabe,” Melanie said, her voice gentle and easy behind him. “We need to get Lady to a vet.”
“A vet?”
“She’s breathing, but she’s losing a lot of blood. I think she’s going into shock.”
Gabe released the kid’s shirt and whirled around. Beau licked Lady’s face, trying to get a response out of her. Melanie was holding the gash on Lady’s side closed with her hands. With bloody hands. God dammit to hell, here he was hell bent on teaching a fifteen-year-old a lesson, and his dog was bleeding out. Still, he couldn’t very well let the kid get behind the wheel again, and he knew that’s just what the little shit would do the second they were out of sight.
Gabe leaned into the truck and removed the keys from the ignition.