Page 175 of Happily Never After

The door swung shut behind Claire, and she crossed the parking lot. There, by the road, was a brand-new sign. There was a new name, and a silhouette of a woman in heels walking a corgi and a pug.

“Hartley Animal Rescue and Doggy Daycare,” she read in a whisper. She bit her bottom lip as she took a picture with her phone and just stared at it for a moment. If she didn’t get out of here, she was going to ugly cry and scare Mindy and Heather. She sniffed and turned around. Sam smiled from the front window of the rescue.

Claire waved as she got in her car and backed out onto the road. Against all odds, she had accomplished the impossible. Saved the rescue, survived two abductions, taken down ESA, pulled off the biggest project of her career, expanded her business. And now a piece of her was immortalized, a lasting legacy in her hometown. Her heart grew in her chest as she drove. Twenty minutes later, she pulled up to the house with the smell of blueberries wafting from the paper bag on her passenger seat.

“Hey, guys. I brought muffins.” Claire shut the front door with her foot as she balanced iced coffees in one hand and muffins in the other. Rosie and Winston ran to her and jumped on her legs.

Heather and Mindy whipped around. Mindy shuffled something into her binder. “Thanks, Claire. I was just showing Heather some stuff on red flags.”

“Oh, great.” Claire slid the food onto the kitchen island, then bent down to pet the dogs. “Super important, especially considering our rather unfortunate reputation. Now that we’re only at a ninety-eight percent success rate.”

“To be fair, Victoria did say yes to Barney,” Mindy said. She ripped the paper liner off a muffin and stuffed half of it in her mouth. She moaned. “So we’re still at a hundred percent proposal acceptance rate.”

“But they didn’t make it down the aisle.” Claire sat on the bar stool next to Heather. “Thankfully. So, since we’re talking red flags today anyway, I wanted to go over how we gently reject clients.”

Mindy nodded and cleared her throat. “We do reply to everyone who applies for our services. In most cases, we reject the ones who don’t pass the initial screening via email. And we do it as quickly as possible so we don’t waste their time.”

“We thank them for their interest in our company.” Claire paused while Heather scribbled down notes in a composition notebook. “Then we provide a reason for the rejection—most of the time it’s because our client roster is already full for their preferred engagement window. But sometimes it’s because they seem like a giant creep. But we don’t say that, we tell them that based on the results of the questionnaire they didn’t pass our screening process. It’s ruffled some feathers before, but I think it’s better to be honest.” She paused again as Heather wrote.

“If we’re feeling particularly generous, we sometimes refer them to other services—Wendy would be shocked if she knew how many of her clients came from our reject list.”

“What do you think Wendy’s success rate is of getting people down the aisle?” Heather asked.

Claire and Mindy both grimaced. They had briefed Heather on their history with Wendy in case it came up on the job.

“I don’t know if that’s a metric Wendy keeps track of,” Claire said carefully. “We just have different methods for selecting clients. She generally doesn’t turn people away unless her roster is full. We turn them away if they don’t seem like a sound couple or if they don’t seem to be on the same page. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve found our applicants on dating websites.”

“That’s terrible.”

Claire shrugged. “That’s why we’re so careful. Happily Ever Afters isn’t just a name. It’s—almost—a guarantee.”

“I love that.” Heather scribbled away.

They talked for another two hours and went through their current list of applicants. Now that Heather was on board, they could take more than one client on at a time. Claudia and Tyrell’s proposal was already half-planned. Darius and Nick would follow, and they would round out July with Todd and Leslie. It was time to choose the next clients. Excitement tingled all the way down Claire’s spine when they finally settled on two couples.

“I love them. Tenth grade drama teacher and his high school sweetheart, mother of his child, and who also happens to be a feisty salsa dancing instructor. Heather, do you want to try writing our acceptance email? For practice?”

“Yes,” Heather said, drawing the laptop toward her. “I’m so excited. What do I say?”

Claire and Mindy coached her through the acceptance letter and discussion of budget and collection of ideas. Shehad never realized exactly how many steps they went through unconsciously. The training binder needed a serious update. Maybe a PowerPoint.

When Mindy left to meet Sawyer and Heather drove off to spend the night with an old friend, Claire stepped outside and sat on the porch. Rosie settled at her feet and let out a hefty doggie sigh. Winston put his paw on her leg until she lifted him up into her lap. For the first time in a year, Claire didn’t wonder if someone was peeping at her through the trees that surrounded Luke’s property. Unlike the relentless police sirens and hubbub of Los Angeles, everything was still and quiet. The wind rustled the flowers Luke had planted in the front flower bed. Tiny green buds would become stargazer lilies later in the summer—Claire’s favorite.

Where was Luke, anyway?

As if he was anticipating her question, he rolled up the lane at that exact moment and smiled at her through the windshield. He slammed the door of his late father’s truck and crossed the front yard to bend down and kiss her full on the mouth. Her toes curled in her shoes.

“I love seeing you like this,” he said, cupping her chin.

“Covered in dog hair and sitting on my butt?”

“Just at peace.” He kissed her again and petted both dogs.

“Where have you been all day?”

“Working on something.” He stepped down the stone path back to his truck.

“What’s that?”

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