She looked up from Tricksie, her lips still curved in the most beautiful grin he had ever seen on her face. “You’re right. I’m sorry. Is it okay if I continue to feed her?”

Why did he find her so lovely at that moment? Her hair was a mess, tucked into a knit cap, yet she looked like someone he could cuddle with. If he cuddled. Not that he cuddled. Unsure of his feelings, he shrugged. “She needs to pee.”

“Okay, one more,” she said sweetly before feeding Tricksie and then kissing her hard on the head. “You can come in.”

He didn’t like how she was making him feel. It was weird. Like he wanted to go behind her, bury his nose in her hair, and just hold her. She looked so damn gorgeous, snuggling his dog and making her feel like the princess she was. Vaughn’s hands itched to touch Brie, and he didn’t understand that. He never itched for anything. He fucked women and moved on, but watching Brie as she acted a fool with his dog, he wanted to…cuddle.

Why did he keep thinking that?

Grumbling at his stupidity, he entered, shutting the door but staying right by it. “She really does need to pee.”

“Oh, yeah, sorry,” she said, kissing Tricksie again. “I really love dogs. I never got to have one growing up. Rodney is allergic to them.”

He nodded. “Yeah, Jensen said he had to put her up when Rod came over the other day.”

“It sucks, but I love them so much. They’re so much fun, and bless her, she’s gorgeous. What happened to her leg?”

“Hit by a car. I adopted her like that. She came in hurt, and they fixed her up.”

Her eyes lit up. “That’s sweet you adopted her. She looks happy as all get-out.”

“She’s spoiled, that’s for sure.” Brie smiled as she kissed Tricksie once more, bringing her to Vaughn. When he took her from Brie, he should have turned around and left. Instead, he looked up at her and found himself asking, “Did you stay over at Rod’s last night?”

He knew the answer, he had talked to Dawn that morning, but he didn’t want to leave yet. She smiled innocently. “Yes, and he told me I can’t stay tonight. That he’s a man, and he wants to do man things. Thank God for the game tonight, it’ll distract me. But he loves it there. Everything about it. I hadn’t realized there were so many volunteers who came every day.”

“Yeah, I think Dawn has twenty this year. It’s mainly college kids from Vanderbilt. We work with them to give the kids some training with different levels of Down syndrome since we have the whole range.”

“Yeah, it’s amazing.”

“I’m pretty proud of it.”

“They all call you Nate.”

“Yup, no one knows my real name. If they recognize me, I always say I get that a lot and move on. Usually, I wear a hat and glasses when I’m there.”

“Oh, I signed that NDA.”

“Thanks.”

She eyed him. “So I can’t tell anyone.”

“Nope.”

She nodded slowly. “That’s weird.”

He shrugged. “It’s how I like to do things.”

“Well, it’s working because Rodney wants to cancel his surgery so he doesn’t have to leave.”

He chuckled before asking, “What time is the surgery on Friday?”

“Eight in the morning.”

“I’ll be in practice.”

“I know. You don’t have to come, I know you’re busy. I had to take the day off. I think Travis is doing media that day.”

“Oh, okay.”

“I’ll meet everyone in California on Monday.”

“Oh, are you going to the party Saturday?”

“I have to. We all do.”

He nodded as his lips curved. It was the mandatory New Year’s Eve party Elli threw for the team each year. Usually, new people bitched about having to go—until they got there and realized Elli Adler put on one hell of a show, one with endless booze. It was always a lot of fun, and he didn’t mind going. And even though he’d admit it to absolutely no one, he was excited this year.

He wanted to see what Brie would look like.

As she faced him, he saw that her shirt said, “I’m not short. I’m a People McNugget.”

“Funny shirt.”

She grinned. “Thanks, I have a collection.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah.”

Tricksie barked and Brie grinned, cupping the dog’s face before nuzzling her nose. “Yeah, sweet baby girl, we hear you. You need to go potty.”

She looked up at him expectantly, and for some reason, he blurted out. “Do you wanna ride with me and Jenny? We have a car coming.”

Her brows pulled together. “For what?”

“The party Saturday.”

He could tell he came out of left field with that because her eyes widened as she stuttered, “Oh, well… I’ll probably end up leaving early, to go check in on Rod.”

“The car will take you. Save you gas, and you won’t look sad coming in your own car.”

She glared. “How do you know I don’t have a date?”

He hadn’t thought of that, but it didn’t keep him from saying, “Because you don’t.”

She scoffed. “How do you know?”

“Because if you did, you would have said we would leave early to check on Rod. Plus, I’ve never seen a dude come by, nor have I seen you with anyone. Also, you don’t have the look.”

“The look? And what the hell, are you stalking me?”

“The look. Like that gooey ‘Oh my God, I’m in love’ look. You don’t have that. Yours is more of an ‘I will kill everyone’ look.”

She laughed. “Maybe I’m in lust. Just fucking around.”

“Nope. I’d know.”

“You’d know, how?”

“’Cause you wouldn’t flirt with me, then.”

Her eyes widened as her mouth dropped open. “I am in no way flirting with you. Nor have I ever.”

“Lies.”

“No lies. You flirt with me!”

“I don’t deny it, but you do flirt with me.”

“I hate you.”

Reaching for the door, he raised an eyebrow. “I was told once, by my therapist, that there is a thin line between love and hate.”