About a Dog

by Jenn McKinlay

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “You’re right. This whole thing is silly. I posted ‘found dog’ notices all over town, so I’m sure her people will come and claim her any moment. Don’t worry.”

  “Oh, that’s good, really good,” he said. “So, we’re all right?”

  “Yes, we’re fine,” she said. “It’s just been more intense than I expected, coming home and all.”

  “You’ll be leaving soon, just a few more days, really,” he said. “When we get back to Chicago, we can revisit us and see where we stand. You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”

  Mac’s mind went blank. Suddenly, she didn’t know what she wanted anymore.

  “Yeah, sure,” she said. “That sounds good.”

  “Excellent. I’ll call you in a few days,” he said. “Take care.”

  “I will,” Mac said. “You, too.”

  She ended the call, feeling like something had shifted between them. She wasn’t sure what it was or if it was just the challenge of communicating long distance, but as she climbed the steps to the porch, she tightened her grip on Tulip’s leash. Despite all of Trevor’s valid points about her having a dog in Chicago, she didn’t even like to think about the day Tulip’s family came to claim her, and if she was honest, deep down she hoped they never would.

  Chapter 20

  “I am not wearing that!” Emma declared. She slammed the gift bag shut and scanned the restaurant to make sure no one had seen the horror that met her eyes.

  “Oh, come on,” Carly protested. “It’s a bridal veil with little tiny penises on it—why wouldn’t you wear it?”

  “Shh,” Emma hushed her. “That’s our third-grade teacher, Ms. Lamont, in the corner. I will die, simply die, if she hears the word ‘penis’ come out of your mouth.”

  “Better out than in,” Carly quipped.

  Mac had been about to take a sip of her wine and managed to snort it right up her nose. Jillian thumped her on the back and said, “Maybe kicking off the bachelorette party at Bluff Point’s finest seafood restaurant was not the best plan.”

  “Oh, pish,” Carly said. “I don’t see why she won’t wear the veil. It’s charming. I got the sparkly purple penises and everything.”

  “Maybe it’s because she lives here and doesn’t want anyone to see her wearing penises—purple, sparkly, or other,” Jillian suggested.

  “Stop saying penises!” Emma hissed. Against her fair skin the blush of embarrassment was bright red and blotchy. Mac felt for her, really she did.

  “Mac, what’s your vote?” Carly asked.

  “No, a resounding no on the penises,” she said. Emma gave her a death glare. Mac grinned.

  “Buzzkill!” Carly cried. “This is supposed to be an off-the-hook bachelorette party and what are we doing?”

  “Enjoying a nice dinner out,” Emma said. She grabbed the waiter as he passed by. “Check please! And now we’ll go for some drinks and a walk by the water.”

  “And then you’ll wear the penis veil?” Carly badgered.

  “No,” Emma said. Her eyebrows lowered and she looked distinctly like Grumpy Cat.

  “I love it when she makes that face,” Carly said. “Usually, it only makes an appearance when she’s talking about Jane the Pain, so it’s a treat to see it now.”

  “Ugh, do not mention The Beyotch’s name to me,” Emma said. “I loathe, detest, and despise that woman.”

  “Don’t hold back,” Jillian said. “Tell us how you really feel.”

  Mac and Carly smiled at her teasing; Emma did not.

  “She is a horrible human being,” Emma said. “I swear I’ll punch her in the throat if I ever see her again.”

  “Easy, Ronda Rousey,” Carly said. “People break up. It happens. You can’t go around assaulting your brother’s ex-girlfriends. Besides, didn’t they split like six months ago?”

  “There’s a time limit on punishing the woman who jilted my brother?” Emma asked. “I don’t think so. Did you know I asked her to be a bridesmaid? And she said yes! She could be here with us right now.”

  Suddenly, Mac felt as if her skin was too tight. The thought of having to pal around with a girlfriend of Gavin’s should not bother her as much as it did, should it? No, it definitely shouldn’t.

