Kathie DeNosky - Rescuing Christmas - Holiday Haven / Home for Christmas / A Puppy for Will

But he’d like to see the man who could do that and ignore the flowery scent of her skin and the tickle of her warm breath on his cheek. If he made a half turn, his lips would meet hers. But kissing her at all would be inappropriate, not to mention kissing her in a public office space under the watchful eye of her receptionist.

He reminded himself that he enjoyed his job and would not care to lose it because he’d behaved unprofessionally while on assignment.

She wasn’t helping, though, with her little gasps of delight as she scrolled through the pictures. The noises she made sounded way too much like a woman responding to a lover. Knowing how joyfully she embraced life, he imagined she’d be equally joyful when she made love.

“Oh, Ben, these are great!” She clicked to the next frame and sucked in a breath. “Look at those blue eyes. All Siamese are stunning, but Hyacinth has the most amazing eyes.”

So do you, Tansy . But he couldn’t say that now, and probably not ever.

Eventually she got to the dog section. At one point she actually moaned with happiness. “Wonderful. Just wonderful. You have such a talent.”

He’d been told he had talents in other areas, too, but he’d bet money that kind of expertise wasn’t Tansy’s top priority. Openness would be important to her, and he wasn’t a tell-all kind of guy.

So he fought his natural response to being achingly close to her. Anyone would think he hadn’t been with a woman in quite a while. And anyone would be right.

Yes, he’d been out of the dating scene for a few months, but that wasn’t the problem. He wasn’t some sex-starved adolescent who couldn’t go without it. His current need was specifically for Tansy.

He wanted to kiss her until they were both senseless with desire. They had obvious chemistry, so that part of their relationship would go just fine. It was the pillow talk that scared the devil out of him.

As he battled his demons, he was startled by the orange tabby, Max. The cat appeared from nowhere and jumped into his lap. Ben spoke without thinking, giving an automatic response ingrained years ago. “Get down, Mickey.” He realized his mistake immediately. “I mean, Max.”

Tansy’s head whipped around and her eyes grew wide. “He’s on your lap.”

“So it seems.” He started to remove the cat.

“Ben, you don’t understand. I’ve never seen him get onto someone’s lap. Could you…could you let him stay there for a little while? I want to encourage that behavior.”

“I guess.” So instead of lifting the cat down to the floor, he began stroking him. Max purred and kneaded his claws into the denim of Ben’s jeans.

“That’s amazing. He’s acting like a regular cat.”

Using both hands, Ben caressed Max in a remembered pattern, beginning at his chin and working his way to the base of his tail. “He probably was a regular cat before something happened to make him unfriendly.”

“I’m sure you’re right.” She regarded him silently for a few seconds. “What did you call him when he first jumped up?”

“Oh.” He threw the explanation out in an offhanded way. “I used to have a cat who looked a lot like Max. His name was Mickey. I was concentrating on the pictures and had a memory lapse.”

“What happened to Mickey?”

“Got hit by a car. The vet tried to save him, but he was hurt too bad.” Twelve years later, and he still hated thinking about that day. So he didn’t until forced to, like now.

“I’m sorry.”

Fortifying himself against the sympathy he knew he’d find there, he looked into her blue eyes. “It’s okay. It was a long time ago, and he was ten. That’s not so bad for a cat.”

“But not so good for the person who loved him.”

“I got over it.”

She gazed at him for a moment longer before glancing away. “Yes, I’m sure you did.”

She didn’t believe him. And that meant more questions would follow. Damn it.

TANSY SOMETIMES FORGOT people, but she never forgot an animal, especially when that animal was connected to tragedy. Now she remembered why Ben was familiar. He’d been the sobbing teenager who’d brought his one-eyed orange tabby to the vet’s office where she’d volunteered after school.

But she didn’t think he’d appreciate knowing that she’d been the sixteen-year-old girl who’d held him while he cried that day, so she kept the information to herself. After she got home, she’d looked for him in her high school yearbook, but he hadn’t been there. He’d slipped in and out of her life without a trace.

And now, twelve years later, here he was sitting right next to her. Max continued to attach himself to Ben’s lap as if Velcroed to his jeans, while Tansy went back to exclaiming over the still shots. When they finished with those, Ben propped the camcorder on her desk and shared the videos he’d taken.

Although they both behaved as if nothing had changed, everything had changed for Tansy. The pieces of the puzzle that made up an image of Ben Rhodes were coming together. He’d said Mickey died at ten, so he’d likely had the cat since he was a young boy. Judging from the depth of his grief that day, Tansy suspected Mickey had been the only pet and possibly the best friend of a lonely boy.

After Mickey had taken his last breath, Ben had charged out the door, his face contorted with pain. Days later an envelope stuffed with cash had arrived at the vet’s office, along with a scrawled note of thanks. The vet had shown both to Tansy, but there was no return address, no phone number, no contact information at all.

With their unconditional love and devotion, it was easy for animals to become a person’s lifeline. If Mickey had been that for Ben, she could understand why Ben might have decided that loving an animal made him too vulnerable. She understood, but it made her sad.

She felt especially sad when she looked at Max, who acted as if he’d finally found his soul mate. As he sat contentedly purring on Ben’s lap, he wasn’t the same cat who refused even the slightest caress from any of the other employees and volunteers. During a break in phone calls at reception, she asked Faye to come over and witness the miracle.

Faye stared at Max in disbelief. “I’ll be damned. Ben, you must be a sorcerer. You should see what we go through when we have to bandage his tail and put on his cone.”

“I guess there’s something familiar about me.”

“I don’t think he responds to you simply because you’re a guy,” Faye said. “We’ve had other men volunteer at the shelter, and Max ignored them the way he ignores us.”

“It could be the sound of his voice or the way he smells,” Tansy said.

Ben laughed. “Must be the tuna fish oil I rub on after my shower.”

“So that’s it.” Tansy grinned at him, and they were almost back to normal with each other. But she would always look at him differently now that she knew, or thought she knew, why he avoided bonding with animals.

That decision was costing him, too, though she wasn’t sure he realized it. The way he interacted with animals revealed how much he hungered for the connection he denied himself out of fear. Yet she had no idea how to fix the situation.

If she asked him to take Max home for the Christmas holidays, he probably would say no. On the other hand, what did she have to lose? She might as well find out exactly how rigid he was on this matter.

The shelter phone line started ringing. “I need to answer that,” Faye said. “But don’t move. I want a picture of Max sitting on your lap. If I tell the others, they’ll think I’ve been smoking funny cigarettes.”

Tansy and Ben finished up the videos before Faye reappeared, brandishing her camera phone. “I’m emailing this to a bunch of people who know how much of a grouch Max is.” She aimed the phone at the cat. “They’ll accuse me of using Photoshop.”