Page 124 of Beware of Dog

Comically, Shep lifted his hand, looked at it, looked at Emily, and then offered an uncertain shake. “Hi. Good to meet you.” He sounded like he needed to clear his throat, and Cass bit her lip to keep from laughing.

“Hello.” Emily didn’t do the whole handshake thing, but she gripped Shep’s fingers delicately in her own for a brief press, and then let go. She looked Shep up and down, and then leaned toward Cass and stage-whispered, “Bit older than I thought.”

“Mum.”

Emily smiled, all dimpled, girlish innocence. “Lovely to look at, though.”

Shep blushed, the tips of his ears going tomato-red, and Miles and Tommy grinned in a way that meant they were definitely going to tell this story to everyone.

~*~

Raven met them for an early dinner at her favorite Italian place. They had a reservation, a big round corner booth in the back, where they wouldn’t interrupt the other diners if the boys got rowdy, an inevitability given Reese and Tenny joined them, and Shep’s personality in general.

The three women sat in the very center of the big, curved banquette, Raven and Cass flanking Emily. On Cass’s other side, Shep’s arm brushed hers as he leaned an elbow on the table and pointed his fork at Tommy. “Nah. No way. That never happened.”

“Oh, I’ll show you.” Tommy pulled out his phone, full-up with righteousness and whiskey, face flushed as he scrolled for photos. “You’ll eat your fucking words, Yank.”

Cass laid a hand on his thigh under the table. He patted her hand and said, still too loud: “Pics or it didn’t happen.”

Cass shook her head and gave up.

When she turned toward her mom, she saw Emily’s gaze pinging from one side of the table to the other, and back again, and again. “Is it always like this?”

Cass was an only child, and though Emily saw the boys now and then, it was never for long, and never in a group setting. She’d not spent any time at Baskerville Hall, so she wasn’t used to Dogs going at one another like this. It was good-natured, but it was a lot.

“Unfortunately,” Raven said with an eyeroll. “Especially if Tenny is involved,” she said, pointedly, raising her voice.

Tenny lifted his hands. “I’m not even a part of this conversation.” He gestured between Tommy and Shep.

“Somehow, this must be your fault,” Raven shot back.

Emily leaned in closer to Cass, their shoulders pressed together.

Cass said, “It gets a little crazy when there’s several of us together. But.” She shrugged. “It’s fun.”

Emily nodded, slowly, overwhelmed.

Cass put her hand back on Shep’s thigh, and this time, she pinched him.

“Ow!” His head snapped around her direction, and when they made eye contact, Cass widened her eyes and tipped her head toward Emily.

Shep frowned, and then he got it, brows shooting up, expression going sheepish. He shoved Tommy’s phone back across the table with a, “Yeah, yeah, sure,” and bent back over his plate, more subdued.

Tommy fell back into his seat, tucked his phone away, and Reese did something out of sight that made Tenny jump in his seat.

The table fell silent, and Cass realized just how loud they’d been against the backdrop of piped-in string music, the chime of cutlery, and the low murmur of the kitchen through the flap doors.

Miles cast an almost-desperate glance around the table, begging someone to break the quiet.

Emily twirled spaghetti onto her fork and said, as if the previous chaos hadn’t happened, “So, Frank. You’re a Lean Dog.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He darted a sideways look at Cass, and she realized, with a lurch, that they hadn’t come up with any sort of cover story. Emily knew very little about the Dogs, by design: she thought they were bike enthusiasts with normal day jobs. Some of the Dogs had real jobs, but Shep wasn’t one of them.

“What else do you do? Cass hasn’t told me very much at all,” she said, with a gentle note of reprimand.

Oh shit.

Across the table, Tenny’s brows saidoh shit, too.

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