Page 55 of Will Bark for Pizza
“By PI, she means stripper,” Thelma explained to me.
Lotti shrugged, reaching for her chocolate martini. “I wouldn’t be upset if he had multiple careers paths.”
“You need to get laid,” Dylann said, shaking her head and taking a healthy sip of her margarita.
I nearly choked on my pizza and reached for my drink.
Thelma laughed, Dylann patted me on the back, and Lotti offeredup her water.
“Say, you have military training,” Lotti said.
“Back off,” Thelma warned.
“What?” Lotti asked, her expression innocent. She reminded me of someone from a TV show Nana used to watch when I was a kid. But I couldn’t quite place it.
“We’re not asking Beckett to go to Mexico himself to hunt down Margene Miller,” Dylann chimed in.
“Mexico?”
“For all the times that sorry excuse for a human brought up Cabo, we’re pretty sure Margene headed down south the second she cleaned out the bookstore’s bank account,” Thelma explained.
“She’s in Cabo?”
“Or maybe Cozumel,” Dylann said. “If I had a dollar for every time that woman mentioned Cozumel, Frank could finally retire.”
“You forgot Cancun,” Lotti added. “Hey, Beckett—can I call you Beckett?”
“Of course.”
“You’re not also secretly a bounty hunter, are you?” Lotti asked.
“Afraid not.”
“Do youknowany bounty hunters?” Dylann asked.
I did not. But I had a strong suspicion Nana might.Huh. Maybe there was something I could do to make this whole bookstore mess right after all. Kira might hate me for buying the building—I couldn’t let some outside assholes lowball Joe and turn it into a dreaded gift shop, so I had to buy it—but at least I could do something about this Margene Miller.
Maybe.
That’s the excuse I’d cling to when Luke, Connor, or Thoren gave me shit for turning into a gossip queen.
I waited until after the server—Jamie—placed the additional pizzas onto the table, and asked, “What exactly did Margene Millerdo?”
NINETEEN
KIRA
“Have you been out here long?”Aspen asked as she and her dog, Tango, stepped onto the boat dock.
Husker immediately hopped to his feet to greet his lab friend, and my heart squeezed. If I didn’t live six hundred miles away, they could spend time together. As it was, he was too used to being the only dog in my life worthy of pets. If I wasn’t careful, Husker would turn all the way into a grumpy old man dog. He needed a friend.
“Just came out here to think,” I said, greeting Tango with a firm rub along the back of his neck while Husker was distracted by Aspen’s attention and the homemade treat she offered him.
“Everything okay?”
My legs dangled off the dock, and I kicked at the water with my bare toes. The water was cold, and they were numb by now.
“I don’t really want to talk about it.”
