Page 23 of Hound Dog
Liam snapped a glove on and gently grabbed one of the kitty cat cupcakes. “Are you ever going to tell us about this mysterious new job of yours?” he asked.
I looked up just in time to catch the smug smile on Haylee’s face as she stared at me. Like she knew my secret. “It’s nothing exciting. I don’t even know if it’s going to take off—”
“Hound Dog, a hotdog cart-kiosk,” Liam said quietly. He met my gaze with a side-eyed cock to his brow. “Ms. Louise called Mom this morning… and she texted me.”
I knew this was coming. I’d just hoped I would’ve at least had until family dinner this evening to have to deal with the fallout.
Haylee snickered, quickly covering her giggle with the back of her hand. “Sorry,” she murmured and pressed her smiling lips together in a poor attempt to smother her laugh.
Dammit. How much of my business card had she read? It wasn’t fully revealing. It didn’t sayFinn Evans: Matchmakerwith dogs anywhere on it.
But it also definitely wasn’t the business card of a hotdog vendor.
Liam gave me a skeptical look. “So, my little brother who’s never shownanyinterest in cooking, outside of helping out here, all of a sudden wants to sling hotdogs? Excuse me for being a little suspicious. But something’s not adding up.”
I shrugged, giving him my best nonchalant look before turning back to Haylee and sliding her receipt across the counter. “Here you go. My brother will finish helping you.” I slipped my apron off and shrugged back into the t-shirt that I left behind the counter.
“Thanks, Finn,” she said, her eyes soft… but her mouth softer. With parted lips and dilated pupils, her gaze raked boldly over my torso.
The air between us buzzed with static, and as hard as I tried to throttle the dizzying current racing between us, I couldn’t. “So, uh. I’ll see you around. Hopefully not on any fast-moving wheels, though.”
“Sure,” she said, smiling. “Maybe I’ll come get ahotdogfor lunch sometime.” She boldly met my gaze and pulled her wild mane of curls over to one shoulder, revealing the svelte curve of her neck.
She knows. Buthowthe hell did she know? Narrowing my eyes, I gave two taps to the counter and pointed at her. “Absolutely. First one will be on me.”
There was a twinkle in her eyes as she said, “How about today? Where will you be?”
Shit. Shiiiiiiiiiit.“I’m, um, not today. Not yet I mean. I’m... still in the development stage of things.”
Her eyes narrowed and with a quiethm, she nodded.
As I came out from behind the counter, Enzo entered the cafe.
I stopped dead in my tracks, giving her a wide-eyed warning glance. If she was here to talk business, she should know better.
Her brows lifted in lieu of a hello and she said, “I’ve been calling you.”
I yanked my phone out from my back pocket, and sure enough, there were three missed calls and a few unread texts from Enzo. “I don’t check my phone while I’m working.”
Removing her black-rimmed glasses, she cleaned the lenses with the hem of her t-shirt.
Enzo and I had been friends ever since we met freshman year of high school. She’d been selling cupcakes to raise money for the spring musical, and my idiot friends had knocked over her tray of cupcakes. So, I’d offered to help her bake a new batch and sell them. Not only did we bake and sell enough to cover the cost of the costumes for her musical, but we quickly became unlikely friends—Enzo, the valedictorian and president of the future business leaders of America, and me, the star quarterback of our high school team.
Unlikely friends… but also lasting friends. True friends. I could rely on Enzo for just about anything. And I’d known she could keep a secret ever since she and I joined an underground Dungeons & Dragons campaign in high school. I’d had a jock reputation to uphold, and Enzo’s religious family had frowned deeply upon D&D for its “occult” undertones.
Returning her glasses to her nose, she smoothed a hand over her dark hair, which was pulled into a neat, high bun, and pursed her lips at me. “You look like you’re running out now?”
I nodded. She knew exactly where I was running to. Enzo was the tech brain behind the app for our new business. And like me, her family knew nothing about our new venture.
Based on the scowl etched on her face, it was clear something was wrong.
“Should we talk now… in person?”
She gave a surreptitious scan of the bakery, her eyes falling briefly onto my brother from across the room. “Why don’t you call me on your drive to the shelter. Otherwise, you’re going to be late.”
Oh, God.Somethingwaswrong. Really wrong. Because Enzo didn’t overreact. She wasn’t dramatic at all. And if it’d been nothing, she would have said she’d call me later.
With one final glance up, my eyes latched onto Haylee’s from across the room. She gave a little smile, and her eyebrows disappeared beneath the wisps of dark hair strewn across her forehead.
