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“She is all female with those looks she gives us, isn’t she?” Cliff, the fire captain and Chet’s boss, sat behind a desk in the corner of the room. A veteran of the fire department, he could still keep up with the younger firefighters and had the physique to prove it. The only thing that showed his age were a few wrinkles around his eyes and mouth and some salt and pepper dashed along his hairline.
Chet was grateful the guys at the fire station had all taken such a liking to Dottie. She had a perfectly comfortable, albeit massive, crate that she loved back at his house but they insisted he bring her to the firehouse whenever he could. They didn’t like the idea of her home alone. She had every one of them wrapped around her giant-sized paws.
“Thanks for keeping her.”
“Anytime.” Cliff waved but didn’t look up from the paperwork he was poring over.
“Come on, Dottie. Let’s go see Eva.”
Dottie’s eyes popped open. Her legs were so long that when she rolled off the couch to stand up, her feet hit the floor not unlike a human would getting off a sofa. She stuck her head forward and stretched her back legs out one by one, then gave a good shake. Awake now, she trotted over to Chet and put her head under his hand, a scratch behind the ears being the next thing in her routine.
“I knew that name would get you moving.” Chet clipped her leash to her collar and said good-bye to Cliff who waved as theyheaded out the door. Sometimes he wondered if Dottie loved his sister more than she did him. She trotted beside him down Seapoint Boulevard, her doggie smile in full force as if knowing she was headed to see one of her favorite people.
They reached Baylee’s Bakery, and Chet looked through the front window. He couldn’t take Dottie inside and not just because dogs weren’t allowed in a place that sold food; with her size, she’d knock half the tables over with her tail as she greeted everyone. Outside was safer for all involved.
Through the window, he caught Eva’s eye. She smiled and held up a finger. He smiled back and gave her a thumbs-up. Having moved to Silver Bay not long after Chet did, Eva had hit it off immediately with Baylee and found her happy place among flour and sugar and all things baking. He couldn’t recall a single memory of them as kids where Eva wasn’t wearing an apron with dustings of white in her auburn hair.
As he settled himself at one of the café tables outside and got Dottie to lie beside him, he recalled that there had been a fire at the bakery shortly before Eva moved to town. It had started next door at Atmosphere, the decorating shop owned by Kate MacIntire, now Kate Harden. It was one of the first fires Chet had worked after starting here. It wasn’t fun giving Kate the news of all they’d discovered, but she had recovered well. Her store was thriving, and she’d married a local named Jack Harden soon after. Then Baylee had married Kate’s brother, Drew. Chet rubbed his eyes and shook his head. There were too many people in Silver Bay who were related or had lived here so long and gone to high school together. It took too much brain power to try to keep track. All he knew was that Baylee made the best almond croissants he’d ever tasted, and once a week, he met with his sister and, while catching up with her, indulged himself with one.
“Hey, Big Brother.” Eva came out of the bakery and set a massive almond croissant in front of him, as well as a steaming cup of black coffee. She hugged him, then crouched beside Dottie and began scratching her behind the ears. “And how’s my favorite girl today, huh?”
Dottie accepted the attention with full doggie joy, complete with a huge kiss, which meant she licked Eva’s face from chin to forehead.
Eva laughed. “I know I should think that’s gross, but she is just all love, isn’t she?”
“That she is,” Chet agreed before biting off a piece of croissant. He licked powdered sugar off his lips and moaned. “This just never gets old. These are so good.”
Eva laughed again as she sat in the chair across the table from him, her eyes following the two women who walked by them. “Be careful, brother. You’re going to have a riot on your hands.”
Chet furrowed his brow and looked at his sister. Her hair was twisted up and held in the back with a clip. Flour dusted her cheek and the yellow apron she wore withBaylee’s Bakeryon the front had also seen its share of flour. “What in the world are you talking about?”
“You and your animal magnetism out here on the street, moaning like you need a moment alone, will have every single woman in town drooling after you.”
He rolled his eyes and shook his head. Another huge bite of the pastry was his response.
“You’ve never grasped it have you?”
“Grasped what?” he asked amid chewing his food.
Eva shook her head. “You and Dominic could not be more different if you tried.”
Chet shrugged. People had been saying that about him and his twin brother since they were kids.
“Dominic walks around thinking he’s God’s gift to females, while you are oblivious to the fact that six foot three inches of muscle topped with a full head of dark hair and blue eyes the color of the sky gets a lot of attention.”
“Are you waxing poetic about me for a reason? What do you want?”
“I don’t want anything, loser.”
Ah, there she was. That sounded more like his little sister.
“Wait a minute, why do you say a full head of hair? I’m thirty-two years old, not eighty-two.” He sipped the coffee, the bitter of it blending just right with the sweet of the sugary pastry.
“Yeah. Well, there are women out there jealous of the hair God blessed you and Dominic with.”
He shook his head. “I have no clue what you are talking about.”
“You and Dominic may be twins, but you are worlds apart. He knows that by growing his hair out, he gets those curls that drive women crazy.”
