Page 24 of The Boyfriend Gamble

I had a week of school and then the entire summer break to settle in and organize the wedding.

Well, I wasn’t organizing the wedding. But Josette insisted I have some part in the planning.

She’d shown me her wedding gown.

I’d asked if that didn’t violate some kind of bride/groom superstition thing, and she said no.

Whatever.

The gown she chose surprised me. Instead of poofy and princessy, she’d chosen sleek and elegant. Instead of virginal white, she opted for a champagne color. All clingy and sexy. Appropriate for a wedding in the woods? I wasn’t certain, but whatever made her happy.

Honestly.

Josette talked about our wedding all the time. She had a scrapbook where she planned out her dream wedding. She even cut pictures out of what it was going to be like—the seating, the ribbons, the flowers, the location. In the past week, since I’d taken possession of the house, she’d been out to snap pictures of the backyard. Making calculations of where everything would go, I assumed.

Her scrapbook was something else. Way more than I’d ever put into it.

She had one for the house as well. Ironically, that one she didn’t share with me. She wanted me to be surprised, or so she maintained. Since I was helping with the renovations—including the painting—I wasn’t entirely certain how that’d work.

I turned off the last of the lights, locked the house, and headed to my car using the light of the moon.

To my surprise, Jacob leaned against it, clearly waiting for me.

“Uh, h-hey.”Did I just stammer that?Didn’t make sense, since I’d known the guy my entire life, but I suddenly felt shy.

“Hey.”

“So…did you and Seth get along?”Didn’t you just tell Josette this was none of your business?

Despite the shadows, I caught a glint of perfect white teeth. “He’s a cool guy. It’ll be good to have a cop just down the road. He didn’t bring his husky, MacKenzie, but I said if he dropped by during construction, he might consider it. You know I love dogs. We’ll have to be careful of nails and stuff, but I always am.”

I knew this about him. Safety was alwaysthetop priority.

“Hopefully I’ll be here. You know I love dogs as well.”

“But your mom’s allergic, right? That’s why you never had one growing up?”

I winced. “And the responsibility. I swore I’d take care of him or her, but Mom was adamant she didn’t want the trouble—especially after Dad died.”

“Ouch.” He pointed to the house. “But you can get your own dog now, right?”

“And leave them home alone all day?”

Jacob laughed. “Plenty of dogs stay home alone all day. There are ways to acclimatize the dog. I can like, send you an article or six.”

I eyed him. “Why would you have them?”

“Because I considered doing it myself. But, as a single guy who works long hours, it didn’t seem fair. Teachers have regular schedules, right? And I can build you a dog run, if you’d like.”

“I, uh, will have to talk to Josette.”

He frowned. “Yeah, I guess so. If she does her fancy designs with sculptures and artwork and frou-frou couches, you might have a problem.”

“You think she’ll do that?” Panic seized me. I saw this place as rustic and rural. Sure, some of the mansions up here were fancy and frou-frou, but many were just comfortable homes. I’d been looking at real estate listings for almost ten years—I’d seen a good portion of the houses up here.

Jacob cocked his head. “She hasn’t consulted you on the designs?”

I shook my head. “She wants me to be surprised.”

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