“I know! Isn’t it the saddest thing!” Karen chattered. “The senator…”
Just leave Meghan alone.
But she didn’t look like she was here for a good time. Instead, she was in an intense conversation with a man. Then, he suddenly reached out to hit her.
Fuck no.
I barreled through the crowd in time to hear Meg scream.
“Don’t fucking touch her!” I roared, grabbing Meg’s attacker.
A girl with a corgi started screaming.
“Don’t kill me. Please don’t kill me!” Meg’s attacker begged.
“You should have thought of that before you laid a hand on her,” I snarled, holding him up by his shirt collar.
“Hunter, what is wrong with you?” Meg screeched. “You can’t just run around attacking people.”
“He hit you,” I spat out.
“He was removing the cricket out of my hair because apparently, the apartment in the building you own is infested with insects!” she snapped, trying to smooth her hair back down.
I let the man go, and he jumped back, red-faced.
“See?” he said, holding out his hand. “Cricket.” The insect chirped at me, then the corgi bounced up and ate it with a snap out of the man’s hand.
I gagged.And this is why I am not letting the kids have a dog.
“I don’t know why you’re so disgusted,” Meg hissed, picking her bag up off the pavement. “Your little brothers eat cat food.”
“You feed your little brothers cat food with all your money?” the young woman demanded, shoving her husband behind her and shaking her finger at me. The corgi looked at me reproachfully. “I wish I hadn’t voted for you now.”
“He does not feed his little brothers cat food,” Karen called out, rushing over to the crowd that had formed around us.
“Not willingly anyway,” I muttered.
Meg snorted.
“They ate it of their own free will! I couldn’t stop them!”
Meg raised an eyebrow.
“Honestly, anyone who has small children in their care knows that things happen,” I said, trying to calm down the angry onlookers.
“Yeah,” one older woman said, “but cat food?”
“They smelled atrocious,” Meg announced then turned to me. “I hope they puked in your bed.”
“We’ll plan a nice photo op with your brothers to get ahead of this controversy,” Karen assured me, trying to lead me away.
“Holy smokes. Nothing worse than trying to take a family photo in the Svensson household.”
“The senator…”
“Yeah, can you tell him I’ll be a minute?” I said to Karen.
I grabbed Meg by the arm before she could leave. “You crashed my party.”
