Page 55 of Getting Lucky

Anger flashed in her eyes. “Don’t youdaresay you’re sorry,” she hissed.

“We can’t do this right now,” he pleaded. “You said so yourself.” At least she knew his reasoning. He still had no idea what was holdingherback. Was it Iris? But he couldn’t make that fit. Maisie seemed to genuinely like Iris.

“I know.” She ran a hand over her head and then straightened her shirt. “Why don’t I go out first? You can take a moment to get things under control.” Her gaze shot to his crotch, and he had to close his eyes for a moment.

“Maisie,” he said softly, pleading for her to understand, but he had no idea what he wanted her to comprehend. That he hadn’t stopped voluntarily, maybe, which was an issue in and of itself.

“I know,” she said again, sounding weary this time, and shot out of the room.

He took several deep breaths and headed to the bathroom, splashing his face with cold water and shifting things around. The last thing he needed was to draw his sister’s attention to his crotch…or get it on camera.

He headed to the playroom, bracing himself for whatever his sister had planned. When he walked in, it looked innocent enough. A chair was covered in an off-white, fake fur throw. A scrawny four-foot Christmas tree was perched next to the chair, covered in dog bones and toys as ornaments. Several wrapped presents sat under it.

“What took you so long?” Iris asked, sounding annoyed. “Ruby is already getting antsy.”

Sure enough, Maisie had Ruby on a leash, and the dog was trying to make a break for it.

“I had to go to the bathroom.”

Iris shrugged. “Yeah. Good idea. Especially with all these dogs about to sit on your lap.” She shot Maisie a challenging look. “No squatting. The setup is that the dogs are sitting on Santa’s lap.”

“So I’m supposed to sit in the chair?” he asked, gesturing toward it, hopeful Iris had meant it when she’d said he could go without the jacket.

“Yeah.”

“He needs the Santa coat first,” Maisie insisted, holding out the wadded ball of fabric. “His blue shirt’s not going to cut it as Santa.”

Iris made a face. “Actually…we’re not going to need it.”

“Ha!” Jack exclaimed in triumph and shot a smug look at Maisie.

“It’s tradition,” Maisie said, shaking the fabric. A three-inch piece of fur trim fell to the floor. “We can glue that back on.”

“We’re going to try something new,” Iris said in an assertive tone.

“If it ain’t broken, why fix it?” Maisie shot back, then added, “The jacket trim aside.”

Jack was about to intervene, but Iris held her ground. “You’re missing an opportunity, Maisie. You’re barely bringing in enough money to run this place, and I have no idea what you’re living on. Beatrice showed me that most months you don’t take home your full salary. Peoplewantto like dog shelters, and they want to give their money to cute animals. You just need to rope them in differently. That Instagram post last week got us attention. Did you know there was a ten percent increase in donations over the last week?”

“Everyone donates at Christmas,” Maisie countered.

“No.” Iris shook her head. “Beatrice showed me the books for the past five years. That money comes in the week between Christmas and New Year’s. Charitable donations for tax write-offs. This was different.”

Maisie turned to the side, and Jack could see she was struggling with the call to change. He longed to comfort her, but something told him she had to do this on her own.

“Okay,” Maisie finally said. “We’ll try it your way.For now.What’s your plan? Because you obviously have one.”

“We’re going to call it the Dog Days of Christmas,” Iris gushed. “In the week leading up to Christmas, we’ll feature a new dog every day. We’ll have a picture and a short blurb for each of them, encouraging people toadopt not shopand also to donate to the shelter. If this works, we’ll look at bringing other guys in to model for future campaigns. Volunteers, of course.”

“What do you meanmodel?” Jack asked, the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end.

“Here’s where it gets slightly gross,” Iris said with a gagging face. “I need you to take off your shirt.”

“Say what?” Jack asked.

Iris held up her hands. “Before you freak out and think I’m a pervert, just know the shirtless part was Addy’s idea.”

Maisie burst out laughing.

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