Page 24 of Hound Dog
My stomach clenched. She was intensely frustrating. And yet, I hoped to God I saw her again.
It was too bad that, despite my business and being damn good at matchmaking, that I didn’t believe in soul mates.
But I did believe in chemistry. And history.
And summer flings with hot women who visit my town...
But first, I needed to put out some fires.
Chapter Four
Haylee
If there wasone thing I knew about myself, it was that I didn’t docasual.
Okay, maybe not in a general sense, but when it came torelationships, casual wasn’t for me.
I glanced down at my beachy sundress and inwardly sighed. Actually, other than my lacking fashion sense, there was nothing about me that I’d describe as casual.
I was incredibly passionate and motivated when it came to my career as a voice teacher. I loved my friends and would do just about anything for them. And when it came to romance, well, the only ‘one night stand’ I’d ever had resulted in a two-year relationship that landed a promise ring on my finger.
So… yeah. Not exactly casual about that either.
I glanced down at the modest band on my finger and pulled out my phone to text Ben.
Miss you, babe,I texted.It’s going to be a long few weeks without you.
It only took a few moments for Ben’s response to come through.Miss you, too. I’ll visit soon!
Smiling, I slid my phone back into my bag.
Yep. I knew myself well enough to know that even if Iwassingle, I wasn’t capable of a fling. Nothing even fling-adjacent. I could barely have a cup of coffee with a guy without getting immediately attached and beginning to daydream of babies and white picket fences.
I also knew that Finn was going to be a problem. I had a boyfriend. A boyfriend I loved. And yet, I couldn’t deny that I was still attracted to Finn after all these years. So, I’d have to do what I did best—cling to the anger and the pain he’d caused me.
Because the way Finn winked at me, for a split second, he had me wondering about the summer fling we never got to have. Yep. Finn Evans epitomized the wordcasual.
I shook my head and grabbed one of the extra unicorn-horse hybrid cupcakes from the box. They wouldn’t missone, would they?
Dipping my index finger into the frosting, I licked the sugary cream and moaned in delight. A strawberry lemonade cupcake? Holy hell, that was good.
My mind wandered back to Finn and his weird lie about the hotdog cart thing. The question waswhywas he lying? And was I really one of the only people who knew without a doubt that the hotdog story was bullshit?
Granted, I didn’t really knowwhathe did, just that no hotdog vendor would ever have a business card with the tagline:Taking your hound dog self and finding you new puppy love….
I had to stop thinking about him. The boy who was my first-ever infatuation had turned into some weird, hotdog-cupcake-slinging liar, and I was better than that.
He hadn’t deserved me back then… and he certainly didn’t deserve me now.
Besides, I needed to focus. Aunt Meryl needed my help.
After she had a bad fall, I rushed here to Maple Grove from Rochester to take care of her, and I realized a couple of things when I walked into her two-story lake house: 1) it was time for her to downsize into a smaller home—a place without stairs, and 2) somehow, through the years, she had transformed into a crazy animal hoarder. There were at least a dozen dogs of all sizes and ages living in that house with her.
My phone buzzed again, this time with a message from Maisie.
Good luck today! Don’t let those bullies at the animal shelter boss you around!
I snorted a quiet laugh to myself and typed back a response.
