“Oh, I have no idea. He isn’t mine,” she lied.
“Funny, he thinks you’re his pack.”
“Pack, smack. He looks all cute and innocent and, okay, he’s kind of mine. The girls and I went to the shelter and he followed us home.”
Colin chuckled.
“And before you tell me what a good dog he is, he’s a dog training school flunk-out.” Not that anyone could tell, since Garbage Disposal was giving a good-boy wagging of the tail as if he’d earned a gold star in obedience school, when in reality he’d flunked out three times. “Probably why he kept following us when we told him to stay.”
“There aren’t bad animals, only bad teachers.” Colin looked up, his gaze tinged by amusement.
“Are you saying I’m the problem?”
At that exact moment, Poppy jumped up on the porch step. Hands raised to the heavens as if she were some Amazon warrior ready to wreak havoc on the mere mortals, she tied her dress around her neck and pumped a single hand in the air. Lily followed suit until there were two nearly naked tots chasing a dog around the magnolia tree.
“Itisme,” she admitted.
In a very Colin-like move, he rested his arms on the car door frame above her head, leaning in and getting up close and personal. It took everything she had not to stare at his chest, which—with his forearms on top of the door—was at direct gawking level. Looking at his face wasn’t any better. He was near enough that she could ascertain he hadn’t shaved recently and that his eyes were glimmering with amusement.
“Are you laughing at me?”
“Wouldn’t think of it.” He didn’t bother to hide his grin. “First rule in long trips, superheroes aren’t just for boys. Pack dress-up capes, coordinating flags, and plenty of tiaras or they’ll get creative.” He chuckled. “Just wait until they’re teens.”
“Is it worse than the terrible twos?” she asked.
“I thought they were older than that.”
“They’re four, but still going through the terrible twos. I’m afraid it’s a permanent condition. You’re a doctor. Tell me it gets easier.”
“Vet,” he clarified. “And I wish I could. Maddie hasn’t been easy in seventeen years.”
Right about now, Teagan would give anything to go back and be a bright-eyed, naive, and trusting teenager again.
When had everything become so difficult?
“Maddison’s a teenager?”
“Unfortunately,” he said. “In fact, you just missed her stomping off and slamming the door because I looked at her wrong.”
“How did we get so old?”
His eyes slowly slid down her body. “You don’t look a day older than you did that summer before sophomore year, when I first saw you.”
She smiled with the same mischievous smile she’d worn when she snuck out her bedroom window and met him at the cove. It had been her first time sneaking out, her first time skinny-dipping—oh, she’d had a lot of firsts that night. She could tell by the smile on his face, his thoughts weren’t far from hers.
“Just be grateful yours don’t talk back yet.”
“Only one talks.” It hadn’t always been that way. Lily had always been the quieter of the two, more cerebral, but after her dad moved out, Lily stopped talking. To anyone who wasn’t her twin.
“Even better.”
“Oh, Poppy talks enough for everyone in the family. In fact, there wasn’t a silent moment on the entire trip from Seattle.”
He looked at the small trailer behind her. “Movers coming tomorrow?”
“Nope. This is it.” She swallowed becausethis was it.This was the moment every recent divorcée dreaded. Thewhere’s your other halfquestion.
Surprisingly, he didn’t say a word about Frank’s absence, but his gaze did shift to the empty passenger seat, and she thought she’d be sick.
