“Let me pay for it,” I said, swinging my legs off the couch. “The firm owned my apartment—I’ve had almost no living expenses for two years. Someone’s gotta burn all this cash.”
She hesitated. “Shouldn’t you… save it?”
Our faces scrunched simultaneously.
“Gross, does that make us adults?” I asked, sliding onto the floor beside her. “That’s no fun.”
We sighed in tandem and promptly redirected our search to all the sales across the internet. My phone buzzed againstthe coffee table. I ignored it and pointed to an off-the-shoulder number on the screen. When my phone vibrated again, I groaned and picked it up in order to turn the thing off.
My breath caught in my throat.
Teddy Bowman: Look outside
Then:
Teddy Bowman: Don’t ignore me
Georgie, always too curious for her own good, peeked over my arm and gasped. She was already up and running toward the door before I could get a grip on an appendage—I’d never seen her move so fast in my life.
“Georgie!” I all but shrieked, scrambling to the foyer and lunging at her.
My arms were already around her shoulders when I remembered her rather frequent and notorious arguments with gravity. It was too late. One of her feet caught in the rug, sending us both plummeting to the floor with a resounding thud.
“Georgie,” I mumbled through a mop of curls. “You’re suffocating me.”
She rolled off with a laugh and pushed her hair from her eyes, leaving a streak of bare skin in the mud mask. “You can’t be mad,” she said as I glared at her and rubbed my hip. “You should know better than to tackle me and think I’ll remain standing.”
I untwisted my sock and sat up. “I can’t help it when you put me in fight or flight mode.”
As if remembering her original mission, George crawled to the sidelight and pushed the blinds apart. Stomach twisting, I nearly grabbed her ankle and dragged her back into the living room.
“Oh my—”
“What?” I whisper-yelled, lurching forward and wedging my own face into the sidelight.
Illuminated by the auburn glow of the porch light, looking like a door-to-door salesman that I’d very much prefer to avoid, was Teddy.
And,somewhatless importantly, Georgie’s boyfriend.
She hopped to her feet in record time, and when her hand touched the door knob, I held back the urge to ask how much caffeine she’d had that day.
“What are you guys doing here?” she squealed with little bunny hops as they filed inside.
Inside, where I sat on the floor beside a crumpled rug, ponytail askew and one under-eye mask perilously close to falling off my chin. I watched as they both scanned the foyer wearing nearly identical looks of confusion. Easton, to his credit, came barreling over to them, tongue wagging and slobber dripping.
“Have you been burglarized?” Rhett asked, pulling Georgie under an arm.
Teddy crouched and allowed Easton to assault him with an onslaught of rather aggressive kisses. I tried not to linger too long on his goofy smile or the way he let Easton flop into his otherwise expensive-looking coat.
Instead of a response, Georgie peered into the brown paper bag under his other arm. “Got any doughnuts?”
“That isnotwhy we came,” Rhett replied, fighting a grin as he pulled it away from her. He quickly turned into the kitchen and flicked a light on, a perpetually hungry Georgie in tow. Easton followed almost immediately. The dog knew his priorities.
Leaving me alone with Teddy.
He made a futile attempt at patting some dog hair from his coat before rising and offering me a hand. Of course he looked so natural there, backlit by Georgie’s sconces, playing with thedog he hadn’t seen in seven years. He never needed to betoldto relax.
Teddy wasn’t really afraid of anything.
