Page 26 of Sweet Heart for the Bear

I nod and slide into the booth with them. The place is quiet now, the kind of peaceful that comes after a long but satisfying day.

We’ve always been close, even for sisters. Had to be.

Losing our mom so young meant we learned early how to hold each other up. And when Dad passed last year?

Well… it just cemented the fact that we were all we had left.

Medical bills don’t just disappear because you cry into them, and keeping this business afloat is the only way I know how to make sure we don’t drown.

But right now, for this one moment, I let myself relax.

“So, guys, I, um, kinda did a thing,” Dina blurts, stirring her tea like she’s trying to will it into giving her courage.

MJ and I lock eyes before simultaneously turning our very skeptical attention to our youngest sister.

Dina, the baby of the family. The Queen of Shenanigans. The Architect of Chaos.

I love her to pieces—I do.

But if she’s about to drop something insane on us, I need at least a ten-second warning and possibly another glass of sweet teawith bourbonthis time.

“What is it?” I ask cautiously.

“Well, don’t get mad,” she starts, already looking guilty as hell. “I only did this to help?—”

“Oh my God,” MJ interrupts, eyes wide. “Dina, did you start an OnlyFans selling feet pics?”

Dina gasps so hard she nearly inhales her straw.

“What?! NO! I did not! Who the hell wants to see my feet?” she screeches, looking genuinely horrified.

MJ and I immediately lose it, laughing so hard I nearly choke on my tea.

“You’d be surprised,” I mumble, wiping my eyes.

“Oh my gah! That’s seriously sick.”

She shudders dramatically, then shakes her head like she’s physically trying to erase the thought. “Anyway, no, I am not selling feet pics.”

MJ leans forward. “Okay, then what did you do?”

Dina clears her throat, eyes flicking toward MJ in a way that instantly raises my suspicion.

Oh no.

Not this again.

“I signed us up for Uncle Uzzi’s Date to Mate app.”

Three seconds of silence pass.

“What?”

MJ sits up straighter. “You remember Uncle Uzzi, Carina. He was that nice old man dressed in white? The one who came in with the hunky guy who fixed our website?”

Of course, I freaking remember him. And why is MJ calling Horace hunky?

My heart does this weird, panicked thump, like it knows something ridiculous is coming.

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