I shook my head. “No way. Pimping my pups out so you can make a buck off some bossy bride isn’t going to help.”
“I don’t see how you can say that.” Lacey clamped her hands to her hips. Her wedding ring caught the light from the fluorescent overheads and sent sparkles all over the walls, reminding me of how much my friend’s life had changed over the past year.
“I know you think it would be helping, but I don’t know how any of these dogs would react if we dumped them into one of your gussied-up wedding ordeals. With my luck some drunk bridesmaid would get bit and then I’d have liability issues in addition to the leaks I’ve got going on now.”
“But you could pick some of the most laid-back dogs. Like Buster.” Lacey pointed to a square dog bed set up in the corner of the office.
A giant pit bull lifted his head at the mention of his name. His tail thumped against the linoleum, once, twice, before he let out a rush of gas.
“You want to clear the ceremony?” I asked as the stench of Buster’s explosion wafted through the air. “Because if you’re looking for a way to run off the wedding party, Buster’s your dog.”
Lacey wrinkled her nose and then pinched it between her fingers. “Okay, so not Buster. But surely you’ve got another option. How many dogs do you have here right now?”
“Too many.” I gathered the brown bag with one hand and waved the other in front of my face, trying to fan away Buster’s stench. “Let’s go sit out front.”
“There have got to be a few sweet ones.” Lacey followed me to the picnic table in the shade of a giant live oak.
I handed her a towel to dry off the plastic bench. “I just don’t feel comfortable with the idea.”
Or any of the ideas Lacey had been coming up with lately. Transforming the town into wedding central had been bad enough, but Lacey kept trying to up the stakes. I’d made multiple attempts to try to talk her down, but Lacey was hell-bent on putting Ido on the map.
“Fine. I’ll come up with another idea.” Lacey bit into her taco with more force than necessary. The shell cracked, dumping half of the contents onto the paper wrapper.
“Careful. Don’t take out your aggression on the taco supreme.” I grinned.
“Has anyone ever told you you’re impossible?”
“You know you’re the only person in town who thinks so.”
“No one else knows you as well as I do.” Lacey narrowed her eyes as she took another bite—a gentle bite.
I held back a response. Lacey might have a point, but holding my ground was the only thing that had ever worked for me. Untilit hadn’t. The one time I’d let someone else talk me into not listening to my gut, I’d almost ended up with a hole in my head. Granted, life in Ido was much different than the time I’d spent on active duty in the Middle East. But still, I couldn’t be too careful, especially not with the assholes who kept dumping pit bulls around town.
As if she could read my mind, Lacey finished a sip of her soda and turned to me. “You have any more incidents?”
“Hmm?” I tried to pretend I didn’t know exactly what my friend meant.
“Vandalism. Bodie told me he was out at your place earlier this week. Someone took a baseball bat to your mailbox.”
“Nope. Nothing since then. They pretty much chalked it up to some kids with too much free time on their hands.”
“If it happens again call Bodie first. He told me you called the sheriff’s department, and it took forever for them to send someone out.”
I shrugged. “I don’t want anyone to accuse me of taking special liberties.”
“You’re practically family. That’s not taking special liberties, that’s just what it is.”
Practically family. The thought of Lacey with her blond hair and blue eyes fitting in with my mix of Mexican, German, and Scottish heritage brought a grin to my face. My friendship with Lacey was one of the only things I enjoyed about being back in town. That and the dogs.
I’d wished I could pick up and leave it all behind more than a time or two over the years. But my deeply ingrained sense of obligation held me back. Lacey would be lost without me. And I loved knowing I was actually making a difference in the lives of the dogs I was able to save. But if I were being honest with myself, like, really, truly, gut-wrenchingly honest, the main reason I stayed was that I could never leave my brother.
“Hey, are you going to be out by the Phillips House anytime today?” Lacey asked.
“I can be. I need to pick up some more towels at home and take Zeb to an appointment. What do you need?”
Lacey’s eyes softened at the mention of my older brother’s name. “How’s he doing?”
“Better.”
