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* * *
Boone
I checked the window again,hoping to catch sight of Angela when she took the mutts out.
No luck yet.
Her unspoken message last night had been crystal clear, even to an idiot like me. She’d gone to bed early and not even left a light on—stay away.
It was all my fault for pushing her too hard about dinner. There’d been a hint in there that I’d missed. Maybe my story about Dillon hitting on Lisa when I’d brought her to dinner had been too much for her. Or maybe it wasn’t that, because every mention of Lisa seemed to bug Angela for some reason.
“You’re up early,” Marge said surprising me from behind. “See anything interesting out there?”
“Just checking the weather,” I fibbed.
Marge had caught me at the kitchen window trying to catch sight of my crush like a middle schooler. Butcrushwasn’t the right word. What I felt for Angela wasn’t something I could describe, but it was certainly more than a crush.
“The weather, huh?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Maybe we’ll get rain.” Sneaking a peek out the window was all I had left after deciding against knocking on my girl’s door to invite myself in for a little morning sexercise. How could I know she wasn’t still mad?
“Looks more like you’re checking on her.”
“What?” Had I accidentally said that out loud?
“Don’t youwhatme, young man. You’re easier to read than a kindergarten book. I heard you slam the door when you came in last night. You screwed up with her somehow. Not surprising, given your history.”
Had I slammed the door? I couldn’t remember.
My aunt’s lips turned up. “Did you at least manage to make yourself useful while stalking her?”
I pointedly ignored the stalking accusation. “Coffee’s done, both pots.” I’d made both decaf and high-test because it was a toss-up as to which Marge would prefer on any given day.
She decided on decaf this morning. I followed her and poured a cup with the caffeine I needed after my sleepless night. “What do you mean,my history?”
She sat at the small breakfast table. “Some habits can be hard to break. You’ve evidently spent years blaming her for that Jared Lebow youngster getting success you thought was yours to claim. It’s only natural to fall into that trap again and blame her for something new without even noticing it.”
I shrugged and sipped as I tried to process what Marge had just said. The more I focused on her words, the worse I felt. “Could you please do me a favor?”
“Is it legal?” she asked.
* * *
Angela
I pushedIzzy and Julie ahead of me out the door and dragged King along.
“Good morning,” Boone’s voice boomed, a bit guarded, from where he sat on the stump at the far side of the lawn.
“You know King pees on that every morning.”
He jumped up and wiped at the backs of his legs. “Oh shit.”
“No,” I laughed, seeing the wet spot when he spun around. It was small, but it didn’t take much. “It’s pee, and I have a special cleaner you can spray on it to get the smell out.”
The dogs were already halfway to him, King leading the way to his special stump and the other two trotting along behind.
I followed. “You might want to move, if you got any on you,” I yelled, knowing what might come next. “King has cataracts.” He operated more by smell than sight.
