“You do them often?” Indie asked.
“I do. The next one will be a dog wash fundraiser. I’m hoping to do it outside and get coffee and food trucks to come out. Make a real day of it. We have so many dog owners here in Amber Ridge.”
Kristina laughed. “You’re not wrong. I can’t believe how busy the doggy daycare gets.”
Clara bumped Sky’s hip. “And they all know you because you’ve built such a great business.”
“I’m very lucky the people in our town trust me with their dogs.” She studied the empty table. “No cocktails yet?”
“We just barely got the table.” Indie laughed.
“Well, first round’s on me.”
Half an hour later, they had two jugs of strawberry mojitos in the center of the table, and Sky was already into her second glass.
“So, where have you come from, Kristina?” Clara asked.
“Connecticut. I liked it there, but I needed a fresh start and to do something new, so here I am.” She sipped her drink before looking at Clara. “And you’re an acupuncturist?”
“I am. And I will tell anyone who’ll listen all about acupuncture’s healing powers.”
“She’s a bit like that dad fromMyBig Fat Greek Weddingwho believes Windex fixes everything,” Indie said. “But her Windex is acupuncture.”
Kristina laughed. “How’d you get into that?”
“Well, I was a lawyer, but then I got sick—cancer—and it kind of changed my whole life.”
Sky’s fingers tightened around her glass. Clara had shared that information with her a few months into their acupuncture appointments. She’d had stage four Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and gone through chemotherapy. She couldn’t even imagine how hard that would have been for Clara.
Kristina straightened. “Oh my God, I’m sorry.”
Clara dipped her head. “Thank you. I lived in New York, and to say my job as a lawyer was stressful would be an understatement. Then I was diagnosed and it was like, ‘What am I doing? I don’t enjoy this. And I miss my mom and Amber Ridge and having time to take care of myself. Why am I wasting time that might be cut off tomorrow, living a life I don’t love?’ It was the reminder I needed that we don’t live forever, so I have to make every day count.”
“You’re okay now though, aren’t you?” Sky clarified.
“I’m okay now. I still get a lot of fatigue, and I get annual checks to make sure the cancer’s still gone.”
Indie slid an arm around Clara’s shoulders. “You kicked cancer’s ass!”
“Hell yes, I did.”
“And thank God you moved back. I wouldn’t know what to do without you.”
“You don’t have any siblings?” Sky asked.
“My brother’s in the military and my sister lives in San Francisco.” Something crossed over Indie’s face. “I’m not close with my sister.”
Clara gave her cousin a gentle smile before her gaze homed in on something behind Sky. She sucked in a breath and straightened.
Sky looked over her shoulder and spotted a man. He was tall. Probably as tall as Becket, and he had the same broad shoulders and thick arms. She’d seen him before…at the fundraiser ball.
She looked back at Clara. “That’s Jesse’s friend, right?”
Clara cleared her throat. “His best friend, Holden. He’s a family friend, too.”
Indie leaned forward. “Clara gets a little nervous around him.”
“I do. I turn into a gigantic mess of nerves and can’t say the right thing to save my life!” Clara groaned. “He’s just so tall and beautiful, and he smells like peppermint and pine. And when he talks, his voice is this deep, gravelly—”
