The pugs, their eyes bulgy from excitement and tongues fat from exertion, promptly sat down in front of him, loosening his bonds enough that he could step out. Holding his breath, he lifted one leg. The cat spooked. Body vibrating with fury, it yowled and launched itself off Nash’s head. Its back paws delivered a nasty swipe as it used Nash’s skull as a springboard to fly through the air and land on the woman’s shoulder, like a demented parrot instead of the freaked-out cat that it was.

Forehead hurting like a son of a bitch, Nash let out a grunt of pain. In response to the noise, the dogs still at his ankles started yapping and running around him again, their leashes catching on his right foot. The next thing he knew, he was falling backward. He tossed his coffee cup in the opposite direction from the woman and her personal zoo as he threw his arms outward in a desperate attempt to regain his balance.

It didn’t work.

On the inhale he had the path under his feet, and on the exhale his ankle made a weird popping sound. He had half a second to register the oh-shit moment before he was ass-down in a snowy puddle.

His ass hurt.

His ankle hurt.

His fucking pride hurt.

“Oh my God!” the woman said, squatting down and leaning over him. “I am so sorry. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” he all but growled, sounding more like his always-surly cousin Griff than himself.

“Here, let me help you.” She reached out right as the cat snarled and the dogs started barking at him as if he had knocked her on her ass.

He planted his palms on the asphalt and started to stand up. “I got it.”

That’s when he finally gave the woman a good look. Tall and extra curvy, with dark, nearly black, thick hair laced with a few gray strands, she was bundled up in a coat, hat, and scarf, like someone about to go on an arctic adventure instead of leisurely walking their animals in the park. She had deep laugh lines framing her eyes and lips that were plump enough to give a man ideas. To put it bluntly, she could be in a modern take on a Rubens painting—curvaceous, sexy, and definitely up to something.

Yeah, that’s exactly what you should be thinking about while you’re on your ass in a puddle in the middle of helping your mom’s friend. Dumb ass.

He pressed against the cement and pushed himself upright, keeping an eye on the pugs that kept their attention focused on the cat, who was ignoring all of them as if he hadn’t started the entire thing.

The small orange tabby wore some kind of vest-slash-harness thing attached to a leash and had tucked up close against the woman’s bright green coat.