Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 111980 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 560(@200wpm)___ 448(@250wpm)___ 373(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 111980 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 560(@200wpm)___ 448(@250wpm)___ 373(@300wpm)
This is the moment. I straighten my spine. “I’m ready.”
“Dog weddings. Like that guy mentioned.”
“That guy?” I ask, even though I know who she means. I just didn’t think she’d paid him any attention.
“Yes,” she says waving her hand, as if to swat something away. “You know him. That spray-tan guy who spoke to me.”
“Sure,” I answer, a little surprised she likes the idea. It seems so unnecessary. The height of anthropomorphizing.
“It has me thinking. In a one-thing-leads-to-another way. What if we did…dog fashion shows? With Jubilee as the star.”
That’s not a bad idea at all. It’s the good kind of anthropomorphizing. “I like it.”
“Would you like to manage dog fashion shows?”
And I didn’t see that coming. I went from expecting to lose a contract to being offered another one. It hardly seems fair, but it’ll be good for Dog Tails. For the team. “Dog Tails would love to help,” I say, but something nags at me. “Why’d you ask for his card though?”
“So I wouldn’t forget his name. Since I never want to work with him. Dogs don’t like him.”
“You’re not wrong.”
“But they like you. And they like Chloe. Can you and Chloe put it together?”
My heart sinks, but I also know I should say yes. Even if it hurts to work so closely with the woman I can’t stop thinking about.
Maybe this is how I make amends to her.
For being…a dick.
Well, the horse said it best this morning when he whinnied you dick.
37
FACTS, FEELINGS, AND TOUGH LOVE
CHLOE
Lavender is supposed to be calming. Ergo, I drive to Ripley’s farm when I finish working for the day.
I’ve already alerted her that I’m coming. I gave her and Bridget the preview, too, via text.
Along the way, my car cruises beautifully—no chugging and gasping for breath—and I’m both thrilled, sad, and mad about that. The second I arrive, I cut the engine and open the driver’s door.
It’s nice. Really it is.
It’s also frustrating that Sawyer seemed to show me how he cared, but then tossed me aside. With my shoulders drooping, I walk toward the farmhouse as Ripley cuts across the purple blooms toward me. When she reaches me, she gives me a warm smile, tinged with sadness too. “Hey, friend,” she says, then wraps her arms around me.
I fall into her embrace and moan. “Everything hurts, and I’m mad.”
“Of course you are. Bridget’s on the way. Let’s go to the porch.”
“The location for all sad talks,” I say.
“That’s what porches are for—feelings.”
I head to the porch swing, slump into it, then pout. “I’m mad and I’m sad,” I say, and it comes out like a whine.
Feels like one.
Ripley rubs my shoulder as we swing a little bit. “I get it,” she says as Bridget pulls up to the edge of the farm and pops out of her shiny blue car.
“I mean, he just…discarded me,” I say as she walks down the path toward us. I give a faint wave. “Hi.”
“Hey. Did your day suck more than an unsalted pretzel?” she asks with a kind smile.
“Yeah,” I say, managing a small laugh. “I had to work with him and act like everything was fine, and I just feel stupid and foolish, and why do I have the worst instincts when it comes to romance?”
When she sits down on the other side of me, she hugs me too. “Who even has good instincts with romance? Is that a thing?”
“I don’t know anyone who does,” Ripley says, then turns to me. “But…what exactly went down yesterday?”
I couldn’t even talk to them last night. I was too…hurt. I needed to be alone with salted caramel tiramisu ice cream. Plus, Bridget was working late, and Ripley had a date with Banks. So solitude was my only option.
“He kicked me out like I was hot garbage in the middle of summer. Like last week’s leftovers. Like the freeloading cousin who’s stayed on the couch too long.”
Bridget laughs, but then quickly clears her throat. “Be more specific.”
“The one who makes your couch smell like weed and stinky feet,” I say.
“I mean be more specific about what happened with Sawyer,” Bridget says. “You didn’t give us any details beyond the fact that you broke up in secret. I’m guessing it somehow relates to Ball Is Life.”
“Cute video of Jubilee, by the way,” Ripley says.
“I know,” I mutter in acknowledgment, then I tell them everything. “August showed up, and he tried to horn in on my territory, and then there was this whole stay away from my woman melee, and Sawyer knocked him into the water, and then Jubilee jumped in, and then the handler freaked, and Sawyer dove in after her, but obviously she can swim. And when it was all over and his employees were cheering him on for being human and not a robot, he just seemed like he wanted to kick himself into a garbage can. And then he told me he needed to take stock of his life, and he wasn’t acting professional, so I basically said, ‘You’re breaking up with me.’ I laid it out like the fact it was.”