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Harper’s hands do a slow roll, dropping from Sully, her jaw unhinging. “No. Way.” She looks at Claire. She looks at me. Back to Claire. Back to me. “You seriously did it? Oh my God. Does Mom know? Oh my God, she’s gonna lose her shit. Can I be the one to tell her? Oh my God. Smile!”
“What?”
Click.
“Harper!” I lunge for the phone she’s hiding behind. She spins out of reach, fingers flying over the screen while Claire snickers beside me.
Harper clicks off her phone and tucks it in the back pocket of her shorts. “Sorry, what were you saying?”
“You’re kidding me right now. Did you seriously just text Mom?”
She has the audacity to look shocked, one hand pressed to her chest. “Avery, I’m insulted. I would never.”
My phone starts ringing in my pocket. I pull it out, rolling my eyes at the three-letter word that scrolls across my screen. My sister’s toothy grin tells me she’s anything but sorry.
“Hi Mom,” I sigh into the phone, watching as my sister and my girlfriend stroll down the street without me, their hands tangled together like they’re already best friends, my dog trotting along beside them.
“Girlfriend!” Mom shrieks in my ear, drawing the attention of at least three innocent passersby. “You have a girlfriend! Claire is your girlfriend! I’m gonna be a grandma one day after all!”
Aw, for fuck’s sake.
***
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
Claire
“She’s not volunteering with you at the shelter, Harps.” Avery tears the cereal box out of his sister’s hands, shoving it back in his pantry.
“Why not? What if she wants to?” Harper opens the fridge, searching through it.
“She doesn’t have time.”
“But you haven’t even asked her,” Harper points out, to which I nod, because even though this conversation is about me, I haven’t contributed to it at all.
“No, and I’m not going to—” he flashes me an apologetic look, “—because if she starts spending all her free time at the animal shelter with you, I’m gonna be right back to fucking my hand alone in my bedroom.”
“Avery,” I say on a gasp. “That’s your sister!”
“Sorry,” he says in a way that tells me he’s not at all. He waves his hand down my body. “And the last thing I need is her coming home with an armful of puppies and kittens because they gave her the sad eyes and she couldn’t say no.”
Ah, he’s got me pinned.
Harper plants her fists on her hips. “Well, they need homes, Avery.”
His head bobs. “They sure do, but not with us. Not twenty of them.”
Harper rolls her eyes and slams the fridge. “Ugh, you’re the worst.” She opens the pantry, pulling out the box of cereal Avery tucked away only a minute ago.
“Harps, you’re driving me fucking nuts.” Avery’s eyes widen and he wraps both hands around her neck from behind, pretending to strangle her. “We’re going for lunch in ten minutes. Stop eating.” His dark coffee gaze lands on me. “Why did you invite her?”
I lift a shoulder and let it fall. “I like her.”
She irritates Avery, and that makes me laugh. She’s also been crawling on the floor, rolling around with Sully, taking pictures of him with an expensive-looking camera while talking to him like he’s a baby. She’s highly entertaining. Despite Avery’s attitude toward her right now, I know he agrees. He watches her and his dog with a smile.
Avery’s eyes roll with amusement at my response, and he pulls me into him by my hips. “Fine, she can come.” He tilts his face, forehead resting against mine, and gives me a tender smile. “The things I’ll do for you.”
Click.
