Page 47 of Will Bark for Pizza (Bluebell Springs #1)

THIRTY-SIX

BECKETT

I spotted a nose wedged between the table and my elbow about two seconds before the cold, wet thing rubbed against my skin. Not quite enough time to hide the flinch that followed.

“Husker,” Kira said, her tone a gentle warning.

He ignored her and pushed his nose closer to the table, moving my arm further out of the way to better accommodate him.

I broke off a piece of crust and looked to Kira for permission.

“Might as well,” she said, reaching for her glass of strawberry lemonade.

I focused on the pizza crust so I didn’t stare at the way her lips suctioned around the straw.

It didn’t matter that Nana warned me to keep things professional and platonic with Kira.

Or that her brothers—my two best friends—were also seated at the patio table outside Pizza Patty’s.

My imagination went fucking feral when it came to Kira and what she could do with those lips.

I blamed it on the spider incident. The one where Kira ended up wrapped around me like a pretzel.

Husker snatched the pizza crust from my hands, tail wagging in victory, as though it were the first piece he conned anyone out of tonight. It wasn’t.

“When are we moving you home?” Connor asked Kira.

“What’s this we shit?” Luke chimed in.

“Do you hate me that much?” Kira fired back at him.

“I don’t hate you,” Luke mumbled, reaching for his glass of iced tea as he scanned the patio.

“Could’ve fooled me,” Lila said, stirring her blue raspberry lemonade with a straw.

“I’m a man down with Johnson on vacation. I might not be able to take off work,” Luke said. He was one of three full-time police officers in Bluebell Springs. The rest of his force were part-timers. But that still seemed like a shitty excuse.

It was the only reason I piped up with, “I can help.”

“That would be lovely,” Lila answered as Kira pulled her phone from her purse.

“I’ll fucking help,” Luke muttered.

“Then why couldn’t you just say that?” Kira scrolled through her phone as though searching for something.

“You sure it’s a good idea to move home?” Aspen teased as she helped herself to another slice of mashed potato pizza. Turned out, it really was one of their most popular choices. “You two might kill each other. ”

“We’ll be fine as long as she doesn’t get drunk and roast the town again.”

“You mean if she doesn’t publicly call you out for having a stick up your ass?” Aspen shot right back.

“I don’t drink anymore,” Kira said to Luke, sounding exasperated. As though they’d gone round and round on that subject and gotten nowhere.

“So you say.”

“I believe her,” I said before I could remind myself to stay out of this family feud.

Luke gave me a strange look, then shot one back to Kira.

Fuck, I should’ve sat next to anyone else tonight.

But too late for that. Instead, I leaned into my defense.

“Look, being around an alcoholic changes you. It certainly changed me.”

“Alcoholic?” Luke repeated, looking confused for once in his life.

“Where have you been, man?” Connor asked in disbelief.

“What do you mean, exactly?” Luke asked Kira, as though he were interrogating her. I loved the man like a brother, and I’d still take a bullet for him. But fuck. I was getting tired of his shitty attitude when it came to his sister. The man could hold a grudge longer than anyone I’d met.

Kira let out a heavy sigh, setting her phone down. Lila offered to search for the email she was seeking, and Kira nodded permission before focusing on Luke.

“You want to know why I don’t drink anymore, Luke?

It’s because I watched over and over again as one drink turned into two.

Then six. Then thirty . And no, that is not an exaggeration.

That’s how many beers come in a thirty-pack.

Pretty easy to count when no one else is drinking them.

I watched how his personality changed with each drink.

I stopped drinking because I knew if I wasn’t sober, I wasn’t safe. ”

For once, Luke didn’t have anything to say.

“I take full responsibility for getting involved with him,” Kira said.

“For moving to another state to be with him. For staying way longer than I ever should have in that sorry excuse for a relationship. And yes, I take full responsibility for the mean things I said the last time I ever touched a drop of alcohol. I’m really sorry I brought up the whole jilted at the altar thing when I had the microphone.

I know I hit a nerve, and that was totally uncalled for and unfair.

But like it or not, I’m moving home. So you can accept my apology or not.

I have Mom’s bookstore to save. I’m going to be too busy to care what you think anyway. ”

Luke sat there, looking a bit stunned.

Three people started to talk at once. Not that I could make out what any of them were saying. Not that it mattered. Because in the middle of their talking on top of one another, Husker let out a rare but loud bark that silenced the entire table.

Every head turned, watching as he pointed at the table with his nose, as though he were hunting pizza and couldn’t for the life of him figure out why we weren’t more concerned about the leftovers sitting ignored on the table.

The heavy tension broke the instant I tossed him another piece of crust he caught easily, causing the entire table to burst out in laughter. Luke included.

Husker tilted his head at that sharp angle, as though saying, Silly humans. Don’t you know pizza is the answer to everything?

“I’m sorry, Kira,” Luke finally said as the laughter died, sounding like he meant it. “I didn’t know.”

“None of you knew,” she said. “That was my fault.”

“Babe?” Lila said to Kira.

“Yeah?”

“How soon were you planning to move out of your apartment?”

