Page 68 of My Hotshot

“I’ll send you my checklist,” Olive joked.

I smiled, but my eyes drifted to Lottie, who was now feeding Harley pieces of leftover sandwich crust.

She was happy. Relaxed. Safe.

That was what mattered.

Even if the rest of this made zero sense.

Duane walked over and leaned down to kiss my temple. “We’ll go over everything, I promise. You can ask all the questions.”

“You better believe I will,” I said.

He chuckled. “And I’ll answer every one.”

“You forgot to tell me you were going to be on TV. That’s not a small thing.”

“No, babe,” he agreed, settling beside me on the blanket. “It’s not. But now you know.”

“Now I know,” I echoed.

And somehow, that made it easier to breathe.

It was a strange kind of comfort, being part of this chaos.

“You’re coming Wednesday, right?” Sloane asked me as she reached over to grab her water bottle off the patio table. Her sunglasses slipped down the bridge of her nose, and she pushed them back up with her pinky.

“To the photoshoot?” I clarified as I adjusted the hem of my tank top as I looked around at the other women sprawled across the lawn.

Sloane nodded and gave me a hopeful smile. “Yeah. It’s not a big deal. Just some promo stuff for the show, but it’d be good for you to be there. Everyone’s going to be there.”

I hesitated and glanced toward the edge of the yard where Lottie was still tossing a tennis ball for Harley and Davidson.The dogs looked ready to keel over, but neither seemed ready to give up their new favorite human.

“Uh, well… probably not,” I said with a little shrug. “I’m not really part of any of this. I mean, technically, I just found out about all of it five minutes ago.”

Sloane gave me a look—one of those subtle expressions that saidGirl, pleasewithout her needing to say the words.

Before she could respond, Duane’s voice came from behind me. “She’s coming,” he said simply.

I turned to look at him. He was standing over me with that stubborn tilt to his jaw that made it very clear he wasn’t asking.

“I’m not letting you out of my sight,” he added, just in case I’d missed the alpha undertone.

I raised a brow. “You do realize that sounds a little possessive, right?”

He shrugged, entirely unapologetic. “Good.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

Lainey

“Do you really think it’s a good idea to take my first ride on your motorcycle on the way to a photoshoot?” I asked, shielding my eyes from the sun with the flat of my hand. “I can just stay at the clubhouse.”

Duane shook his head like I’d just said I wanted to ride a unicycle down the interstate. Without warning, he plopped the helmet on top of my head and secured the strap beneath my chin. “No, you can’t,” he said as he brushed his fingers under my jaw. “Because no one’s gonna be here besides the dogs.”

I looked over toward the porch where Harley and Davidson were splayed out, panting dramatically like the sun had personally offended them.

“They’d keep me safe,” I joked. “They love me.”

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