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“Let’s go get coffee while there’s still time.” I let her pull away, and Jovie took the opportunity to press her lips to mine before grabbing my hand. The walk to get coffee was quiet but not awkwardly so. She hadn’t actually said, “Yes, Ewan I want to spend the rest of my life with you,” but seemed content with my confession. I hadn’t said what I wanted to say. I wanted to tell her I loved her, she was mine, and that she owned every bit of me, but I kept it to myself. I had already pissed her off once.
Jovie sent Merlin and me to the patio while she got coffee and leaned against the counter to watch me pet her dog while she waited. The thought of us being foolish kept resurfacing. But then how was it foolish when we enjoyed each other? Both of us were consenting adults and we were on the same page, so what was the problem? More than that, I loved her.
I leaned back and closed my eyes, still stroking Merlin’s head, until I heard her voice. I cracked my eyelid to see her talking to a husky man with buzzed hair and an orangeish tan. I grit my teeth at the sight. Jovie could talk to who she wanted, but the man was making her uncomfortable. Jovie shifted her weight from foot to foot, holding our coffees and biting her lower lip. The man finally stopped gawking at her long enough to look past to me and pushed past her to go through the glass door to where I waited on the patio. She followed him, barely making it through the door he hadn’t bothered to hold open. I was handed a cup and we both watched the guy fawn all over her dog. I tried to catch her eyes, but she just stood, staring at him.
When the man finally stood, looking her over again. “You look hot, Jovie. How are you?” He pulled her into a stiff hug, letting his hands wander a little too much, and anger slammed into me. It took considerable effort to not smash my fist into his jaw.
“I’m fine. How are you, Davis?” Jovie took a wide step around him toward me. I nearly spit my coffee. Surely, I misheard her. The man in front of me couldn’t have been the same arsehole who treated my Jovie like shit, the one who crushed her trust and ruined her self-esteem.
“Good, good. I got married, got a couple of step kids, had a baby, Lacey makes bank so I only work part time for a security firm. Desk job. And she’s a fine piece of ass.” The asshole actually looked proud to be so damn lazy. He nodded slowly and finally noticed me. “Davis Lockmore.” He stuck his hand in my face.
“Ewan Alexander,” I deadpanned, stepping closer to her. I dwarfed the guy. Hell, Davis was barely taller than Jovie.
“Whoa! I know your accent gets her going.” Davis laughed, and Jovie crossed her arms. “Am I right, Jove?” He popped his eyebrows at her making her groan as she took Merlin’s leash. “Say, how did you get her out of the jeans and Star Wars shirts? I tried forever to make her dress like a lady, but boy is the girl stubborn.” Davis looked at her purple top and khakis, winking at her. What the hell had she seen in him? He was creepy to say the least. The guy was disgusting, sloppy, and condescending. He certainly wasn’t deserving of a woman like her.
“It was good to see you, Davis, but I need to get to work.”
Jovie turned to leave, but I leaned in and whispered to Davis before patting his back and leaving him standing on the patio. “I can get her out of anything I want, including Star Wars shirts. And she fucking loves it.” He looked dumbfounded, and I grinned, chasing after her. We were a block from The Dog House before she dared to ask what I had said.
I laughed. “You’ll just get mad,” She pulled me to a stop and cocked her head for me to tell her. I confessed what I had said, and Jovie punched me playfully in the arm, blushing and smiling bashfully. My girl was adorable.
I hung around at the shop until Nick showed up with his Boston terrier, Liara. Jovie would never admit to being scared of her stalker showing up again, but she was, so Nick and I were tag teaming. We made sure she wasn’t ever without one of us, or in a safe place. I pulled her into another long apologetic kiss before heading home to help Amelia get the house ready for six screaming teenage girls to invade. The more I thought about the party, the less excited I was, but at least I could go and spend some time with the guys. It meant leaving her alone, but we were meeting at Briggs’s place right down the road, so I would be close if there were any issues.
NINETEEN
Jovie
“So, how is Mr. Perfect?” Erica snatched a towel I was folding to dry a dog and Nick started sweeping. He always brought Liara on Saturdays, but was also showing up after he got off. They would deny it, but I was pretty sure my best friend was helping Ewan keep an eye on me. I was slowly coming out of my seclusion as Mason stayed away, but Nick and Ewan were playing security guard. Erica teased me relentlessly until Nick and Liara went home to Rae, making me promise I would call if anything weird happened or if I even felt creeped out.
Erica and I talked shamelessly about my newfound sex life as she probed me for details vulgar enough to make me blush. It was our last workday as a two-some. Cori would be there starting Monday. It was bittersweet. We needed the help, and I was excited about the prospect of befriending Cori, but Erica and I had been in it together for three years. I didn’t cope well with change, and my partner didn’t work well with others, so I hoped Cori worked out with no issues.
I was checking dogs out when Ewan came back to pick me up with a shopping bag. He settled on the bench just inside the door and waited for me to hand off a freshly groomed Shih Tzu before he winked at me and slid through the gate to the back. I watched him walk down the hall, jerking to attention when a blond girl came in. She chatted on her cell phone loudly and pushed her sunglasses on her head, handing me a credit card. I paid careful attention when I checked dogs in, and the woman hadn’t dropped one off, so I had no idea who she was paying for. I would have remembered her dangerously short skirt and overflowing top. I stood waiting for her to finish her call.
