Page 58 of Hound Dog
Liam leaned over, examining the hotdogs as I loaded them onto a tray. “Leftoverhotdogs. Yum,” he said with as much enthusiasm as if he were getting a root canal.
I swallowed my pride, keeping my eyes down. I was pretty sure if I looked up, I would have glared at my brother. “These aren’t cooked yet. I’m going to hop out to the grill. So… who wants a veggie dog and who wants a regular hotdog?”
I took the tally—everyone but a couple of us wanted a regular hotdog.
“Well, I think it’s a great idea,” Mom said. “And I’m excited to try the product of your new business.”
I smiled at my mom. She really was practically perfect. Always supportive. Strong as hell. Funny. Nurturing. But tough on us when she needed to be.
“I can’t believe we haven’t had a hotdog cart in this town before,” Elaina said. “I have to admit, when your permit application came across my desk, I was shocked at the amount of research you did.”
Everyone blinked, glancing between Elaina and me.
Shit. As our town manager, it didn’t occur to me that she would have been the one to read and approve the permit application.
The permit application that I didn’tactuallyfill out—Enzo did.
And forged my signature.
I gulped. “Yeah… I think it was in a weird fever dream haze that I got that thing researched and filled out. I barely remember what I pulled together.”
I kept my head down, opening the various containers of toppings for the hotdogs. Just because I was good at lying didn’t mean I liked doing it. Especially not to my family.
Mom blinked and her hand circled my back in that sweet, nurturing way of hers. “You did research for the application?” she asked.
Elaina reached over and grabbed a tortilla chip from the family-sized bag I brought. “Thorough research, Linda. He went into the history of hotdog vendors and how every thriving city saw increases in revenue overall when cart-kiosks and food trucks became a thriving enterprise in the cities.”
Dammit, Enzo.I should have known she would go too far. It had to bebelievablyme. And yet, she couldn’t help her over-achieving nature.
“Wow. I could barely get you to research the world’s fair when your high school diploma depended on you getting a C+ in American history,” Mom said.
I cleared my throat and decided to go for honesty. Or at least, partial honesty. “Enzo was a big help when I filled out that permit. She helped with a lot of the research.”Allthe research.
Elaina nodded. “That makes sense. I was still impressed though. I see a lot of permit applications come through and yours was really inspired.”
Neil’s face creased into a frown. “Why didn’t you tell me he applied for that permit?”
Elaina shrugged and went to the fridge, pulling out a cheese plate to serve. “There’s an expectation of privacy when someone applies for a permit—you know that. Plus, this was Finn’s news to tell, not mine.”
“Hey, thanks for bringing the appetizer, by the way,” I said, pointing to the cheese plate. I desperately wanted a change of topics. “Give me ten minutes. These dogs will cook up fast.”
I picked up the tray and walked out to the back porch to start grilling before Elaina could continue grillingmeabout the application.
I opened the lid and suppressed my groan as Chloe came out on the deck, handing me a can of Bissel Brothers Substance Ale. “Thought you might want this,” she said. “It’s humid tonight.”
I took a pull from the beer, then set it down as one by one, I placed the hotdogs on the grill.
Looking over her shoulder, she lowered her voice to a whisper. “You know, the funniest thing happened to me yesterday. My girlfriend was showing me this new dating app she was on. It’s for dog lovers to connect. And it has theexactsame name as your hotdog stand.”
Shit, shit, shit.
“Huh. Weird.”
“And,” Chloe continued, after taking a sip from her own beer, “the app launched only a couple of weeks before you announced your hotdog stand. Apparently, the owner is super secretive and is keeping his identity under wraps… even though he’s doing in-person matchmaking, too, where he matches people using rescue dogs.”
The website doesn’t say all that explicitly. I knew this for a fact. And yet, I couldn’t correct her without admitting it was my site.
Dammit. I hadn’t counted on Elaina, Chloe, Liam, or Neil finding out about Hound Dog since they were already coupled. I figured my biggest risk was Addy… and she was the sibling I knew would care the least.
