“No one calls me Shep but you, woman,” Hound stated.
There you go.
“Is that a declaration or simply information?”Keely asked.
“Both,” Hound answered.
“Keely, Hound,” Archie butted in.“So glad you’re here and Ifinally get to meet you.”
She’d made it to Keely, and they were shaking hands in thatway women do which was more like holding hands.
“She’s making schnitzel,” Joany announced from where she waspeering over the bar to the kitchen counter.
“Upon learning this knowledge, my night is complete,”Lafayette proclaimed.“Can we leave these good people alone now?”
Yep.
Archie had read that right.
Lafayette was there solely to keep Joany in hand.
“I’m pretty sure Archie wants us to stay for a cocktail,”Joany told Lafayette.
“I’m pretty sure I can buy you a cocktail down the streetand it will heighten the odds that you’ll still have your best friendandyour job in the morning if I do,” Lafayette retorted.
“You’re back from vacation, we need to celebrate that,”Joany shot back.
Lafayette turned to Keely and Hound.“For your information,I do not require a welcome home celebration after I spent two weeks alternatingbetween a lounger at a pool and a treatment table in a spa.”
Keely started laughing quietly.
But although Jag thought Lafayette was funny, he waswatching Joany.
She had a strong personality, definitely a take-me-as-I-comeperson, and he dug that about her.She was also nosy.And for certainprotective of Archie.Last, if she liked you, she was friendly and hilarious.
But something about this was off.
Because one thing he didn’t realize until this moment shewas not, was a pest.
“What’s going on?”he asked.
“What?”Joany asked back.
Jesus, she was really bad at trying to pretend to beinnocent.
“Is something going on?”he pushed.
“No,” she totally lied.
He knew this was a lie because she was so bad at doing it,she couldn’t even hold it up on one word.
It was confirmed when Archie demanded, “Joany, talk.Issomething up?”
“Oh my God, did you rope me into some shenanigans?”Lafayette demanded.
“No, I just…La-La, you have a steady hand with a shaker, whydon’t you do some cocktails for these kind folks while I go out on the fireescape with Archie for a quick beat?”
Oh shit,Jag thought.
