Page 32 of Return to You

The trio of man-meat men were all animatedly discussing something that Ali would bet dollars to donuts had to do with MMA. They were talking with their hands and demonstrating different moves. It was a blur of muscles, tattoos, and hotness.

“Damn.” Jess stood motionless, as if moving would somehow make it all go away. “You could charge admission. This is as hot as the Magic Mike show I saw in Vegas.”

Ricky and the dog ran up to them, interrupting their viewing pleasure.

“Can Ryder stay the night?” he asked.

“Sure. If it’s okay with his mom.” That was one parenting trick Ali had learned the hard way. The parental approval caveat.

“Thanks!” Satisfied with that answer, Ricky went back to his friends but Dumbass remained at Ali’s feet.

“Who brought a dog to the barbeque?” Jess, an avid dog lover, had just noticed Dumbass, which was another testament to just how hot the Man Meat Show had been.

“Kade.”

“Kade has a dog?” Jess lifted her oversized sunglasses and set them atop her glossy black hair, revealing her perfectly applied wing-tip eyeliner.

“It’s his dad’s, or was his dad’s. The poor baby was tied up in the sun.”

“Fucking George,” Jess bit out through clenched teeth before she bent down and rubbed the pup’s head. He took that as an invitation to lick Jess’s entire face.

“Actually, George was doing the best he could, it was just too much with his health issues.” Everyone in Whisper Lake knew that George was gravely ill since he collapsed outside The Snack Shack last summer.

“What’s your name, handsome boy?” She asked the dog directly before shooting a look up at Ali. “He is a boy, isn’t he?”

“Yes, he’s a boy.” Ali smiled down at the mutt and Jess did the same. “That’s Dumbass.”

Jess’s head whipped back up to look at her friend.

“George named him,” Ali explained.

“Fucking George,” Jess repeated, this time with affection.

“Dumbass, come here!” KJ called out and the dog sprinted toward the twins and their friends, jumping up at the last second and almost knocking KJ over. All of the boys burst out laughing.

“Wow. The twins look like they love him. Is Kade taking it with him when he leaves?”

“He’s not leaving.” It was the first time Ali had said the words out loud and it caused her heart to jump.

Jess’s perfectly arched left eyebrow rose in silent question.

“Come on,” Ali threaded her arm through Jess’s, “help me get some chips.”

Ali had been dying to talk to her best friend all day, but she’d known that Saturday was Jess’s busiest day of the week. And Ali had been busy with the barbeque, anyway. But now that it was in full swing, it was the perfect time to sneak away to download everything that had transpired since she’d left Jess sixteen hours ago.

The sliding glass door off the deck that always stuck, now glided easily when Ali gently tugged at the handle, taking her by surprise.

Kade.

He must’ve fixed it while she’d been taking a shower. He’d seen her fighting with it all morning. It seemed like every time she turned around she discovered something else he’d fixed. First it was the dryer, then the loose railing on the stairs, the light in the pantry, and now the back door.

It was unnerving and amazing at the same time.

I never touch anything I don’t know I can fix, she heard Kade’s voice in her head and her hormones did a jig.

Damn. It got her every time.

As soon as the girls were inside and the door shut behind them, Jess turned to her friend.

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