Page 73 of The Woman at the Funeral

Did my gaze maybe watch the way his back and arms pulled against the material of his shirt? And the way his ass looked in his slacks? Maybe. But who could blame me?

“You’re right, bud,” he said as Goya sniffed at a bag. “I got some stuff in there for you.”

Finished with the grocery bags, he went to the one Goya was sniffing at. “I didn’t know if you were a toy dog, a rope dog, or a ball dog,” he said, taking one of each out and tossing them around the room.

Goya freaked out, jumping in three directions, not sure which way to go. Eventually, he went for the toy. Then sat down while gnawing at it, little puffs of filling being flung out of his mouth on his quest for the squeaker.

“Maybe toys without filling next time,” Nico said, shooting a wince in my direction.

“Who are we to deny him the fun of eviscerating his toy?” I asked, smiling as his tail thumped on the floor.

Nico went back to the rest of the bags on the dining table, pulling something out of one and coming over toward me with a light pink blanket that somehow looked even softer than the one from my apartment.

“Figured you had to have a cozy blanket to snuggle under while you eat your ice cream.” He pulled off the tag then drapedit over me. “Oh, shit. What’d I do?” he asked when I felt the water prick my eyes.

“Nothing. Sorry. This was just really nice. Thank you.”

I mean, random, thoughtful gifts?

Who did that?

“I’m almost afraid to show you this,” he said, walking back to the table to pull a bouquet of flowers out of one of the remaining bags.

Not just any flowers.

Hydrangeas.

And not justanyhydrangeas.

Annabelles.

“How…”

“The wedding plans,” he said, shrugging.

“But they couldn’t get Annabelles.” I’d had white peonies instead.

“No, but I heard about it.”

“And remembered?”

To that, I got a shrug.

Like it was a no big deal.

It was everything.

How the hell was I going to manage living with him, night and day, for who knew how long… without falling in love with him?

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Blair

We’d had a quick dinner of store-bought gnocchi mixed with some veggies and homemade sauce Nico threw together.

We walked Goya.

We sat on the couch eating ice cream and watching some cheesy cop drama until we were both nodding off.

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