Page 140 of Bride of Choice

He banged on the door so hard after that Doogie and I both snapped at him to stop.

“For the love of god, would everyone stop busting down my damn doors?” Hurrying to the door, I threw it open and squinted into Boog’s sad panda face.

“My god, that’s hideous!” I thunk it, it popped free. All part of my charm this soon after waking. Opening the door wider, I checked my jacket, glad to find it dry enough to wear, and rushed about, gathering my purse, boots, slipping my snow pants on over my worn sweats.

“What you do?” Doogie asked.

“Look at that thing!” My hand waved, pointing towards Booger’s totally grody eye. “I’d call it a loss and say let’s just cut that sucker right out but last I checked pirates aren’t in right now,” I snarked. “That sucker needs to be looked at. It’s, like, infected or on its way there. Blech.”

“Not blech,” Booger grumbled, shifting awkwardly from foot to foot. “Daisy say not ‘fected.”

Doogie perked up at the mention of her name.

A snort left me as I had a seat at the table and started pulling makeup out of my bag to do up my face.

“Looks better no face ups,” Doogie grunted out, his nose wrinkling at all the cosmetic smells.

Pausing, about to powder my nose, I raised a single, well-shaped eyebrow at him. “What are you, the ugly police?”

“Why you sad and sleepy? No heckle Doogie?” the baby bro I never wanted shot back.

Clapping my compact shut, I rolled my eyes at him but shoved all my crap back into my purse and threw my hair up in a high, messy bun atop my head. “Mind ya business, Douglas.”

“Would mind business but Mama say go fix Jo’s door. No sasses back. So Doogie go to fix, find Jo looking like this.” His version of me with a hangdog look made me laugh. Lifting a small tea towel off the table, I chucked it at him. Grabbing it, he neatly folded it and set it next to him. Turning to Booger, Doogie eyed Booger’s gnarly eye goop and shook his head. “‘Fected,” he agreed, making me smirk.

Booger made an unhappy noise as Doogie barked out a laugh.

“Your mama and Daddy Luka home?” I asked Doogie.

“Mama home when Doogie leave to fix door,” he replied with a shrug.

“How long about was that, Sparky?” I muttered as I motioned for him and Booger to follow me out the door.

“While,” Doogie muttered noncommittally as we stepped out and I blinked into the growing dark.

“Shit.” So… not so much a nap as a partial day’s rest.

“Be home now. Food,” Doogie said simply, the small bag he’d put all of his drawing supplies in in hand, and walked past me, leading the way.

We were almost to Dorothy’s when I spied Cottontail walking hand in hand with Righty, her mate.

“I don’t care what you or Douglas say, woman, that eye is infected!” I called out to her.

Daisy paused, hand raised, about to wave at me. Her smile dipped into a frown. “It’s not that bad,” she mumbled, as if to herself.

“Doogie no say it pinked eye,” Booger started to mutter, but a sharp elbow put an end to that. Grabbing his arm, dragging him closer with me, I muttered through the side of my mouth, “Just go with it. For me.”

“Don’t dawdle, Douglas,” I tsked the straggler of our party as Dougie hung back.

“Douglas?” Daisy blink-blinked at us as Righty glanced from where his mate’s interest had caught just over my shoulder and a little to my left.

“Doogie,” Righty rumbled out softly.

“His name is Douglas,” I corrected primly, smiling warmly in his direction like we didn’t fight like cats and dogs. Eh. I was a sucker for a good happy ending. Everyone deserved a chance to find love, didn’t they? With a frown, I gestured between the two. “You mean you haven’t met Dorothy’s son?” Leaning in, I boldly lied, “I’m shocked. He’s, like, her favorite, just don’t tell the others, ‘cause ya know how it is. Am I right?”

Holding out her hand with a shrug, Daisy smiled up at him. “I’ve met so many of them but I don’t believe we have. Nice to meet you.”

Doogie looked like a deer caught in the headlights but carefully took her hand in his and gave it a very gentle shake.

---