Hero of Mine (2 page)

Laying the dog gently into the back, he watched her settle his head in her lap and begin stroking his gray coat. Suddenly, she looked up at Tyler, those green eyes filled with gratitude and . . . Hell, he had no idea, but it was a first for him.

“Thank you.”

Tyler slammed the door to the van without responding, grabbing the keys out of the passenger door.

Tyler Best, bleeding-heart dog rescuer.

He climbed up into the driver's seat, preparing to take off.

“Really, why are you doing this?” she asked from behind him.

Adjusting the mirror so he could see her, he gave the only answer that made sense. “Why not?”

D
ANI
H
ILL HAD
never been easily won over by any man. Could they get her into bed? Sure, but she never had any delusions about who she was sleeping with. She was a magnet for jackasses and always had been. Until she'd gotten pregnant, and her boyfriend had decided he couldn't handle being a dad and had taken off.

Angel Ramirez had been all that a twenty-one-year-old girl could desire. Muscular with a jealous streak and hazel eyes, he'd been everything her mom and dad had hated. But she'd loved him—or, at least, she'd thought it was love.

They hadn't been together very long when she'd found out she was pregnant, and she'd been terrified to tell him. He'd been pissed and told her he would take her to the clinic, but she'd refused. He'd disappeared for days, but just as she was sure he was gone for good, he'd popped up again. She'd been relieved, thinking he was back for her and the baby, but he had just wanted her to know that he was moving south to Los Angeles. He was taking a job with his cousin, and if she wanted to keep the baby, that was fine, but she shouldn't expect anything from him.

In that moment, Dani had finally realized that her parents had been right about everything. That there was a reason bad boys should be avoided at all times. That she was about to have a baby with a man who had never cared about her, but she'd been too stupid to realize it.

And although she couldn't fully regret being with Angel, she had learned from her wild and reckless dating history. She'd grown and was more determined than ever to live her life right and give her son, Noah, the best of her.

Which meant she didn't go out with guys with easy smiles and killer blue eyes. Even if he was carrying an injured dog into a veterinary clinic and willing to pay for the charges, despite the fact that it wasn't his.

So what? Other guys would do this. He's a dog lover, that's it. Don't make a big deal out of it and start looking at him like he's some kind of hero. You feel nothing, do you hear me?

Dani heard it, but it was hard to listen when he told the vet tech, “Just call me with your game plan, and use this card for what he needs. I want updates, though.”

A guy who offered carte blanche medical care for a stray dog? It was hard not to want to throw her arms around him and give him a massive hug. Or, at the very least, sigh dreamily.

Get ahold of yourself, or I swear I am going to haul off and slap you silly. Then everyone will think you are crazykins.

A vet tech by the name of Darius took Fugly from Tyler, assuring him he'd call when he knew something.

Tyler watched Fugly disappear through the doors, and Dani's heart fluttered at the concern on his face.

“We should get back so I can evaluate the dogs before Dr. Horrible decides to exact his revenge on us,” he said, turning back to face her.

“Dr. Horrible?”

Tyler seemed embarrassed. “
Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog
. It's a three-part web series by Joss Whedon.”

“So it's a musical?” she asked. They had pushed open the front door of the vet's office and were walking toward his van.

“No, I mean, yeah, it's a musical, but it's Whedon. Anything Whedon does is awesome.” He actually beat her to the passenger door and opened it for her. Dani couldn't remember the last time a guy had put in the effort.

“What else has he done?” she asked.

He actually stood in the door opening as she climbed into the front seat, his jaw hanging open. “Are you serious?”

“I don't watch a lot of TV, unless it's on Netflix or something.” Why did it sound like she was apologizing for not knowing who some obscure web series creator was?

“He's on Netflix!
Firefly
,
Dollhouse
,
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
—”

“Whoa, you watch something called
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
?” She broke out into peals of laughter, and he slammed the door. She was still guffawing when he climbed into the driver's seat.

“Whedon also wrote and directed the Avengers movies and
Agents of Shield
.”

“Well, you should probably lead with that and not that other stuff,” she said smartly.

