Page 24 of If This is Love

Brennan patted Carson’s back. “Have you formally met Brina yet? She’s Connor’s youngest sister.”

Carson lifted his hand and coughed into his fist. “Sure haven’t.”

“She just came on board to serve as Destination Destiny’s director of fundraising,” Brennan went on, nudging him toward the group in the living room.

Sabrina was swatting at the air around herself and telling Liza repeatedly that she wasfine, and Liza quietly backed away until she was on the edge of the room.

“Hi, Gabe. Hi, Gunner,” she said, cheerily, bending to rub Gunner’s head. “Sorry for all the commotion. There was a little misunderstanding.” Her eyes flitted across my face as she smiled. “You look nice.”

“Thanks.” I cleared my throat awkwardly. “So do you.” Okay, now that I had her attention, all I needed was some kind of segue to mention Ruth. “Did y’all do anything fun yesterday?”

Liza waggled her head. “Not really. We were just at home. But I did find a new cookie recipe.” She started heading for the doorway to the kitchen, and I followed her without even thinking because Liza equaled cookies and Lizatalking aboutcookies meant she was about to force me to try one while she watched. It was a dirty job, but somebody had to do it. Plus, she was for sure about to ask me about my Saturday, and then I could mention Ruth. “Did you get into anything crazy?”

“Nah, just the same old stuff.”

We entered the kitchen, which was yet another cacophony of loud voices—and Luke hadn’t even gotten here yet. Nora and Captain David Deneau, Connor and Sabrina’s parents, were seated at the table with Ms. Sunny McCarthy-Beauregard and her husband, Elijah. Captain Deneau was bouncing little Savannah on his knee, and all four of the older adults were taking turns doting on her. The two actualresidents of this packed-to-the-gills house, Scott and Ophelia, were at the stove, him standing close behind her and speaking in her ear, stroking his knuckles up and down her spine while she slowly, methodically turned a whisk around a pan.

“Oh yeah,” I added, trying to make it sound like it was the furthest thing from my mind, “I bumped into Ruth during my run. She messed up her ankle pretty bad.”

Liza had just picked up a plate of cookies off the table when she sucked in a tiny gasp. “OurRuth?”

I nodded,lovingthe sound of that andlovingthat I could repeat it. “Yeah, our Ruth. Skye’s new director.”

Liza turned to face me directly, holding the plate of cookies up between us. “Is she okay?”

I grabbed a cookie without thinking. “I think so. I happened to see her fall, so I patched her up and drove her home. I told her to holler if she needed anything, but she hasn’t reached out yet.”

Her eyes were a little bigger than normal like she was trying to optically absorb my words, and she nodded slowly. “You know what we should do?”

I stuffed the cookie into my mouth in a pure reflex and shook my head.

“We should make her a plate and take it over there.”

And that’s why Liza was my favorite nosy-ass neighbor.

* * *

Standingon Ruth’s doorstep just behind Liza, my stomach turned with nerves. Liza lifted her hand in preparation to knock but stopped herself.

“Wait.” She looked over her shoulder at me. “Maybe we should call her and let her know we’re out here and can let ourselves in. You know, so she doesn’t have to hobble to the door.”

“Oh yeah.” I nodded sagely, but my gut twisted with more nerves along with adolescent-style excitement that made me mentally roll my eyes at myself. “Do you have her number or should I do it?”

Liza’s neutral expression slowly curled into a smile that was a bit mischievous. “I don’t have her number yet, but you could call her on speaker and webothcan do the talking.”

It felt a little like she was teasing me, like my nerves and excitement over seeing Ruth were written all over my face and screaming from my body language; like she’d connected the dots between my nicer-than-normal grooming and this impromptu check on Ruth. So, I offered a bored shrug. “Okay.”

I pulled out my phone and tapped the dial button, then the speaker button.

“Well, hello there, neighbor,” came Ruth’s honeyed voice, sounding tickled pink that I was calling her, and my knees nearly went weak. “Nice to hear from you.”

“Yeah, hey, Ruth,” I replied, trying to sound as casual as possible. “I’ve got Liza here, and—”

“Hi, Ruth!” Liza chirped, swooping in to save me from myself. “We’re actually on your front porch right now with a plate for you, but we didn’t want you trying to answer the door with a bum foot.”

“Ohh!” A velvety, musical laugh spilled out of the speaker that nearly had my dick standing at attention, and I turned my face away so I could roll my eyes at myself without Liza seeing. “Y’all are so sweet! I am kinda stuck on the couch. Come on in. There’s a key under the flowerpot.”

“Okay!” Liza said in the same super cheery tone. “See you in about ten seconds.”

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