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“Speaking of babies...” Pete’s voice rose above the others. Once the table had fallen completely silent, he smiled and waved a hand. “Just kidding. I was only going to ask Lily how Terrence is doing.”
Everyone laughed again, especially Sunny. “You’re lucky you’re talking about a puppy,” she said, and everyoneoohed.
“Terrence is great,” Lily said. “I’ve been training him, as well as I can. He’s very, very smart, but because he’s a hound, there’s a lot in his breed that’ll be tough to tame. His nose and instinct to hunt are wicked strong.”
“Definitely,” Pete agreed.
“I can bring him by soon if you want to see what you think about taking him.” Lily’s voice softened and she kept her eyes on her plate. She quickly stuffed a bite of the galette in her mouth.
“Sounds great,” Pete agreed. “Maybe sometime next week we can—”
“You can’t have him.”
The table fell even more silent than when Red had announced her pregnancy. Lily’s head snapped up, her eyes wide. “What?”
Clementine searched for words, her mouth biting over them but unsure where to land because she hadn’t planned to say what had rushed out of her mouth. “You can’t have Terrence,” she repeated. “He and Lily belong together. He called out for help from the dumpster at the shelter and she dived into that stinky mess to rescue him. I’d say they’re made for each other.”
Pete got a big smile on his face and pointed it at Lily. “I couldn’t agree more.”
Lily smiled back at him, hers gentle and restrained. Clementine knew that her daughter, not a fan of public displays, was trying to hold back the emotions she felt. She glanced up at Clementine and a conspiratorial look passed between them that suggested Lily would get all excited about this later, in the privacy of her own home.
“Wow, what a great year.” Sunny sighed to punctuate her words. “We’ve rescued hundreds of pups, with Lily’s help.” Sunny gestured toward her, even though she’d buried her face back in her food. “My big sis is pregnant. Tabitha has come so far with her fitness and her massage schooling and... Hey. Where is Tabitha?” Sunny looked around the room, like she might spy her hiding in a corner.
Clementine had just parted her lips to mention the text message when suddenly Tabitha appeared, scanning the room as though looking for familiar faces. Everyone went silent again. Clementine actually had to look twice to make sure the woman who faced them was Tabitha. Rather than the quiet, modestly dressed woman they were all used to, she wore the same tight, black, shiny leggings as Lily, along with a snug black top sporting a shimmery red wreath made up of sequins. On her feet were matching red pumps and her curly black hair was styled to frame her face, which was adorned in smoky, bold makeup. The one giveaway was Trinity by her side, a bright red bow tied on her service vest.
“Holy crap,” Rhett said. “Is that Tabitha?”
Clementine turned to Lily, who was grinning from ear to ear. “You didn’t tell me you pulled a Frenchy-dresses-Sandy-for-the-school-carnival ending,” Clementine hissed, but she couldn’t help but smile with the others.
Tabitha’s gaze finally fell on their table—or, more accurately, fell on Hobbs, whose chin had dropped—and that was when she strutted over, teetering a little in her heels, and stopped right next to him. “Hey, guys.” Tabitha was now meeting everyone’s eyes but Hobbs’s. “How’s it going?”
Clementine had half expectedSo, tell me about it...stud!to pop out of Tabitha’s lips. And that was when the new guy, the mysterious stranger who’d uttered not a single peep since Clementine had arrived, busted into deep, hard laughter.
Hobbs wasn’t going to lie. He hadn’t been enjoying this party at all up until the moment Tabitha walked in, looking like some sleek, fast version of herself that had been bottled up too long and had burst like confetti from Christmas crackers. He gathered from the giddy conversation going on between the women that Lily had spent some time dolling Tabitha up for the occasion, but Hobbs’s attention was too rapt to really hear everything they were saying.
As the chatter died down and everyone got up and began moving downstairs for the live DJ and dancing portion of the party, Tabitha’s eyes connected with his. Hobbs knew she would read everything he was thinking, because he was shit about hiding it, but she’d be wrong in some of her assumptions. Tabitha would think that Hobbs finally found her attractive because she was wearing sexy clothing, hair and makeup like so many of the women he went for. Tabitha would think that Hobbs was glad her shyer, more conservative side had been put away for the night so the party animal could come out and play.
Truth was, Hobbs could still see the other Tabitha, bright and curious behind her dark eyes. She was as surprised at herself as everyone else was, wondering just as much where this other persona had come from as the people who knew the more common facet. Tabitha had no idea where this other person might take her, but she was excited to find out, just so long as she didn’t lose herself. Hobbs could see all this, and he could tell, by her tenuous smile, that she didn’t want to change all that much. She just wanted to try things out a bit, like all those little tasting spoons they used to have at ice cream shops. When Hobbs was a kid, he’d ride his bike over and try for a spoon of every flavor until the shop owners got annoyed.
“Tabitha.”
She had just reached the bottom of the stairs and was about to melt into the party and become this other person for the rest of the night. At the sound of Hobbs’s voice, she turned back, her expression revealing that she was straddling a wall, one that she could easily drop down on either side. Once she chose, it would be a lot more effort to climb back up. This was the moment. Hobbs needed to decide right here and now to either leave Tabitha alone or finally let her in.