“Unless you've been living under a rock, you should know who Whedon is and what Buffy is.”

“Oh, God, I can't take you seriously when you say things like that.”

“What, just because of the name of the show? I'm trying to school you on one of the most ingenious writers and directors of a generation.”

“And I'm listening, but I'm sorry, it's a little hard to imagine.”

“You should be apologizing to the great Joss Whedon, not me,” he said.

She glanced his way and caught the smile he'd been fighting. “As soon as I get home, I'll write an extensive apology and post it to my mommy blog.”

“You have a mommy blog?”

“No, but it would be funny if I did. Mine would be ‘what not to do as a parent.' ”
Shit, why had she said that to him?

“I'm sure most women feel like that.”

Dani knew his comment was supposed to be comforting, but he didn't know her or her situation. So far, she'd just been doing her best, but nothing ever felt like it was good enough, especially compared to other moms. Moms who had waited until they had a career, had picked the right guy and gotten married. The freaking Pinterest moms who put all their amazing cupcakes and DIY birthday party decorations up for everyone to ooh and ahh over.

She hated those moms. There wasn't a crafty bone in her body, and staring at all of those perfectly creative ideas and handmade awesomeness left her feeling even more like a failure.

“So, how long have you worked at the shelter?” Tyler asked.

She was grateful for the change in subject and the escape from her pity party. “Only a few weeks. I actually work the night shift at Fairview Animal Hospital so I can be home during the day with my son. I only usually do a few hours in the morning at the shelter, but today one of the other women called in to say she'd be a little late, so I agreed to stay.”

“Where is your son?” he asked.

Was he accusing her of something? “He's with my mom, not that it's any of your business.”

“Hey, no need to get hostile. I was just asking,” he said.

“I'm not hostile; I just don't appreciate the insinuation that I'm neglecting my son.”

“Whoa, no insinuation! Geez, are you always this defensive?” he asked.

Dani didn't say anything, partly because she was embarrassed. She was constantly taking flak from her mom about how she was raising Noah, and it had just become instinct to immediately go on the defensive. Even with a total stranger who was just being inquisitive. She shouldn't have jumped down his throat. Especially since he was helping out Fugly.

“What are you going to do with Fugly if he makes it?” she asked.

“I figure I'll see what his injuries are, and depending on how he does during his temperament evaluation, I'll find something for him to do. The first item on the agenda is to give him a better name.”

“What if he doesn't pass?”

She saw it, even if it was just a flicker. The grim downturn of his mouth that said exactly what would happen if he didn't pass.

“I like to think positively,” he said.

Dani had a feeling he was avoiding the question for her benefit.
He's probably scared you'll rip his face off if he says the wrong thing.

“How many dogs are you looking for?” she asked.

“I have four open kennels, but if I find more that are a good fit, I'll usually foster them or one of the other trainers will take them in.”

“Isn't it hard doing that? Testing a dog, and when he fails, knowing he's most likely going to die?” she asked.

“It's the way it is, and until we can come up with a better system, I can only save the ones I can train as police, military, search and rescue, and therapy dogs. We are trying to grow, and the goal is to have an Alpha Dog program in every city, but it's just us for now.”

Dani swallowed back the sour taste his cold, matter-of-fact explanation had created in her mouth. “It's not fair. Some of these animals have never known kindness or been trained—”

“And it sucks, believe me, but I can't take every dog. There are too many good ones to waste time on the ones who might bite a child one day. If I don't do my job right, and one of our dogs attacks someone, the whole program could get shut down. And then we aren't helping any dogs.”

Dani understood, she did, but having him act so casual about it rubbed her the wrong way. How could he be so callous?

He parked the van in the same spot as before, and as he killed the engine, he turned.

“Look, I'm sorry if I'm coming off like an asshole, but if I can't hold it together and make the tough calls, then I can't do this job. I have a friend who's a vet, and he worked in shelter medicine for years. He told me once that in shelter medicine you get hard or you get out, because otherwise, all the bad shit you see is going to haunt you.”

“You honestly think that people in shelter medicine no longer care about helping the animals?” she asked.

