“That collar fits your measurements exactly, sir. It should not be a problem.”
“Don’t worry about him, Jinks. He’s just grouchy ’cause he doesn’t want to attend our annual ball.”
I narrowed my eyes and stared at my younger brother, Joshua, in the mirror.
“He needs to get the fuck over it.” A deeper, meaner voice moved in behind Joshua. My brother, Aaron. He hadn’t even looked up from his cell phone. Always conducting business with a damn frown on his face. Whereas my frown was due to my uncomfortableness at the moment, Aaron wore a permanent scowl like a badge of honor.
“Fuck both of you. I don’t need to attend this thing at all,” I reminded them.
“Mother and Father will have the police out looking for you. And I don’t have time to play babysitter with you,” Aaron retorted.
I didn’t even bother responding to him or Joshua, who just chuckled. Instead, I pulled out my cell phone and went straight to my contacts.
“Hello?”
Just her voice caused an unraveling of the tension that’d been flowing through my veins.
“Hello, sugar.”
A tiny gasp. “Who … Carter?”
“Yup. How are you?”
“How did you get my number?”
I pursed my lips. “You’re asking the wrong question.” I paused, scowling at Jinks who was still taking measurements and attempting to stick needles in the pants I wore. “Hold on, sugar,” I stated into the phone. “Don’t touch me.” I pushed Jinks out of the way and stepped down off the stand he had me standing on. Without looking, I brushed past my brothers to head back into the changing area for a little privacy.
“Now, as I was saying,” I returned to my phone call, “the question youshouldbe asking is why you didn’t give me your number yourself. Better yet, how about you answer that question tonight over another hot dog? Or maybe I could spring for the sit down restaurant we discussed? Do you like Chinese?”
“Chinese?” she repeated, sounding confused.
“Yeah, I would opt for something a little fancier but I am just making ends meet on a civil servant’s salary.”
“Firefighters actually make a great salary here in Williamsport.”
My lips twitched. “You may be right about that. In that case, I’ll spring for egg rolls and extra sauce with our meal.”
My stomach muscles tightened when her laughter filled the phone line.
“That has to be the best sound I’ve heard all day.” My voice had deepened. “So, that sounds like a yes for tonight.”
Her laughter filtered out and she said, “I can’t.”
“Now that there has to be the worst sound I’ve heard all day, sugar.”
“Carter.”
My hand tightened around my phone at the sound of my name coming from her mouth.
“I have a work event tonight.”
“A work event?” My skepticism was apparent.
“I’m an event planner and I’m assisting at an event tonight.”
“So, another night then?”
She sighed, “I can’t.”
