Jamie nodded slowly. “That makes sense.” He shot me a tight smile. “I’m sorry that went so wrong for you.”
“Well, it wasn’t all bad.” I scooped some beans and coleslaw onto my plate. “I made a friend out of the deal.”
“Yeah,” he said softly. “I guess it could have been worse.”
I patted his knee. “That’s the spirit.”
He laughed. “Lucky us. It could have been worse!”
I snorted a laugh and lifted my beer for a long swallow. I watched Jamie watch me out of the corner of my eye. I wasn’t totally oblivious. His gaze slipped over my face, caressed my throat, and dropped to my arms.
I didn’t mind the perusal. It was nice to be appreciated, even if it couldn’t go anywhere. I’d been upfront with Jamie about my sexuality. I’d never lead him on. But I wasn’t going to go all weird just because he liked looking at me, either.
“So, dog festival,” Jamie said suddenly, voice a little too bright. “What can I do to help as a volunteer?”
I lowered my beer and licked my lips. “Well, I need someone to help me recruit more sponsors and vendors. I’ve got most of the obvious pet-related businesses and organizations covered through Sammi’s connections, but I need other people to get involved. We need food vendors for our human guests, you know? Maybe some live music…”
Jamie nodded thoughtfully. “My boss might be interestedin running a food booth,” Jamie said. “It would be good exposure.”
“Yeah? That would be great.”
“I’m good friends with a wedding planner. He’d probably have some good ideas for live music. Maybe for some other sponsors, too.”
“That would be amazing,” I said.
We continued to toss around ideas as we ate, and gradually we ran out of steam. I leaned back against the couch, sipping my second beer, while Jamie got up to let the dogs in.
Lady made a beeline for the dog couch. Tramp went and lapped noisily from his water bowl. Bruno trotted over and sat on my foot. I reached down to lazily scratch behind his ears.
Jamie dropped onto the sofa beside me with a sigh. “Such a long day.”
“You work hard.”
He slanted me a look. “You do too. Here it is Friday night, and you’ve been working all evening.”
I nudged his shoulder. “Beats listening to my brother tell me to get a life.”
Jamie laughed. “How sad we are.”
“But at least we’ve got beer.”
I raised my bottle, and he clinked his to mine. “Cheers to that.”
CHAPTER 14
Jamie
Hank stayed until 10 o’clock,the two of just talking about anything and everything. I now knew he was a secret fan of romantic comedies, to his brother’s great shame; that he sang loudly and off-key in the shower, to his brother’s great annoyance; and that he single-handedly cleaned up all his brother’s messes, to his brother’s great advantage.
In other words, his brother was damn lucky, and I reallydid notneed to be picturing Hank singing in the shower.
I crashed as soon as he was gone, and begrudgingly got up at six a.m. to let Lady and Tramp into the backyard, snoozing on the couch until they demanded food and attention.
I played with them outside enough to ensure they wouldn’t destroy the house while I went to lunch with my two besties, then headed for my car.
I got in, started the engine, and started to reverse out of the drive.
Oh, shit. The flat! I’d totally forgotten. I stomped on thebrake, making the car lurch, and shifted into park. I opened my car door and hopped out to check my rear passenger tire. If I’d bent the rim, I was going to kick myself.
