“Who’s Mouse?”
“She’s been chosen to have a dog,” Courtney interjected.
“Ohh.” Jenna’s golden eyes widened. “There’s a dog?” she whispered.
“During the blizzard, my idiotic neighbor ran out on the beach for some reason. Bit of a tantrum if you ask me.”
Both of them leaned in. “Mantrum?” Courtney offered.
I laughed. “You’re not wrong there.” Giving up all pretense of keeping things to myself, I tossed myself into the story. “I don’t know what made me look outside, but I saw him fall down on the beach. I ran out to help and that’s when the dog came out of nowhere. It seemed like he was living in the forest around the lake.”
“The poor thing.” Courtney’s eyes filled.
“Yeah. The only saving grace against fleas was how cold it was. His coat is super thick.”
“Are we talking about the dog now?” Jenna asked.
“Yes. Anyway, Dutch fell in the snow and busted his ankle up so I had to help him back to the cottage. He moved into the old Henderson place.”
“Wow. That’s been empty forever.” Jenna twisted her cup through the condensation on the table. “Micah Tanner bought it.”
My eyebrows shot up. “Really?”
“Yeah.”
“Talk about grumpy meets grumpier,” I quipped.
Courtney snickered. “If this guy is as grumpy as Micah that says a lot.”
I thought about it for a minute. “I’d say on par. I actually thought he was in the middle of a bad breakup.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah, thought he broke up with his boyfriend.”
“Dammit.” Jenna slumped back in her chair.
“But not gay.”
Jenna sat up again. “Oh, so we’ve still got a chance. Go on.”
I laughed. “I don’t think he likes me, so I don’t know about that. I’m not sure I like him either to be honest. He’s stupid attractive though. Annoyingly so.”
Court grabbed my arm. “You buried the lead here.”
“Not really. He’s just my neighbor and I helped him out. Not a big deal.”
She really didn’t need to know about the muscles in his arms and shoulders and the way his gray sweatpants lived up to the hype. No man should be that blessed, tall, and attractive at the same time. Perhaps that was why his personality was lacking.
Court grinned. “Your cheeks are awfully flushed right now.”
I slapped my hand to my cheek.
“Gotcha.”
I pushed my chair back. “Just because he’s hot doesn’t mean I’m interested.”
Jenna glanced at Courtney. “Doth protest too much?”
