She took Ricky out the door, and I turned a look at Sammi. “Thanks a lot.”
She chuckled. “That’s what you get for not telling me your date was a bust! What the hell, man? I have to hear about it from Iola?”
I grimaced. “It’s awkward, you know? I feel bad. Jamie was really sweet.”
“He’s the sweetest,” Sammi said.
“He was so disappointed.”
She smirked. “I bet he was.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Because I’m such a nice guy?”
“Because you’ve got a hot ass,” she said. “Obviously, I’m a lesbian, so I can say this without a sexual harassment lawsuit.”
I laughed. “Uh, yeah, thanks?”
“Poor Jamie.” She shook her head. “He’s adorable. Someone should have snapped him up by now.”
“Yeah,” I murmured, thinking of that little nose he’d crinkled as he gazed up at me in the park Saturday. Of the long lashes he’d peeked through and the full pouty lips when he’d sulked. I couldn’t argue. Jamiewasadorable, if you went for that kind of thing.
That kind of thing being a guy with a dick. Which Ididn’t. But I still felt bad for the guy. He deserved better than a date who couldn’t be attracted to him.
Iola should be focused on finding him another match, not me. Jamie was right. If I really wanted to meet someone, I could do it easily enough. I hadn’t really tried. Not like him.
“Tell me about this dog festival,” I said to Sammi. “I might as well use the time I won’t be spending with either Jamie.”
“Okay,” she said, too eager for my help to pester me about getting out there again. “Well, it’s called Dogtober Days, and there’s an informational meeting Sunday afternoon. It’s Abby’s birthday, so if you could cover it?—”
“Consider it done.”
She smiled at me. “Well, I guess your bad luck is my good fortune, huh? Thanks, Hank. Maybe you’ll meet someone through festival planning, and it’ll turn out this whole matchmaking mix-up is for the best.”
I shook my head. “Let’s forget romance and concentrate on the dogs. They’ve got more than enough love to go around.”
“Especially for you,” she teased. “You’re the dog whisperer.”
“More like the dog briber,” I said with a chuckle.
But she wasn’t wrong. I’d always been better with dogs than people. With the matchmaking gone so wrong, I could save the emotional energy I’d just pour into another failed relationship.
I’d save my love for the dogs—because they’d always return it without reservation.
CHAPTER 8
Jamie
My calendar alertpopped up just before I clocked out at work.Dinner with the fam.
I’d been meticulously molding chocolate dicks for hours. Chrissy Banks was having a bachelorette garden party—to celebrate what would be her fourth wedding—complete with tasteful cupcakes topped with dicks. They’d be a lovely compliment to the floral arrangements Maverick was setting up with phallic cacti centerpieces.
If I didn’t have to create another dick-shaped dessert item in this lifetime, I’d be happy. But it wasn’t likely. Dick demand was high in Granville, especially with Paula Dirks holding all those dang sex toy parties.
Chocolate dick exhaustion or not, there was no getting out of family dinner. I’d never hear the end of it if I didn’t show.
Mom always said that if you didn’t make time for family, you lost sight of why you were doing everything else.
I swung by my little cottage rental to pick up Lady and Tramp. They had been cooped up too long to wait at home. Igot them into harnesses and loaded them into my car. It was a tight fit with the top up, but I didn’t trust Tramp to keep his ass in the seat if it were down.
