Page 29 of The Wiener Across the Way

[Oprah meme]

You get a brother, and you get a brother, and everybody gets a brother. Let me tell you, Besties, they are all lookers too.

I know it might just be a dream on my part, but is anyone else hoping we might see an appearance of Mr. Smash at the music festival this week?

I’m headed up to Aspen, and if you’re there, be sure to keep those phones at the ready, because as huge and hot as this guy is, he shouldn’t be hard to spot. Tag me in your posts!

Mz. Besties’ Bestie

THE WAY TO A WOMAN’S HEART

KELSEY

The moment Declan stepped into the hustle and bustle of the backstage area for the stage I’d be using at the festival, the room shifted on its frenetic axis. His presence was like a calm amidst the storm of my usual pre-show preparations.

“Hey, Kels. Where’s Wiener the Pooh?” His greeting resonated with a confidence that didn’t overpower but somehow reassured. Everyone in the room paused, their tasks momentarily forgotten as they turned to look at the unexpected visitor. Maybe I had forgotten to mention to anyone that he was coming, or maybe he was just that hot and they were all as awestruck as I was.

This was supposed to be for show, but I sort of wanted to keep him to myself.

“Hi. I’m so glad you could come up. You’re here earlier than I thought.” Pooh, who I’d tucked firmly by my side because Ididn’t want another snake incident, gave a whole volley of little yips, and wiggled hard to get out of my arms.

I almost dropped her, and would have, but she went flying straight into Declan’s arms. Then proceeded to slobber all over his face. Lucky girl.

“Hey there, little beast. I like you too, but let’s keep that tongue to yourself, huh?” He gave her a couple of scritches behind the ears and then tucked her under his arm like a football. Her little butt stuck out behind his elbow and her tail was still going ballistic, but she didn’t try to get away. She liked it right where she was.

I was not jealous of my dog right now.

“I think she likes you. Want a little tour of what we’re doing to prep for next weekend?” I waved my hands at the craziness, staff, and crew floating around like busy bees setting up different elements of the show. “Or, no, you don’t care about lighting timings and stuff. I can just?—”

He grabbed one of my hands and gave the inside of my wrist a soft kiss. “I’d love to see a day in the life behind the scenes. You put a lot of effort into this, so, yes. I’m interested.”

Huh. “Cool.”

Penelope came over with her ever-present tablet and had me approve a few things. “I’m also sending you the head of the dance team. She wants to hire some new backups.”

“Oh good.” We’d been continuing our search for more plus-size dancers. Hopefully we’d found some. “I want to go over a changeup I’m thinking of for the second set.”

Declan stood by my side as I went through the motions of my day, only relinquishing Pooh when my dog walker came to get her for some potty breaks. He watched me talking to the sound guy and got a funny look on his face. “Do you have to approve every single detail of your show?”

There was no judgment in his tone, although it did sort of make me wonder if he thought I was crazy. “I’m a bit of a control freak when it comes to my shows. I just want them to be great.”

“They are great, babe.” He looked at me like the words he’d just said were more like, “Duh, babe.”

And also, why did I like it so much when he called me babe?

While the girls and I rehearsed some new moves in the afternoon, Declan disappeared with Pooh. But I trusted him with her implicitly. Probably bored and just taking her for a walk. He might say he was interested, but really, who would be? The minutia of everything we did to get ready for a show even felt tedious to me these days.

“Citrus with a vitamin C boost or peanut butter banana with a B-complex boost?” Declan popped up behind me and I jumped a good foot. He held two big plastic cups out toward me from some kind of smoothie place. Pooh was at his feet, literally licking his shoe. “Both have added protein powder.”

I stared at him like he’d grown a third eyeball. “What’s this?”

Obviously, it was a smoothie, but had he gone out and bought me a snack? Who did that?

“I figured if I was getting hungry, you must be starving.” He shoved one of the cups into my hand and took a sip off the straw from the one he kept. “Or at least needed an energy boost. You’ve been going for hours. I’m tired just thinking about how much you’ve accomplished already today.”

“Thanks. But you didn’t have to do that.” I took a long swig. Mmm. I loved peanut butter and banana. I was starving actually.

He gave me a lopsided smile that reached up to his eyes and had them sparkling. “And when you’ve finished that, I’m kidnapping you and Wiener here for the rest of the day.”

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