  “I’m sure she didn’t mean to hurt Gav,” Mac said.

  “That’s not the point,” Emma said. “The point is that she did and here’s how it works in my world: if you break my baby’s heart, you are dead to me. Deader than dead, and I will happily bury you.”

  Jillian’s eyes went round, making her look like an owl, and Carly bit her lip as if to keep herself from spilling state secrets, or, you know, telling Emma that Mac and Gav had a fling once. Mac noticed they were both trying not to look at her, so she did the only thing she could think of—she picked up her wine and chugged it. If she’d had any hope that a flirtation with Gavin was a possibility, well, that had just been returned to sender address unknown.

  “So, back to the veil,” Carly said. “I say we draw straws.”

  Mac had never loved her more. As they left the restaurant, with Carly walking beside Emma still beseeching her to wear the penis veil, they all giggled at the ridiculousness of the conversation.

  For a moment, Mac felt as if she had traveled back in time. How many giggle fits had she shared with these ladies over the years? Too many to count. A feeling of gratitude filled her and when Jillian fell in beside her and hugged her close, Mac squeezed her back.

  “So, word on the street is that you and Gav were caught canoodling in the town square,” Jillian said. She kept her voice low so that Emma couldn’t hear.

  “Who said that?” Mac asked. Then she knew. “Zach or Sam?”

  “Sam,” Jillian said. “He stopped by the bakery this morning and said he got the feeling he and Zach interrupted something significant yesterday between you and Gavin.”

  “Men!” Mac huffed. “I swear they are way worse gossips than women.”

  “True that. Now tell me, what’s happening between you two?” Jillian asked.

  “Just friends,” Mac said. Jillian’s dark brown eyes were steady as they studied Mac’s face and she almost squirmed. But really, minus Mac’s salacious thoughts about Gavin, nothing had happened between them. She didn’t think almost happened counted. “Tulip knocked him down and I was checking on him. That’s it. I swear.”

  “All right, but if you need me to run interference, let me know,” Jillian said.

  Mac thought about the exotically lovely Jillian throwing herself at Gavin to distract him from Mac. Yeah, no.

  “Really, it’s all good,” Mac said. “I talked to Trevor yesterday and he wants to talk when we both get back to Chicago. I think he’s reconsidering this taking a break thing.”

  “But are you reconsidering it?” Jillian asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean is Trevor who you really want to spend your life with?” she asked.

  “Yes,” Mac said. “We have a really good life together.” Jillian didn’t say anything, so she added, “Look, after what Emma just said about Jane, I plan to keep a low profile and sail out of Bluff Point in a little over a week, having done no damage to any of my relationships.”

  “I’m going to miss you when you go,” Jillian said. She glanced at Emma and Carly ahead of them. “Now that you’ve been back, do you think you might come back more often?”

  “You mean now that I’ve finally come back to town and faced down my humiliation?” Mac asked.

  “I was trying to put it delicately, but yes,” Jillian said. “It hasn’t been that bad, has it?”

  “You know, it hasn’t,” Mac said. “In fact, other than being on the receiving end of Jessie Peeler Connelly’s scorn, it’s been pretty unremarkable.”

  “Well, except for the whole babysitting the little brother debac
le you’ve got going,” Jillian said.

  “Yeah, aside from that,” Mac said. “You know, I was thinking I may even come back for the holidays.”

  Jillian beamed at her and Mac felt it tug at her heart. She had never thought about how left behind Jillian and Emma might feel with Carly and Mac off on their own adventures.

  “I’m going to hold you to that,” Jillian said.

  “Come on, you two,” Carly called from the open door of Marty’s Pub. “Hurry up!”

  Whereas the Bikini Lounge was a tourist friendly place, catering to the summer visitors who loved their Maine lobster, tee times, and lighthouse tours, Marty’s Pub was a local joint. Tucked away on a side street off the town green, this was where pints of Bluff Point Ale were copiously consumed, darts were played, and Red Sox were cheered.

