He drops his hands and steps back, shaking his head. “I’d bet there’s a personsomewherein this world who disagrees with that.”
He doesn’t elaborate.
It’s like he knows that if Lola’s in the building, the walls have ears, though could he have mentioned seeing her sooner?
Yes, he really could’ve.
“I have to get back to work. You riding along? I’m snaking a bathtub. Should be nice and disgusting.”
“I should go find my dad and ask him to help me finish up here, and then I have some errands I have to run, or else Ridhi will never serve me decent coffee ever again.”
He nods once. “Got it. Don’t hurt yourself. Pebbles wouldn’t forgive you.”
He stops to rub my dog’s head on the way out the door, and then he’s gone.
Physically.
Mentally, though, he’s still up there in my head. Hanging out. Offering to be friends, when there’s so little that I’ve ever given him in return.
I pick Pebbles up and hug her while she licks my face, offering the one constant source of unquestioning affection that I’ve ever had in my life. “Who’s a good girl? Who’s Mommy’s best girl? Such a good dog. Yes, such a good dog.”
Pretty sure I could’ve handled everything in Tickled Pink if it weren’t for Dylan Wright.
I want to trust him.
I want to be his friend.
And I’m afraid if I do, he’ll be my biggest regret.
Chapter 22
Dylan
My favorite thing about Saturdays is the possibility.
I’m up early, because I’mcan’t sleep more than thirty minutes past my alarm even when it doesn’t go off on the weekendsyears old.
There’s a whole day ahead of me to do anything I want, from yanking weeds in my garden to calling a few buddies for a pickup game of basketball to seeing if Hannah wants to watch TV.
I’m not calling Hannah these days.
She dropped me a note asking if I was too good for her now that I’m TikTok famous, and I haven’t answered yet.
I realized I’m still using you as a stand-in girlfriend, and I can’t do that anymore since you’re married and pregnant and I’d like to have a life of my ownisn’t something I want to say out loud.
And if you can’t say that out loud to your best friend, was she ever actually your best friend?
But the thing Iamdoing today?
I’m sitting on the bench by the lake at the edge of my property, sipping coffee out of aPink Goldcommemorative coffee tumbler that I had Ridhi fill up for me this morning.
“Do me a favor,” she said when I asked for two coffees. “Make sure Tavi’s not dropping the ball on the favor I asked her to do for me.”
So yeah.
I’m sitting here on the lake, waiting for the sun to come up in another few minutes here, but mostly, I’m waiting for a sound that comes sooner than I expect it to.
Regular heavy breathing and a very distinctive voice.
