“Ryn! You’re not helping me any!” I shouted into the phone as I stared at two gowns hanging up in front of me.
“Okay, sorry. I can’t help but laugh at how stupid you were to walk right into this weekend.”
Rolling my eyes, I sat down on the edge of the bed. I could feel my heart pounding in my damn ears. “How in the hell did I know Dodge’s father was going to ask me to crash their family beach weekend?”
Ryn started laughing again. “I don’t know. But I would have given anything to see your face!”
“I hate you. Like, I mean I’m really feeling the hate for you, bitch.”
“Oh! I wonder if Princess will be there?” Ryn asked as she shouted something to Tristan.
“Princess? Who the hell is that?” I asked as I stood up and held the shorter gown up to me as I looked at myself in the mirror.
“You don’t know? You were the one who gave the dog to Dodge in the first place.”
My mouth dropped open as I tried to let that all soak in. “Wait. He named the damn dog . . . Princess?”
Ryn giggled. “Yep. Tristan said she goes to doggy daycare every day while Dodge is at work. Tristan even said that Dodge has admitted to sneaking her into work once or twice.”
Dropping the dress to my side, I smiled. “He kept the puppy?”
Ryn laughed. “Of course he did, Sierra. What did you think he would do with her?”
Slowly shaking my head, I paused for a moment as I pictured Dodge with that sweet little ball of fluff. “I don’t know. I figured he would have given her away.”
“It’s a chick magnet! Dodge is probably thanking you for her, Sierra. He told Tristan he has never had so many women offer up their numbers as he did when he was out walking Princess.”
Dropping my mouth open, I closed my eyes. Oh my God. Instead of pushing women away from him . . . I led them straight to him. Falling back onto the bed, I let out a moan.
Fuck. My. Life.
The car honked right on time. It was seven on the dot. Grabbing my bag and the two dresses, because I couldn’t narrow it down to just one, I headed to the door. Setting the alarm that my father insisted I have put in, I started to walk to what I thought was going to be some black mysterious-looking car. Nope. God is out to get me . . . clearly he likes to see me suffer.
Sitting in my driveway was a black Toyota truck with one dashingly good-looking asshole sitting in the front seat. Of course he had a shit-eating grin on his face as I stood there, frozen in my spot.
Dodge rolled down the passenger window. “Come on, Sierra. We need to be in Port A by noon or my mother will flip.”
His mother? Oh my God. I was going to puke. I was meeting Dodge’s mother! And I was not meeting her in the way I wanted to meet her, though. Dodge wasn’t bringing me home to meet her because I was the woman he loved more than anything in this entire world and he wanted to share that with his mother. No, he was bringing me to meet his mother because I was a client who needed to be prepped for her asshat husband’s stupid lawyers’ endless questions regarding an affair that never happened!
Ugh! This is not happening!
“Hello? Earth to Sierra?”
Shaking my head, I walked toward the truck as Dodge jumped out. Reaching for my bag, I pulled it back. “No. No, this isn’t right. Your father said his car was going to pick me up. He didn’t say anything about you picking me up.”
Dodge gave me that damn melt-my-panties-in-an-instant smile of his. “What’s wrong? You afraid to drive with me, short stack?”
Ugh. Dodge had given me that stupid nickname months ago and apparently it was going to stick.
I was about to answer when I heard a puppy bark and a little fur ball jumped up and looked out the window. Gasping, I pushed my bag and the two dresses into Dodge’s chest and made a beeline to the puppy.
“Oh my goodness! Look at her! She’s gotten so big!”
Dodge opened the back door to his truck and set my bag down. My heart melted when he hung up my two dresses. Most guys would have just tossed the dresses into the back seat.
“Wait. You’ve seen Princess before?” Dodge asked as he reached in and grabbed the puppy and put her in my arms as I sat down in the truck. Shutting the door, Dodge leaned in and my stomach dropped with how he was looking at the puppy. Why couldn’t he look at me like that? Looking forward, I snarled my lip. Did I really just think that? Good lord, I didn’t need to be near this man for the next three hours.
“Of course I’ve seen her before. Kacey was trying to get me to take her for a few weeks before I suggested you maybe wanting a dog.”