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presence was a comfort. He seemed to know something about dogs, and she was terrified that her inexperience would kill this poor creature.
    Finally, Sophie unbent. “I’m sorry, too. Do you want to talk about it? Why you’re in a bad mood, that is?” After all, they were stuck here until the vet called.
    “Huh?” He dragged himself from his reverie. “Oh—just family stuff. I have a kid sis who’s a sucker for a sob story, and she’s trying to guilt me into helping her latest charity case.” He shook his head. “And she plans to empty my wallet along the way.”
    “Your sister? Is that where you’re visiting?”
    “Yeah.” He gestured with his thumb over his shoulder. “Heart as big as the planet but the common sense of a gnat. At the moment, she’s throwing a party for a houseful of her projects. Shoot, she’d take this dog, too, if I brought him to her—which is why I won’t.”
    Sophie froze. His sister sounded entirely too much like Jenna, whose house was only a block away. And the charity case sounded way too much like her.
    Sophie tilted her head to get a better view of him in the light of the streetlamp. His hair was a darker shade than Jenna’s strawberry blond, but still blond. Two of Jenna’s brothers had blond hair and two dark when she’d seen photos of Jenna’s family. Was he one of the faces?
    Please . No . “There’s no reason for your sister to be bothered,” she said, reeling. Was that all she was to Jenna, a charity case? She was no one’s project. No one’s sob story. Certainly not this ill-tempered jerk’s. “You should go. I’ll take the vet’s call whenever it comes, and I’ll deal with the dog.”
    “Listen, lady…” She wasn’t sure lady was much better than Queenie, but at least he wasn’t mocking her. “I said I’d stay and that’s that.” He frowned. “If nothing else, I was raised better than to leave a woman on a street alone at night.”
    “I can take care of myself.”
    His brows snapped together. “Maybe so, but the dog can’t. How about you be the one to leave instead?”
    He was insufferable. Gorgeous, maybe, in a rough-hewn way, but a total jerk. Surely he couldn’t be related to the kindhearted Jenna. She opened her mouth to argue just as her phone rang.
    He snatched it from her hand. “Cade MacAllister.”
    Crap.
    “Got it. I’ll be there in a few minutes. Thanks, Doc.” He snapped her phone shut and handed it back. “Where’s your car?”
    “I didn’t drive. I was walking.”
    “Then I’ll get the one I’m renting. Be right back.” He rose a little gingerly and walked off without waiting for a response.
    Sophie realized her mouth was hanging open and shut it. She shook her head and texted Jenna to say she wouldn’t be making it to her party. Then she cleared her mind of anything but the dog. “I’ll get you fixed up, sweetie, don’t you worry.”
    Even though doing so meant more time spent in the presence of the arrogant Cade MacAllister, who thought of her as nothing more than a failure begging for a handout.
    C ADE SLID DOWN IN A chair in the vet’s reception area and watched the woman pacing across the linoleum. She was a looker, that was for sure, tall and graceful, with nice curves and an impressive set of long legs beneath the filmy blue sundress she wore. Whiskey-colored hair more red than brown escaped from the clip in which she’d tried to corral it. He thought her eyes might be green if they weren’t alternately trying to freeze him or make him burst into flames with a look.
    Queenie was a knockout, though in a quiet way. Too bad her personality was atrocious. It wasn’t that he wasn’t used to strong-willed women—his mother and sister were prime examples while Diego’s cardiac surgeon wife Caroline gave them a run for their money. But even Caroline at her iciest, way back in the beginning, didn’t hold a candle to Queenie.
    And yet he was intrigued, in spite of himself. He’d rejected the notion of a