“It's not that they don't care, it's that the system has worked against them for so long, they've learned to triage, just like a doctor in the emergency room. Just like your lab coat guy.”

“Wait, so you agreed with him about euthanizing Fugly?”

“No, that is not what I'm saying. I am saying that I understand how some people get to the point where it's less heart-wrenching to essentially turn off their humanity.”

Dani opened her door and got out, turning to face Tyler. “Maybe that works for people like you, but I don't have an on and off switch. I feel things and I empathize, and if that makes me weak to some people, then they can go to hell.”

She slammed the door with a bang and headed for the front of the building, waiting for the sound of his van door opening or the heavy tread of his boots.

But he didn't come after her, at least not in the time it took her to get inside and find Suzy had made it in for her shift.

“Oh, thank God you're here,” Dani said. “There is a guy from Alpha Dog Training Program, and he's going to be evaluating the dogs scheduled for euthanasia today, but I need to get Noah before my mom has a meltdown.”

“Yeah, yeah, go, I'll handle the guy.” Suzy was an average brunette a few years older than Dani. “Hey, is he cute though?”

Cute? Cute was for puppies and kittens, not six-foot-tall men with broad shoulders and male-model faces.

Dani grabbed her purse out of the locked desk drawer and glanced out the front office window. Tyler was just getting out of the van, looking a little bewildered. He probably wasn't used to women yelling at him and then running away from all that sexiness.

“Cute is not the word I would use,” she said.

Suzy's shoulders slumped as she misinterpreted Dani's meaning, and she used the opportunity to sneak away. The last thing she wanted was another interaction with Tyler.

Dani exited through the back door and got into her car. As she turned the key, the engine sputtered, an issue it had been having lately, and she groaned. Running her hands over the dash, she tried to coax it in a low, husky voice. “Come on, baby, work for me, and I promise I'll get you a tune-up soon.”

Several seconds ticked by, and Dani tried the engine again. As the car came to life, Dani gave a little thank-you to the car gods and headed out toward Carmichael, a suburb of Sacramento next to Citrus Heights. Her parents had lived in the same house since they got married, and she knew the way there even on autopilot. Which meant that her mind wandered a bit as she tried to imagine where she was going in the next few years.

If it was up to her mom, Dani would go out and eventually marry one of the nice, sensible men she'd been trying to set her up with, but Dani wasn't interested in men, let alone blind dates with men her mom spoke highly of. The only boyfriend her mom had ever liked was Dwight, who was a super-smart, clean-cut guy who'd asked her to homecoming junior year. But Dwight had just been an asshole in a nice-guy exterior, constantly putting Dani down about her looks, how she wasn't as intelligent as he was, how she had no direction. After six weeks, Dani realized she was dating her mom, and she dumped his ass in the middle of the quad after he'd asked her if she really wanted her personal pizza.

But her mom had been disappointed and always cited Dwight as the one who got away. In her own way, her mom's taste was just as bad as Dani's—with the exception of her dad—and therefore she could not be trusted to find Dani a man.

Twenty minutes later, Dani pulled into the driveway, and as she climbed out, she heard screaming coming from inside the house. Noah's screaming.

Racing to the front door, she burst inside and found her mom rocking Noah as he cried.

“What happened?” Dani wasted no time crossing the room and holding her arms out to her son. When he reached for her, she saw the swelling lump on his forehead and gasped.

“He was running and ran right into the doorjamb. He's got a nasty bump, but he's okay, I think—”

“Did he lose consciousness?” Dani realized she was shouting at her mom, but it was only to be heard over Noah's cries.

But in true Laura Hill form, she stood up with her hands on her hips, her green eyes narrowed. “Danielle Louise, do you really think I wouldn't take my grandson to the emergency room if he had knocked himself out?”

“No, of course not, I'm sorry.” Dani held Noah against her, rubbing his back and humming. As his sobs started to subside, she said, “I think I'm going to take him anyway, just to be sure. That is quite a goose egg on his head.”

“Can you really afford to do that? I'm sure he's fine. Kids are tough,” her mom said.