Page 73 of Men or Paws

I smirked. “That won’t take long.”

Rocco chuckled. “Very true. Why were you shushing me?”

“I wasn’t shushing you.”

“You were shushing someone. I know what a shush looks and sounds like.”

I had no idea how to respond to that without telling a lie.

Holly took a couple of steps toward me and leaned to the side to take a look at Rocco. She got all google-eyed, then she mouthed the wordswowzersandhe’s so hot. She shook her hand like it was on fire.

This time I ground my teeth and tried to shush her away with the wave of my hand off camera.

“Beth?” Rocco said, cocking his head to the side. “You’re acting a little strange at the moment. What’s going on?”

“Nothing!” I lied.

He studied me. “Is there someone there with you? I told you, no parties.”

I gave my best fake laugh and gestured to the empty family room. “Yeah, look at all these wild and crazy people behind me. You’d better call the police before it gets out of control.”

“Then who were you shushing, exactly?” Rocco persisted.

I hadn’t planned on him staying on the subject, but now I really needed to come up with an excuse for saying that, and I didn’t want to lie.

Think, think, think!

Luckily, Holly saved me by pointing to her stomach and rubbing it, then using a spoon next to the coffee maker to pretend to eat something. I made a mental note to make sure she was on my team the next time I played charades.

“I was telling my stomach to be quiet,” I lied for the second time. “I’m starving and it’s growling like a bear.”

“If only you knew a chef who could cook you something good,” Rocco said, grinning.

I smiled and nodded. “If only . . .”

“So where’s Houdini? Let me say hi to my boy.”

“Oh . . . well . . .” I felt horrible because lie number three was about to shoot out of my mouth. “He’s taking a nap in your bedroom at the moment. I didn’t want to wake him up since he looked so comfy and cozy.”

Rocco glanced at his watch. “Napping now? That’s odd. He rarely sits still after dinner. So then he hasn’t eaten yet?”

Lies number four, five, and six were about to take stage.

I was feeling more stress and pressure since every minute with Rocco was a minute I could have been using to look for his dog.

“Houdini played before he ate, actually. Maybe that’s why he wanted to nap almost immediately. It’s like me on Thanksgiving Day. I go straight to the couch to lie down after the turkey and stuffing, and all the desserts.”

It was yet another fabrication since I preferred honey-baked ham over turkey.

The lies were piling faster than a multi-car crash in the fog on Highway 5.

Oddly enough, they seemed to be getting easier, which wasn’t something I was proud of. I was beginning to believe that lies were like chocolate. The more you indulged, the harder it was to stop. The difference was these untruths left a bitter feeling in my gut, like gas, but with no possibility of being able to release it from my body.

Holly took a step toward the back of my laptop and looked over my shoulder behind me, the shock registering on her face as she mouthedoh noandSageto me. She looked over my shoulder again, this time mouthingsorry.

I had no idea what she was talking about until I spotted Sage on camera right in the middle of my Zoom video, sniffing around in the family room behind me.

I was going to die.