Page 20 of Happily Never After

“I’ll give you a hint. He stabbed me last year.”

Luke swore. “You’re telling me that homicidal asshole funded a bunch of disabled pets? I’m not buying it.”

She shrugged. “Apparently it was an engagement gift for Victoria. I guess his assets are frozen because of the investigation. Which means it’s all my fault that these dogs are destined for a catch-all shelter where they’ll inevitably be euthanized to make room for pets with the correct number of legs.”

She turned away from Luke and sniffled. Her eyes watered, but she refused to cry. Barney was responsible for too many of her tears already. He had pretty much gotten away with stabbingher, but she wasnotgoing to allow him to send these pets to their doom.

Something tapped impatiently on the tile behind her. The wheels were already turning in Luke’s brain. “How much do they need to stay open? I have some money put away that I was planning on using for a vacation for us.”

She swiped a hand under each eye and turned back to face him. “I can’t even imagine you on vacation.”

“Right back at you. You’d be leading the tours by the end of the trip.”

She ignored him. “I’ve decided to put together a charity event to benefit the rescue.” She drew her arms tightly across her chest and turned to glance out the windows. The sun was setting. Shadows crept over freshly mowed grass. Winston got up and followed her, nearly bumping into the bar stool until Rosie nudged him in the correct direction. He sat on Claire’s foot and panted happily.

Another sniffle escaped. There was so much on her plate, and so little time to do it. The hearing. Brad’s proposal. Growing the business. And now the charity event. There were so many moving pieces, and if any of them failed, everything was going to collapse like a house of cards. There wasn’t much time. She needed to get it together.

Luke tugged on her wrist and turned her around. She crumpled into him. “It’s not your fault,” he whispered against her hair.

“It kind of is,” she said, voice muffled against the fabric of his T-shirt. The dread edged an inch away.

His fingers wound through her hair. “What kind of charity event are you thinking about?”

“Some combination of black tie, auction, and adoption event. If we could just train the dogs to serve hors d’oeuvres, we’d be inamazing shape. Do you think they make dog butler costumes?” She pulled back from the embrace and reached for her phone.

“I’m sure someone does. Is he blind?” Luke asked, eyeing Winston who was pawing at the coat rack.

Claire bit her lip. “Yeah. Most of the dogs at Tender Hearts are special needs. I’m sorry. I should have asked you if it was okay for me to bring him home.” She sidled up next to him and put her hand on his arm. Did impulsively adopting a special needs dog count toward her mindfulness homework?

“I’ll allow it. Once.” He pulled her close and pressed himself to her. She yielded, opening her mouth as he kissed her deeply.

Crash.Something fell behind them, and they sprang apart. Claire grabbed the bag of Chinese and drew it over her shoulder like a shot put. If ESA had come to take her, they were about to be surprised by a face full of sweet and sour sauce. A quick sweep of the room revealed nothing amiss. She ducked around the corner of the island. A broom lay on its side. Winston huddled under the breakfast nook. A soft whimper escaped.

“Poor little guy,” Luke said, picking him up. “Let me do some research. He’ll be comfortable here in no time.”

“I appreciate you.” Claire snuck back in for another hug. Winston licked her cheek. Rosie whined at Claire’s heels until she picked her up.

Luke grunted and kissed her again, more softly this time.

Warmth ran up and down her like she was neck-deep in a hot tub. Shit. That was only one of the bombshells she needed to drop this evening. Maybe she should have led with the other one.

“There’s something else I have to tell you.”

“For fuck’s sake. What now?”

“So Mindy and I went to the bank today. For Happily Ever Afters,” she explained, turning away from him and walking to the fridge.

“Okay,” he said slowly.

“And we took out a loan. For the business. To help with expanding out west.”

There was silence. She pulled a bottle of wine out of the fridge and set it on the counter. Maybe some Côtes du Rhône could soften the blow. The storm in Luke’s eyes had grown. Winston licked his chin.

“If you needed money, why didn’t you just ask me?” There was danger in the growl of his voice.

She pulled two glasses out of the cabinet and poured the wine. “I didn’t want to mix business up with this.” She gestured between the two of them. “What if you dump me for a famous actress, and then I owe you a ton of money? Or what if I missed a payment and you started to resent me? And then you got some ideas from your true crime obsession and you started slipping cyanide in my wine?”

He glowered.

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