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The dog immediately plopped her furry ass onto the ground.
“See, she’s such a good girl.” August reached into her pocket and produced a dog treat. Seriously, the woman was—at all times—prepared for an animal interaction. He’d even seen her feeding the squirrels outside, which was basically a crime.
They were nothing but rats with good PR.
“Shake.”
Molly lifted her paw into August’s hand, eyes laser-locked on the treat. The dog was a canine garbage disposal unit, motivated by any and all kinds of food.
“Smile.”
The dog pulled her lips back in what Keaton assumed was an attempt to follow the command. “Don’t have her do that in front of any small children. She’ll give them nightmares.”
The dog glared at Keaton as if to say,You’re no oil painting yourself, dude.
“Stand.” August ignored him and snapped her fingers, making the dog lift her front paws while balancing on her hind legs. “Excellent work, Molly. Such a smart girl.”
She held out her hand and Molly gobbled the snack from her palm, tail wagging. Keaton rolled his eyes. “You would think she’s performing brain surgery the way you and Leah act.”
“You’re just jealous that she doesn’t do anything for you.”
“That’s because I have no desire to waste my time on teaching an animal to do pointless things, like begging for food.” He shook his head. August’s and Leah’s utter devotion to the husky was beyond him, and he refused to be one more person wrapped around her paw. “What’s the point?”
“Fun, Keaton. You must not be familiar with it.” She turned her face up to his, mouth pulled into a smirk. “Say it slowly with me,fuuuuuun. It’s an activity that offers enjoyment and satisfaction.”
“Like taking you to Pleasuretown?” he fired back, and her cheeks turned scorching red. “Huh, Puss in Boots?”
Out of the corner of his eye, Keaton saw that Leah had moved to the entrance of the kitchen and was not-so-subtly listening in to their banter. He really needed to have a word with her about this whole “trying to get him and August in a room alone” thing.
It was getting ridiculous.
Keaton wouldneverget into another relationship as long as he lived. Love, no matter how good it felt at the time, was not even close to being worth the scars it would leave on his heart. Especially when the ones he already had refused to heal.
4
August’s stomach fluttered with nerves. She was headed to a restaurant located on the thirty-third floor of a skyscraper, and from what she’d read online, it was one of those swanky places with white tablecloths and a wine menu as thick as theLord of the Ringstrilogy.
In other words,nother usual kind of dinner venue.
She preferred small hole-in-the-wall places with incredible food and minimal fanfare. But tonight was the first date the matchmaker had set up for her, and she was sure the fancy restaurant was meant to leave a good impression. It had taken a little over a week between August’s first appointment with the matchmaker and this date, which somehow felt both too fast and too slow.
There’s no point being nervous. Consider it a test run. A practice.
She’d dug out her go-to little black dress (the one that covered everything from funerals to weddings to New Year’s Eve parties) from the depths of her closet, splurged on a new pair of heels, blow-dried her hair and attempted some winged liner while watching one of Leah’s tutorials on YouTube.
It wasn’t perfect, by any means, but as Leah always said:Wings are meant to be sisters, not twins!
In truth, August’s wings were a little more like second cousins twice removed. But she liked the way the black liner made her eyes pop, and it made her feel a little bit like a ’50s silver screen starlet.
As she walked through the gold-trimmed turnstile into the marble-floored foyer of the fancy tower, she pressed a hand to her stomach. But it didn’t stop the nerves. Tonight felt like a very big deal. Her first chance to see if matchmaking might work for her. The head of the matchmaking company, a vivacious older woman named Maxine Diamond, had told her that the first date was about gathering information and not to be disheartened if it wasn’t true love on the first attempt.
This was just a simple meet and greet. No pressure. No expectations.
“I’d be happy to get through the night without someone commenting on my reproductive abilities,” she muttered to herself as she walked toward the bay of elevators.
After freaking out slightly about the fancy venue, she’d taken the time to get in the mood by having a glass of wine while she got ready, and she’d put on some relaxing music.
“You can do this,” she said to herself as she entered the elevator and pressed the button for the thirty-third floor. “You’re an intelligent, successful, kind woman and this is just a date. You have survived far bigger things.”
