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Pete grinned, though his normally easy smile came a little strained. “Sunny, I’ve had those moves since my years in the army. I’ve just never had to use them around you. Thank God.”
“Oh.” Sunny noticed, maybe for the first time, that Pete had fine lines around the corners of his eyes when he smiled. They gave a layer of character to a face she’d always considered boyish. “Well, aren’t you full of surprises.” With a medium build and a quiet personality, Pete had never seemed like the MMA type.
“You don’t know the half of it.” Pete’s grin was a little fuller now. “I’m not the geek you and Cici grew up with.”
Sunny gave his shoulder a shove. “You’ll always be a geek to me. Remember that huge calculator you’d whip out in math class? Got it for your birthday?”
“Hey, that calculator saved your sorry ass more than once. And that’s when you weren’t cheating off my paper during tests.”
“True.” Sunny didn’t even try to argue. She squeezed that same shoulder. “Thank you. I can’t believe you helped me rescue those dogs.”
“Oh, really?”
Sunny smiled. “I know you rescue dogs, too, and people. But what I meant was, I haven’t made you help me steal a dog since we were kids.”
“You didn’t make me do anything.”
“I know. And don’t worry, if the police come around, I’ll take all the blame.”
“Sunny, the police ought to be questioning her, not you.” Pete’s gentle Virginia accent thickened. “You ever call animal control?”
“All the time.” Sunny kept the anger from her voice, because it wasn’t aimed at Pete and she didn’t want him to take it that way. “Janice keeps the dogs she sells in good condition and that’s what animal control sees. The ones that don’t sell eventually end up in dead man’s land back there.” She tilted her head toward the kennel they’d broken into. “She always seems to have it empty when animal control visits. Plus, there’s only me to call her out. You’re a bit too far away to notice and no one else is around for miles.”
Pete nodded silently. “So you take matters into your own hands. Like you always have.”
“What I need is a way to shut her down for good,” Sunny said. “I’m working on something, though. I’ve got a plan.”
Pete ran his hands through his hair and sighed. “What plan?” He flopped down on the couch.
“I got a deal with a detective.” Sunny smiled and plopped next to him. “If I get Cici to help out a friend of his—this guy at the gym?—I have a feeling things will go my way out here.”
“I see.” Pete’s face clouded. “Is that where she went after dinner?”
“Yes.” Sunny leaned her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes. “But don’t worry about Cici. This is exactly what she needs. And I think she already has a thing for this guy.”
Pete grabbed a throw blanket from the back of the couch and draped it over Sunny’s legs. “A thing? What kind of thing? Cici never has ‘things.’ Even with Josh, it seemed like she was going through the motions. He was a business deal. Fit her needs and her life. She’s always been too busy taking care of everyone else to really know what she wants.”
Sunny peeked up into Pete’s face. Oh, man. How could someone have such a strong, unrequited crush for over twenty years? He wasn’t wrong, though. Cici had spent her life taking care of both herself and Sunny, and then it was Daddy. “Yeah, I think you’re right,” she admitted. “Josh was always kind of like the guy that happened to be there, right? Good enough. But not anything special.”
“Definitely not anything special.”
Sunny giggled, which turned into a big yawn. “I’m sorry,” she said. “It’s not the company.”
“I know that. It’s the hour, not me.” Pete glanced at the grandfather clock across the room. It was after midnight. “I’m too riveting to make a lady yawn.”
Sunny giggled again. “I feel bad you’re still here. You should go home.”
“Lay your head down, Sunny Skye.” He patted his thigh. “I’ll stay with you until you’re out.” Pete was the only person who ever used her middle name. “When that guy wakes up, he’s going to have a headache. If he calls the police, I want to be here.”
“I’d rather you weren’t.”
“I’m not leaving.”
Only after Sunny had nestled her head in Pete’s lap, and he’d straightened the blanket out so that it covered her entire body, did it dawn on her that he had intuited her fear. A fear Sunny hadn’t even realized she felt—not until the huge relief hit when Pete insisted on staying. Never before had Janice caught her inside the kennel, taking the dogs. Tonight, a man had heard the commotion, and though it was dark, he might’ve seen her face. Sunny had no idea who the man was, or why he was there, but none of that mattered if he could identify her as the one who’d broken into the kennel.
A hand rested on her shoulder.
Sunny’s eyes drooped. Pete smelled like pine needles and wet dog. Comforting smells, which soon had Sunny breathing deep and even.
“Go to sleep, Sunny Skye.”
