Page 58 of Worst in Show

“Which is why I interrupted that whole thing.” She waves her arm in a circle to encompass Leo and me. “We don’t have a ton of time here.”

Leo has dived into his crafting as if our exchange never happened, so I settle for side-eyeing Micki on my way back into the store. “I’m going to get the tape.”

Back in the storage room, I sink down onto a box by the door, my hand pressed to my chest. What was that even? When Leo looked at me like that, challenged me, it was like a powerful surge knocked me into overdrive. I usually back down from situations like that. What a rush.

“There. Done,” he says when I return. He holds up his pumpkin as if it’s a rare painting.

“Look at that. You made Cholula,” Micki exclaims. “It even has her dangly tongue.”

The resemblance is uncanny—if we inflated Cholula and turned her orange that is—and as much as I don’t want to be, I’m impressed.

“Admit it, you’re impressed,” Leo says as if he can read my mind.

I scoff. “No.” I take the Cholula pumpkin from him. “It’s average at best.”

“So cruel.” He feigns a shot to the heart.

I pull off a piece of tape and excuse myself to put it up on the window inside. When I return, Leo stares at me with a mix of humor and befuddlement.

“Let me guess, you have an opinion about the placement of your masterpiece.” I don’t have time for this. We open in thirty minutes.

He blinks a few times. “Not at all. I’m just… You put it up.”

I look at the largely empty window with the lone foam pumpkin. “That’s the whole point. All of them are going up. Did you want to take it home?” I ask this in the tone of voice I’d use with a small child. “Put it on the fridge?”

“I think it looks great there,” Micki chimes in.

“Yeah, no. I’m good.” Leo digs his teeth into his lower lip as if to stifle another smile. It’s futile. His eyes give him away every time.

The whole display does something to my stomach I haven’t felt in a good, long while.

He hikes his thumb over his shoulder. “I’ll let you get to it. I have some decorating to do. Really looking forward to seeing you in a Canine King apron when you lose.”

He strides confidently back to Canine King, leaving, I admit, a bit of a void there on the sidewalk.

“Leo and Cora sitting in a tree…” Micki sings in a low voice.

I throw a popsicle stick at her.

I don’t have time for climbing trees, and if I did it with him, he’d probably make it a race to the top.

Jaz comes darting out of the store as soon as Leo’s disappeared into it. “I told him I had to run to the pharmacy real quick,” she pants, ducking down behind the table. “Come on, cover me.”

Micki and I do, though it’s a pathetic excuse of an attempt that wouldn’t fool anyone who was actually looking.

“What’s going on, sis?” Micki asks.

“I saw it. I saw the letter. Or at least I think that was the one. He had me bring Tilly upstairs yesterday when we got busy, and it was sitting right there on his kitchen table.”

I lower my voice. “Tell me you didn’t take it.”

“Of course not. What do you think of me?”

“What do I think… You literally told me you were going to steal it last we talked about this.”

“Okay, okay. Well, I didn’t. But…”

Micki and I both lean in.

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