“Not for a while yet. I want to focus on the bookstore for now. I have two months left on my lease.”

“You must have read that wrong.”

“Read what wrong?”

“You don’t have two months. You have two weeks .”

Kira grabbed her phone back from Lila, reading the email. “Shit.”

“I could help next weekend,” Connor offered.

“That’s our soft re-opening,” Kira said, shaking her head. “I really should be here for that.”

“You can’t reschedule?” Luke asked, sounding more helpful than asshole for once.

“Every day we drag our feet on re-opening, we lose money. We’d be open already if we didn’t have all those old books to deal with.” She explained about the sidewalk sale they planned for early in the coming week.

“I bet the book club could handle that sale without you here,” Aspen said.

“I’m off Tuesday and Wednesday,” Luke offered, surprising most everyone at the table. Except Husker. He was too trained on the remaining pizza to care about anything else, including the chipmunk that lingered nearby. “It’d have to be a turn-and-burn trip.”

“That’s in, like, three days,” Aspen said.

Kira’s eyes glazed over in what looked like panic. I shifted her strawberry lemonade closer to her hand, and she took it.

“Kira, babe, I got this,” Lila said.

“You do?”

“I’ll head back tomorrow, round up the girls, and get your place packed up. Don’t worry. They’re cheap. They work for wine. We’ll have everything ready to go when you show up on?—”

“Tuesday afternoon,” Luke said. “We’ll get an early start.”

Lila looked to Connor first.

“I can make that work.”

“Me too,” I added.

It was a good thing Nana left yesterday and was currently dealing with my sister’s mess, because she’d surely slap me upside the head for volunteering my help in this situation.

I only signed the purchase agreement on the cabin yesterday.

I still needed to move in. And Joe promised the paperwork for the bookstore building would be ready Monday.

Not to mention, the Kniffen Street house wouldn’t install its own kitchen cabinets.

But I would figure it out, because being there for Kira mattered more.

“Got room for one more?” Aspen offered.

“Really?” Kira asked, looking not just at her cousin, but everyone around the table. Her eyes were shiny, as though she might cry .

“We got you, babe,” Lila said, like it was the most obvious thing ever.

The urge to reach my hand to Kira’s thigh and give it a gentle squeeze in reassurance was strong, but it would not go unnoticed. Even if her brothers didn’t catch it, someone sitting nearby would. So I snuck a piece of ground beef to Husker instead.

“Is The Asswipe going to show up and cause a scene?” Luke asked, sounding for once more protective brother and less dick.

“I doubt it,” Kira said, grabbing a second slice of pizza, but leaving it untouched. Much to Husker’s apparent disbelief. He wedged his way between us and promptly shoved at the back of her arm with his nose. “Hey! That’s my boob .”

Lila and Aspen laughed. Luke and Connor groaned. I, on the other hand, got a strong visual of that boob cupped firmly in my hand. A very distinct image that had blood rushing below my belt. Not fucking now . I reached for my drink and gulped.

“Do we need a U-Haul?” I asked, desperate to distract my rampant thoughts.

“Got one booked,” Lila announced, setting her phone to the side and reaching for another slice of arugula pizza I couldn’t bring myself to try. “You’ll pick it up in Omaha.”

“So, this is really happening?” Kira said, her words almost too quiet to be heard.

“You already took on the bookstore,” Aspen said, pulling cash from her purse and setting it on the table as she scooted out of her chair. “Seems kind of silly to commute. ”

“Aspen, babe, put your money away,” Lila insisted.

“I can’t let you pay?—”

“I’m about to put all of you to work.” Lila picked up the cash and handed it back to Aspen, holding out her hand until Aspen caved. “You can absolutely let me pick up the tab tonight.”

“Headed out?” Connor asked Aspen.

“Duty calls,” she said, likely referencing the bakery.

“Take a couple of slices for Owen,” Kira insisted.

“He’s good,” she said. “He and my dad went fishing. I don’t think he’ll come back hungry.”

“Owen’s like the son he never had,” Luke muttered.

Several sets of eyes locked, but no one said anything about Thoren. Not directly. They didn’t have to.

“Guess you’ll be moving into the cabin soon?” Luke asked me. I couldn’t tell by his tone whether he was simply shifting conversation, or wondering how soon I would no longer be staying across the hall from his sister. Better to err on the side of caution.

“Soon, yeah.”

“Let me know if you need a hand,” Luke added.

“Don’t really have much to move,” I admitted.

“Then I’ll bring the housewarming pizza.”

Husker perked at the mention of his favorite word, as though he forgot there were leftovers on the table or that his belly was probably stuffed so full he might turn into a pizza.

I tossed him a pepperoni, stalling because I wasn’t ready to leave yet. Not with Kira sitting next to me, her leg so close to mine that the heat radiating off her skin threatened to burn mine. Another inch and we’d be touching. Skin on skin.

Fuck, I needed to leave.

I needed to get moved into that cabin, and away from temptation.

And as soon as Kira was officially relocated to Bluebell Springs, that’s exactly what I planned to do.