Diamond in the Ruff (Matchmaking Mamas Book 13) by Marie Ferrarella

him, waving away the suggestion.
    To which he asked, “You’ve changed your mind about baking?”
    There was no way that was about to happen. She absolutely loved baking, especially for an appreciative audience.
    “Oh, no, it’s not that,” she said, dismissing his suggestion. “But I can duplicate the recipe and make a low-fat version—they’ll never notice the difference—and nobody will need bigger clothing.”
    He appreciated what she was trying to do, but in his opinion, “lighter” was never “better.” For that matter, it wasn’t even as good as what it was supposed to be substituting.
    “You say that now, but I can always tell the ‘light’ version of anything,” he told her. “It never tastes the same.”
    Lily studied him for a long moment. Her expression was unreadable. And then he saw humor overtaking the corners of her mouth, curving it. “Are you challenging me?”
    Christopher took measure of her. She meant well, but as an opponent, she was a lightweight.
    “Not in so many words but, well, yes, maybe I am,” he conceded.
    Lily squared her shoulders. For the first time since she had come into his animal hospital, she looked formidable. It surprised him.
    “Okay,” Lily said with a nod of her head, “you’re on. I’ll bake my usual way, and then arbitrarily I’ll make a batch of substitutes, and I defy you to definitively say which is which.”
    “You have a deal,” he readily agreed, confident he’d win. He took her hand and shook it.
    It was done as a matter of course, without any sort of separate, independent thought devoted to it. But the moment his strong fingers enveloped hers, she could have sworn she felt some sort of current registering, a shot akin to electricity suddenly coursing through her veins from the point of contact.
    Her breath caught in her throat for the second time that day.
    Out of nowhere, she suddenly caught herself wondering if he was going to kiss her.
    The next second, she hastily dismissed the thought, silently asking herself if she was crazy. People didn’t kiss after making what amounted to day boarding arrangements for their pet. That wasn’t how these situations played themselves out.
    Was it?
    Clearing her throat, as if that somehow helped her shake off the thoughts swarming through her brain and turning up her body temperature to an almost alarming degree, Lily dropped the veterinarian’s hand. She took a step back. She would have taken a few more, but her car was at her back, blocking any further retreat on her part.
    “Do you still want to come over?” she heard herself asking in an almost stilted voice. “To start housebreaking him?”
    Her mouth had gone completely dry by the end of the sentence.
    “Unless you’ve changed your mind,” Christopher qualified. He’d felt it, too, felt the crackle of electricity between them, felt a sudden longing in its wake that had left him a little shaken and unsteady. He was definitely attracted to this woman, but it was more than that. Just what, he wasn’t sure.
    Yet.
    “No, I haven’t,” Lily heard herself saying.
    Her own voice echoed in her head as if it belonged to someone else. Part of her, the part that feared what might be ahead of her, wanted to run and hide, to quickly thank him for his trouble and then jump into her car in order to make a hasty retreat.
    But again, that would be the coward’s way out.
    What was she afraid of? Lily demanded silently. She was a grown woman who had been on her own for a while now, a grown woman who knew how to take care of herself. There was no one else to step up, no one else to take up her cause or fight any of her battles for her, so she had to stick up for herself. She was all she had to rely on and so far, she’d managed just fine—with a little help from Theresa.
    Making up her mind, she decided that yes, she did want him to come over. She wanted his help—and if anything else developed along the way, well, she’d face it then and handle