  Emma managed to snag a small table by the front window and had already ordered the first round of drinks when Mac and Jillian caught up. When Marty, the owner, saw it was Emma and her Maine crew out to celebrate her upcoming wedding, he sent over a complimentary round of shots. And so the festivities began.

  Much of the conversation was about their previous adventures, like the time Jillian had deployed rescue one on a blind date only to have Carly misunderstand the call and send the actual fire department over to the restaurant where Jillian was suffering through her overcooked steak and an equally leathery banker.

  Also, they reminisced about the time Mac had forged their chemistry teacher’s signature on passes to the library and they got caught. Suspension had been pending until Emma pointed out to the principal how dumb it would sound if four of the high school’s best students were suspended for going to the library.

  When it was Mac’s turn to buy the drinks, the waitress was nowhere to be found, so she decided to try her luck at the bar.

  Carly grabbed her arm on her way, and said, “Make Emma’s a double, I’m going to get her in that veil if I have to get her shnockered to do it.”

  Mac nodded but, of course, had no intention of doing any such thing. She was not going to be the party responsible for making the bride puke or wear sparkly purple phallic symbols.

  She found a tiny opening at the bar between a lady in stylish business attire and a thickset man who had the beginnings of a bald spot on the back of his blonde head.

  “Excuse me,” she said.

  They both ignored her. Mac tried to wiggle into the small space. The woman gave her a put out glance and shifted an inch closer to her companion. The man didn’t acknowledge Mac at all. Not a big surprise since he seemed to have his sights locked on the bartender’s hooters.

  The bartender, a pretty brunette in a tight tank top, smiled at Mac and asked, “What can I get you?”

  “Four lemon drops,” Mac said. She figured as shots went they weren’t as hard-core as Zach’s Three Wise Men. She was already beginning to feel the effects of their carousing and she really didn’t want to wake up with a hangover the next day.

  “Coming right up,” the bartender said.

  “Hey, what about me, Tina?” the man to Mac’s right asked the bartender as he leaned over the bar to get a better look-see at her front. “What about that question I asked you earlier?”

  “Sorry, Seth, I don’t hook up with married men,” Tina said.

  Mac felt a blast of icy cold start at the top of her head and work its way slowly down her scalp, over the back of her neck, until it swept down her body all the way to her feet. Seth? Her Seth? No, not her Seth! Jessie’s Seth. Was it really?

  She turned her head ever so slowly in his direction to find he was regarding her with beer-soaked, heavy-lidded eyes that looked just three sips away from passing out. Despite the bloated face and red nose, thinning hair and middle-aged paunch, there was no question that this was the man she had almost married. Holy crap!

  Seth! Here he was in Marty’s Pub, hitting on a bartender ten years younger than him while his wife—Mac checked his finger for a ring—yep, still married—while his wife was where? Home with the kids?

  Suddenly, Mac thought she should send Jessie a cookie basket for taking this loser off of her hands. Why hadn’t anyone told her what a sack of sleaze he had turned into? Oh, yeah, because every time someone had tried, she had shut them down. She had never wanted to hear his name mentioned ever again.

  “Mac? Mackenzie Harris?” He frowned and blinked at her.

  “Hey, Seth,” she said. “Long time.”

  His gaze raked her from head to toe, taking in her low-cut, formfitting, black sleeveless blouse, her jeans, and her black stilettos with the silver spike heels.

  “You look hot! What’d you do? Get some work done? A little nip and tuck? Are those inflatables?”

  He reached out as if he was going to honk her boob and Mac slapped his hand away.

  “Don’t even think it,” she said. She smoothed her hand over her black top as if wiping her palm clean of him.

  “Aw, don’t be like that,” he said. “We had something once. Don’t you remember?” He lowered his voice as if it made him sound sexy and added, “We were almost husband and wife and, hoo, we sure did practice the horizontal mambo a lot.”

  Mac felt a shiver of horrified revulsion ripple through her as her gag reflex kicked in. This, she could have been married to this. Suddenly, the world seemed glorious, full of unicorns and rainbows and glitter bombs because she was not in fact married to Seth Connelly.

