A little tickle of unease accompanied Zona back outside. Darling hadn’t been underfoot trotting in and out as people brought in the leftovers.
Playing with the boys had probably worn him out. That was it. She’d find him sacked next to the house.
“Darling,” she called.
No Darling came trotting around the house to greet her. She heard no answering bark. He had to be flopped somewhere, recovering from his busy afternoon of play. Who wasshe kidding? Darling always wanted to be in the thick of things and never walked away from an opportunity to beg food.
“Darling!” she called again, panic taking over.
Zona hurried around the corner of the house. He had to be there, please be there.
He wasn’t.Nooo.
There were no holes, which meant he had to have taken escape to new levels and managed to scale the fence. Or... Who cared what theorwas. He was gone.
She ran out to the front yard. “Darling!” She got to the sidewalk and stopped, looking each direction. All she saw was cars parked at curbs and a neighbor’s watering system going off and a sky giving up more of its light.
Nooo.
BREE WAS INSanta Monica with Fen at the house of one of his college friends. The revelers were fueling up before moving on to watch the fireworks display at nearby Corsair Field. The beer and soft drinks were disappearing down thirsty throats and everyone had already made a huge dent in the mountain of chip bags sitting on one of the counters in the outdoor kitchen. The aroma of grilling hot dogs and veggie burgers filled the hot summer air. How could it not? The houses were packed in close together and probably everyone in the neighborhood was grilling something. The house where Fen had taken Bree to party wasn’t on the beach, but it was only steps away, and it was worth a small fortune. One Bree would probably never have.
“Money isn’t everything,” Gram liked to say. No, but it sure helped when that bill for tuition came due. It paid the rent. Or the house payment... unless your stepfather put the family so deep in debt the house had to be sold.
She stood at a table loaded with bowls of potato salad, seven-layer dip, baked beans, and half a dozen different desserts and watched Fen pulling out two bottles of root beer from one ofthe coolers. His friend, whose parents owned the house, was standing next to him and said something to Fen, making him laugh. He had such an easy laugh.
Of course he did. His whole life was easy. Always had been.
Oh, great. Now she was going to be jealous of Fen? She frowned.
“He is so hot,” said Uma, a woman Bree had only met an hour earlier.
“Jimmy?” asked Bree.
“Jimmy,” the woman scoffed. “He’s my cousin and he has the IQ of a peanut. I meant your man. Lucky you.”
“He’s not really my man. We’re friends,” Bree explained as Fen started making his way toward her, smiling.
“Yeah? Friends don’t look at friends the way he looks at you. But hey, if you don’t want him...”
Did she? She liked Fen. A lot. She could easily love him, but then what would happen? Great as Fen was, was he worth taking a chance on?
“Go for it,” she said.
“I think I will. He seems nice.”
“He is,” Bree confirmed.
“That should be a change. I just broke up with the world’s biggest loser.”
No, Bree’s stepdad was the world’s biggest loser. Nobody could be bigger than him.
Fen reached the table as they finished loading their plates. Bree made the introductions. “Fen, this is Uma.”She’s looking.
Uma cocked her head, letting her sheet of straight blond hair drop to the side, and smiled at Fen. “Hi.”
Bree frowned.
“Hi,” he said. “Great party, huh?”
