Page 110 of Will Bark for Pizza
My shoulders tensed as I waited for Luke to chew my ass out. Did either of Kira’s brothers catch me carrying her across the room? The door was open, which in retrospect, was probably better. Implied we had nothing to hide.
“All these need to go downstairs?” Luke asked, surveying the towers of boxes with what I could only describe as contempt.
“Yeah.”
Luke hefted three and headed back downstairs, Connor following his example.
The tension uncoiled from my shoulders, but barely. I shouldn’t feel relieved because Kira’s brothers didn’t catch us in a position we had to explain. I wasn’t that fucking guy. If I needed that reminder, this was it.
I could help herandkeep my distance. It was what I had to do. But how? I had no fucking clue. Because with each passing day, I was falling a little harder for Red. One of these days, if I wasn’t careful, I might reach that point of no return.
Hell, it was entirely possible I already had.
THIRTY-TWO
KIRA
“Lila?”I practically screamed her name from the back of the store when I spotted my PA holding court with the book club at the community table. She was hard to miss in her shimmering pink sundress adorned in white flowers. The woman wore confidence like it was her second skin. I admired her so much for it.
“Kira!” She rushed to me, running in wedge sandals like it was nothing out of the ordinary.
“What are you doing here?” I asked two seconds before she threw her arms around my neck and squeezed the remaining air from my lungs.
“I was worried. You never called me back.”
“I’m sorry. There’s been a lot?—”
“You’rebuyinga bookstore?” she asked, her tone both excited and accusatory as she relinquished her hold on me so she could level me with an expectant stare.
“Surprise.” I offered her a forced, cheesy smile hopingit would lessen her disappointment that I waited to tell her.
“You’re moving back home, then?”
Guilt twisted a knot inside my stomach. I meant to call her back while I was walking Husker on the trail the other day, right before I discovered those blocked voicemails. Then again this morning, but there was an incident with Husker and bacon.
“I was going to call you?—”
“I’m so excited for you!” She threw her arms around me again. Apparently, breathing was overrated today. “How soon are you moving?”
“I hadn’t really thought about it yet.”
I had a couple of months before the lease was up on my apartment, and I wasn’t eager to head home and deal with packing. Not when there were a million things that needed to be done here at the bookstore to prepare it for a soft opening, and then for a grand re-opening a few weeks later. Until this mess was semi-sorted out, we agreed to stay closed. Plus, the idea—however remote—of running into Travis made going back to Omaha very unappealing.
“The sooner the better, don’t you think?”
“You sound eager to be rid of me,” I joked.
“You say that like it’s even possible.”
“Where are you staying?”
“I booked the cutest little cabin. It’s walking distance from the store—and that amazing bakery you’ve told me so much about. I might have stopped for a cupcake or three on the way over. Those things are dangerous.”
“I really did mean to call you back.”
“You don’t need to keep apologizing to me. You’veobviously been busy here. I’m so excited for this next chapter!”
“Really?”
