Page 84 of Wag More Bark Less

“I was busy.”

“He walked two blocks out of the way to get her favorite treats.”

“How do you know that?”

“I’m your sister. I know things.”

“We agreed to just be friends,” I told her, leaving out the part where I ended up in his lap last night, grinding shamelessly against what was definitely not a lightsaber. “I just called off my wedding two weeks ago, Vi.”

“You’re right,” she relented, shimmying until her head and shoulders were once more flat against the table. “I have no concept of time these days. Is it Tuesday or Friday? Hell, I’m lucky if I remember it’s October.”

“It’s September.”

I started to laugh, but it was abruptly interrupted by a hiss of pain. Fuck me, that one hurt.

“Sorry,” the esthetician said for what had to be the tenth time since she started—once for every pull, apparently. “If you keep up on it, it’s not always this bad.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” I lied.

Violet’s phone pinged from the corner chair, and her esthetician handed it to her. “Change of plans for tonight,” she said. “Luke offered to grill burgers and hot dogs, so the whole lot of them are at the grocery store stocking up. There’s going to be s’mores too.” Violet looked over. “You want to tell me again how you’re just friends with this guy?”

Before I could answer, Naomi gave one particularly vicious yank.

“Son of a bitch,” I hissed.

I didn’t have to see Violet’s smirk. I could feel it.

She didn’t believe me.

Hell, I wasn’t sure I believed me anymore.

THIRTY

LUKE

“Mr. Luke?” a soft, boyish voice said as I turned the hot dogs on the grill. The older of Maggie’s two nephews, Ollie, stood inside the open gate that separated my deck from hers. He had his dad’s dark brown curly hair, but his mom’s blue eyes. The same sky-blue color as Maggie’s.

“Hey bud, what’s up?”

“Are you going to marry Auntie Maggie?”

A hot dog slipped from my tongs and nearly fell between the grates. I scrambled to rescue it half a second before it became a lost cause.

“Ollie, I thought you had to pee,” Ethan said, dropping his hands onto his son’s shoulders and steering him toward the direction of Maggie’s back door. “Sorry about that,” he said to me as the kid scampered inside. “We spent a lot of time explaining what a wedding was. He’s still a little confused about the whole change of plans.”

I gripped my tongs tighter as the memory of Maggie in that tattered wedding dress appeared in my mind. I braced for the painful twisting in my chest, but to my surprise, nothing happened. No clamping of my throat, no racing pulse, no blackening at the edge of my vision.

Huh.

“He was supposed to be the ring bearer,” Ethan explained, no doubt to fill the silence that I hadn’t. “He was pretty excited about the whole thing.”

“It’s an important role,” I agreed.

“That’s what we told him. He never met Maggie’s ex, so I don’t think he quite understands that you’re not the groom.”

“Did you meet him?”

I didn’t have a right to ask that question, and the beat of hesitation seemed to suggest Ethan agreed. But he answered anyway.