Page 23 of Almost Yours

Pausing between slices to sip on her seltzer, Ginny tapped Spencer’s leg with her foot. “You’re doing house calls, now?”

Nodding, Spencer wiped his mouth with a napkin. “Only for our senior clients, human or canine. A lot of the time it’s really hard to move sick pets from the house to the hospital, so I swing by. And then there are older folks with sick dogs, like Mrs. Handel.”

“I bet all the old folks love having you visit, with that charming smile and those sparkling eyes.”

“Don’t forget my sexy shoulders,” Spencer said with a smirk, wiggling said shoulders.

“I never said they’re sexy.”

“My brothers want to know if I’m the only one with ‘sexy shoulders’ or if they were blessed with those genes too.”

“They’re called ‘Rhodes Shoulders’. And having seen Graham the other day, I can guarantee that he has it for sure.”

Spencer arched an eyebrow. “When did you see him? He’s been gone a week.”

Ginny took another bite of her food and shrugged, not really wanting to go into detail about how she’d seen GrahamandGavin. She didn’t even want to talk to Spencer about all of this. Because talking about Gavin meant giving her brain a sign that she was interested in thinking about him further. Which she was not.

“Ooookay,” he said, dragging out the O till Ginny glared at him. “While we’re talking about my brothers…my parents wanted me to invite you for Sunday lunch.”

Dammit, now I have to make up some stupid excuse to skip.

While she loved and missed the Rhodes family—Juniper and Elijah were special in so many ways—Ginny knew that showing up to their house was asking for trouble. He’d never invited her before, even though she’d been in Wildes for a few years, but if he was inviting her now then there had to be a really good reason. The Rhodes family took their time together very seriously, which meant that Gavin would be present at lunch. And as much as she wanted to be an adult about it, Ginny feared that the minute she saw him, she’d try to strangle him.

“I thought you and Gavin talked and sorted your shit out?” Spencer asked, clearly reading her hesitation. She hadn’t actually told Spencer how that interaction went, just that she’d spoken to him. She’d let him assume it went well.

“That doesn’t mean I want to be around him through an entire meal,” she countered with a scowl. “Also, I haven’t forgiven you for not telling me how he really felt about me.”

Spencer had the decency to wince as he looked away from her. “I didn’t want to betray him by dropping that bomb on you. Besides, what would you have done if you knew?”

“We won’t ever know, will we?”

“Just come for lunch. It’s a few hours with great food and my parents will be so happy to see you. Noah’s going to be there too, so you don’t have to interact with Gavin if you don’t want to.”

Ginny took another bite of her pizza and nodded, because if she spoke right then, she might not say the right thing. It was safer to just accept the invite with her mouth occupied. The rest of their lunch was spent talking about Spencer’s work and when they were going to see each other again. He walked her back to the office and she was glad that not once did her brain conjure up more visuals of Gavin.

* * *

She might have seemed unsure and nervous about attending Rhodes family lunch, but the truth was that she was really excited. Ginny was good at faking it for the world, so if Gavin was there, she would just ignore him or be annoyingly polite. He’d already pissed her off twice, so she didn’t particularly like him right now. After grilling Spencer for information, Ginny had picked up a large bouquet of mixed flowers for Juniper from Daisy’s Patch as well as a bottle of malt whiskey she now knew that Elijah liked.

Not that either of them cared about the gifts, because they were more excited to see her. Ginny sank into their hugs, holding Juniper a little tighter because she missed her. She’d been blown away by how much hotter Noah had gotten and told him as much, which made the rest of the family groan loudly.Seriously, how did all the good genes get inputted into one family?

There were drinks and lots of catching up and despite offering to help with the food, Juniper insisted that Ginny sit with the boys and relax. And the best part? No sign of Gavin. Which instantly helped her relax.

Ginny had been at the Rhodes dining table for two hours already, laughing at memories from the summers she spent with the family. Until Gavin stormed back into her life, Ginny hadn’t spent too much time thinking about those summers. It had been a good part of her young life, but she didn’t long for them. Especially since her siblings were older and living their own lives far away.

“Oh, I remember the kinds of trouble you and Gavin used to get up to as well,” Juniper said as she started to clear the table. “He always looked so embarrassed.”

Ginny’s eyes snapped to Spencer’s to find him wincing as he glanced at Noah. Juniper and Elijah were still chuckling about this when they came back with dessert. She remembered getting caught by Elijah one time when she and Gavin were struggling to strip each other naked in the boathouse. They’d made up some silly reason for why they were sneaking around there, but Ginny should have known that nobody believed it.

“Have you seen him? Gavin?” Juniper asked, serving her a slice of a chocolate pie.

Ginny nodded, because she’d never been able to lie to Juniper Rhodes. “I have. I went by the shelter the other day.”

“He’s done such an incredible job with that place. Were you looking to adopt?”

Ginny stuffed her mouth with dessert to hold off on responding, but it was clear that Juniper was still waiting for a response. Swallowing, she shook her head. “Just you know… catching up.”

“They had a meeting,” Spencer supplied at the same time and everyone turned to look at him before glancing back Ginny’s way.

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