  “‘Almost’ being the operative word there, chief,” she said.

  The bartender put the drinks down in front of Mac, who tossed a big bill at her and told her to keep the change. She’d certainly earned it, putting up with Seth the sad sack.

  “Well, this was awful,” Mac said to Seth. “See you around.”

  She went to scoop up her drinks but Seth grabbed her wrist and pulled her around to face him.

  “Oh, what’s this?” he asked. His lip curled in a mean look. “You think you’re better than me now?”

  “Not now, no,” Mac said. “Truthfully, I was always better than you.”

  She tried to tug her arm out of his grip but his fingers tightened, digging into the skin. That was it. Mac had had enough.

  When she had moved to Chicago and was on her own for the very first time in her life, she had enrolled in self-defense classes. They had been marvelous for working out the pain and hurt after her humiliation by Seth but as time went on and she was less angry, they had become her preferred method for working out. She now had a programmed response to any unwelcome touch and it involved pain for the toucher.

  Instinct took over; she made a fist and rotated her arm in the opposite direction that his thumb was pointing. She was so fast he lost his grip on her wrist. He was pulled off balance and his face hovered just inches from her fist. Mac knew her sensei would have approved if she punched Seth right in the nose. Instead she opened her hand and used his face to shove him hard into his seat.

  She leaned in close and said, “Don’t. Ever. Touch. Me.”

  “Fine, whatever, you didn’t have to go all aggro on me,” Seth whined. He hunched his shoulders forward and turned back to his beer.

  When Mac reached for her shots, the bartender handed back her money and said, “That was spectacular and those are on me. I insist.”

  Mac smiled at her, picked up the shots, and turned around. Standing right behind her was Gavin.

  “Oh, hi,” she said.

  He loomed like a thundercloud, glaring in Seth’s direction like he was picturing exactly how he was going to tear him apart. That couldn’t be good.

  “Hey.” Mac nudged him with her elbow, while trying not to spill her drinks. “You okay?”

  Gavin looked at her, really looked at her, and then a slow smile spread over his face. He took the shots out of her hands to carry them for her, leaned close, and whispered in her ear, “What you did just now, yeah,
that was totally hot.”

  Chapter 21

  Mac was dazzled to have him so close, looking so powerful and strong. Honestly, how was a girl supposed to cope with that? She almost turned back to the bar to order an ice water except she didn’t want to go near Seth.

  “Thanks,” she said. “I told you I was stronger than I looked.”

  “You did,” he agreed. “Now can I take him outside and punch him until my arm gives out?”

  “No, you may not,” she said. She grinned. “But I love that you offered.”

  She led the way back through the crowd to their table. Not a big surprise, but there she found Brad, Zach, and Sam had made themselves at home at the table.

  She looked back at Gavin and asked, “Are you guys stalking us?”

  “Well, I can’t speak for the others,” he said. “But . . .”

  The look he sent her stated quite plainly that his interest in her was picking up right where they’d left off in the park yesterday. It should have terrified her; instead it was ridiculously charming and felt as magical as spotting an unexpected shooting star in the night sky. This was so not good!

  When they joined the others, Mac passed out the girls’ lemon drops, making sure to maneuver so that the table was always between her and Gavin. She could no longer deny what was happening between them; well, she would deny it to everyone else, but to herself she had to be honest about the attraction that was snapping between them. She hadn’t ever encountered anything quite like it before and she suspected it was as dangerous as a loose high voltage wire and she did not want to get zapped.

  Maybe it was because they had that one night between them. Mac figured it made sense that when you knew a person in the most intimate way possible, you were forever on their radar. She glanced over at the bar and saw Seth. Maybe not.

  Then again, it could be because she had abandoned Gavin in the bed of his pickup truck. He’d been asleep and she’d crept away in the wee hours of the morning and never looked back. They’d never had the morning-after conversation; did that mean there was unfinished business there? Was that it?