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“I prefer my tire over my shoe. Besides, after what I put her through tonight, Daisy owes me a few licks. Or puddles.” He tugged on her leash and she trotted behind him to the side door. He locked his truck and we trudged upstairs to Brady’s apartment, exchanging glances at the sound of raucous laughter.
He opened the door to find Mickey and Honey in their nightshirts—I must have missed them bringing in overnight bags—dancing on the sofa toDirty Dancingcurrently on the TV. Pancake and Francie were curled up in Daisy’s bed, conked out.
Daisy cocked one ear at the chaos as Mav unclipped her leash, then slunk over to her bed and rolled over on the two smaller dogs until they got the message and moved to their own beds. Then she was out like a light too.
Mav leaned forward to grab the TV remote and silenced the movie, making both girls groan simultaneously. Then Honey hopped down and hurried over to kneel beside Daisy, stroking her soft ears gently. “How’s my sweet girl?”
“She’s going to be just fine. She’s on steroids and Benadryl. Should be no lasting effects.”
“I called Brady.”
“You did what?” I demanded. “They’re supposed to be having fun.”
“What they’re having is sex, which they’ve had plenty of considering the baby.” Honey rolled her eyes. “But Daisy was his first kid, so he deserves to know Mav was being Mav.”
“Um, hello, he had to go to an armed robbery—”
“Van,” Mav said quietly.
Honey put her hands on her hips. “Um, hello yourself, since when did you become my brother’s defender?”
Since he treated me with more respect about my past than the damn baby’s father did.
“Just saying. I was there. He ran out in a big rush with that scanner thing squawking.”
Honey whirled to prop her hands on her curvy hips. “Yeah, he ran off, andyouran off, so where did you go?”
Heat raced up my spine, and I could feel my red hair screwing me over yet again. There was no hiding your emotions when you were fair with flame-colored curls and freckles to boot. I was probably the color of Austin’s fire truck already.
“I forgot something,” Mav said smoothly. “She had to deliver it to me.”
“Oh, really? Something that took her hours to hand over to you? Since you two were gone forever then only stopped back here long enough to retrieve Daisy and take her to the vet.”
“Yes.” He didn’t so much as blink. “You should be in a better mood after pizza and dance marathons.”
Honey plopped on the couch beside Mickey, who’d been silently watching us as if we were a tennis match. “I’m in a great mood, now that I know Daisy is okay. Brady isn’t mad, by the way. He was just concerned how the chain of babysitting had gone from Mav to Van to me and Mick.”
“He’d just had sex. It was the ideal time to tell him.” Mickey leaned forward to pop a pepperoni in her mouth. “Also, I sort of hate that we’ve talked more about sex in the last five minutes than I’ve actually had it this year.”
“Girl, same.” Honey bumped her shoulder into Mickey’s. “I should’ve taken Daze to the vet. At least I would’ve gotten halfway to a spontaneous orgasm listening to Dr. Thorn’s sexy accent.”
Mickey laughed. “You know it’s fake, right?”
“What? It is not.”
“I’m telling you it is. He just uses it to pretend to be charming.” Mickey shoved in more pepperoni. “I’m not fooled.”
“You’re officially a weirdo, Michaela.”
Mickey did a dramatic flop back into the couch cushions. “You’ll see. One of these days, I’ll be proven right.”
“By who? The accent authenticity police?” Honey smirked. “Besides, who cares? Dude is hot.”
“Says you.”
“And I say doth protest way too much.”
“Thanks for helping out.” Mav lifted his voice over the still squabbling besties. “We’re stealing the rest of this pizza.”
