“Aw! Thank you! That’s so sweet of you to say.”
“Hang on. You called me Riley,” Riley said, blinking in surprise.
Bella batted her fringe of lashes. “That’s your name, isn’t it, silly?”
“It is. But you don’t ever recognize me.”
“That was before that nice doctor housekeeper lady adjusted my medication dose.”
“Is she talking about my mother?” Nick wondered.
“Now I can have no wrinklesandrecognize female faces. Anyway, La La and I have to go. Somebody needs her special wecial hair treatment, doesn’t she?” she crooned to the dog. With a toss of glorious blond locks and a wave of La La’s paw, Bella departed.
“I have no idea which one of them was getting the special wecial hair treatment,” Nick confessed.
“I’m telling your mom the weather girl still thinks she’s a housekeeper,” Riley said, opening the envelope. “Wow. It’s a gift card to the Hershey Spa.”
Nick snatched it out of her hands. “I’m calling Hector! We’re gonna get massages and pedicures and plan the coolest wedding ever while we wear those weird bathrobes and drink hot cocoa by the gallon.”
“That sounds…blissfully normal,” Riley admitted.
“Trust me, Thorn. Our days of gunfights and bad guys are behind us. From here on out, it’s nothing but run-of-the-mill cases and high-paying, low-stakes clients,” Nick insisted, slinging an arm around her shoulders and guiding her toward the stairs.
Riley’s nose twitched definitively, and she tensed. There was something waiting for her in those pastel clouds.
“I’m gonna pretend I didn’t see that,” Nick said.
“I’m good with pretending I didn’t feel it. Besides, you know what today is, don’t you?” she asked.
“Monday?”
“Naked Tuesday Eve.”