She hung up and looked at me stupidly. “I need to pick up my dog.” She dropped the phone in her over-sized pink bag and waved her hand for me to run the card. Her nails actually matched her purse and platform sandals.
“Of course. Which dog is yours?”
“CeeCee.” The blond rolled her eyes, giving me a duh look. I forced a smile, trying not to let my bitch face betray me, and slid the card. The man who brought in CeeCee was about fifty, wearing a suit, and held the dog like it was refuse instead of a beloved pet. I tried to figure out if he was her daddy or her sugar daddy, but I suspected the latter. I handed her the card back, and her fake smile moved from me to something behind me. The smile vanished, and I heard Ewan mumble a less-than-quiet “shit” from behind me. “What the hell are you doing here?” She curled her nose and snatched the card roughly from my hand. I took a step back to retrieve her dog, eyes darting between them.
Ewan was quiet for a moment. He had the same hard expression I had seen on his face that morning, but it was more upset than angry. I moved past him to get her poodle from the back. When I returned, he was sitting on the bench again, thumbing through his phone, and the woman was pouting in front of the computer, arms crossed and nose turned up. Erica looked at me with wide eyes, indicating something went down that I missed. I handed her the dog and she narrowed her eyes at me. “Can I give you some advice, hun?” Did the blonde bitch just call me hun? I half expected her to say something about the grooming job on her dog, but she said something else entirely. “Don’t expect him to make you his priority.” She tossed a glance at Ewan, who was watching the exchange from over his phone. “He may be decent in bed, but his needy little sister will always be more important than you.” The woman looked at me like her words were some deep-seated knowledge only she possessed. Darcy. Two exes in one day, what were the odds?
I laughed and it wasn’t a quiet one. “Of course Amelia is the priority. She’s his sister. Who would be conceited enough to try to come between that?” Yup, the woman, or more likely her sugar daddy, had just paid me and I insulted her, but she started it. I smiled at her. “You guys have a nice weekend.” Erica snorted a laugh from the grooming table and Ewan went back to flipping through his phone. Darcy spun and left like I had insulted her fake tan. I wanted to shake Ewan and ask what the hell he saw in her to begin with but thought better of it. After how disgusting and creepy Davis had been, it was stupid to rub Darcy in his face. He opened his mouth to speak, but I held my hand up and shook my head. Too much in one day. First we fought, then we saw Davis and then Darcy. I was done. I felt his eyes on me as I went to Merlin and gestured him onto my grooming table. My dog jumped up, standing completely still.
I dragged the comb through him slowly and methodically, taking care to remove any snags as I went before I picked up my scissors to trim his feet and face. Ewan walked around to my seat behind the counter and watched me work. I ignored him. Erica ignored the tension like I did when she and her husband fought, and that happened more often than anyone wanted to discuss. I wasn’t mad at Ewan, but I needed to process the wretched things Darcy said about Amelia before I jumped the counter and knocked her perfect white teeth in.
Ewan didn’t bother saying anything to me until I locked the front door behind us to leave. He took my hand as we moved slowly toward his house and the impending slumber party. “Are you mad?” Boy, isn’t he perceptive. “What part of today are you angry about?” He tightened his grip on the bag in his hand when I eyed it.
“It infuriates me that anyone would talk about Amelia that way. It’s pretty frowned upon to throat punch a person once they’ve paid for your services, but I came pretty damn close today.” I had to grit my teeth just thinking about it.
“So it wasn’t her accusing me of only being decent in bed?” Ewan bumped me with his shoulder, and I laughed.
“There’s the ego.”
Ewan kissed my head and handed me the bag. “I got you something.” I had hoped it was for Amelia, not me. I was always grateful for gifts but was terrible at saying thank you for some reason. The whole process made me flustered. “It wasn’t expensive, but I think you will be satisfied.” Good, I thought we had established that I could buy my own stuff, but I wasn’t turning away gifts from him. I opened the bag to find a stack of three books. All three were on my to be read list. “I had Amelia stalk you on GoodReads then went to the bookstore.” He looked proud of his ingenuity.
“Thank you, Ewan. You have definitely learned the way to my heart.” He chuckled, and my stomach fluttered. Food and books pretty much did it for me, and his laugh did something else entirely. I was only partially joking about him learning his way to my heart. I was undoubtedly in love and it was amazing. Ewan left “his girls” at the house to go to a co-worker’s house to have a man night. Before he left, Ewan made it very clear that anything weird was to be reported immediately.
Two hours later, I was refilling party trays and counting out black and gold candles in the kitchen while Amelia and five other teen girls sang and squealed from the living room. The TV blared some top forty pop music and the gold wine flutes overflowed with sparkling grape juice. Black and gold streamers were everywhere accompanied by a nauseating amount of confetti. Ewan had gone to teach a class then planned on meeting his “mates” for a late dinner. It was cute to see him excited to go do something with his dude friends and get a break from playing parent for a while. He had skipped a couple of nights out to be home with me since the Mason incident, but the party was a perfect opportunity. I had just settled down at the breakfast nook to start on a new book, trying to stay out of the way, when Amelia ran in and snatched it from me.
