Page 125 of Will Bark for Pizza
“Not for a while yet. I want to focus on the bookstore for now. I have two months left on my lease.”
“You must have read that wrong.”
“Read what wrong?”
“You don’t have two months. You have twoweeks.”
Kira grabbed her phone back from Lila, reading the email. “Shit.”
“I could help next weekend,” Connor offered.
“That’s our soft re-opening,” Kira said, shaking her head. “I really should be here for that.”
“You can’t reschedule?” Luke asked, sounding more helpful than asshole for once.
“Every day we drag our feet on re-opening, we lose money. We’d be open already if we didn’t have all those old books to deal with.” She explained about the sidewalk sale they planned for early in the coming week.
“I bet the book club could handle that sale without you here,” Aspen said.
“I’m off Tuesday and Wednesday,” Luke offered, surprising most everyone at the table. Except Husker. He was too trained on the remaining pizza to care about anything else, including the chipmunk thatlingered nearby. “It’d have to be a turn-and-burn trip.”
“That’s in, like, three days,” Aspen said.
Kira’s eyes glazed over in what looked like panic. I shifted her strawberry lemonade closer to her hand, and she took it.
“Kira, babe, I got this,” Lila said.
“You do?”
“I’ll head back tomorrow, round up the girls, and get your place packed up. Don’t worry. They’re cheap. They work for wine. We’ll have everything ready to go when you show up on?—”
“Tuesday afternoon,” Luke said. “We’ll get an early start.”
Lila looked to Connor first.
“I can make that work.”
“Me too,” I added.
It was a good thing Nana left yesterday and was currently dealing with my sister’s mess, because she’d surely slap me upside the head for volunteering my help in this situation. I only signed the purchase agreement on the cabin yesterday. I still needed to move in. And Joe promised the paperwork for the bookstore building would be ready Monday. Not to mention, the Kniffen Street house wouldn’t install its own kitchen cabinets. But I would figure it out, because being there for Kira mattered more.
“Got room for one more?” Aspen offered.
“Really?” Kira asked, looking not just at her cousin, but everyone around the table. Her eyes were shiny, as though she might cry.
“We got you, babe,” Lila said, like it was the most obvious thing ever.
The urge to reach my hand to Kira’s thigh and give it a gentle squeeze in reassurance was strong, but it would not go unnoticed. Even if her brothers didn’t catch it, someone sitting nearby would. So I snuck a piece of ground beef to Husker instead.
“Is The Asswipe going to show up and cause a scene?” Luke asked, sounding for once more protective brother and less dick.
“I doubt it,” Kira said, grabbing a second slice of pizza, but leaving it untouched. Much to Husker’s apparent disbelief. He wedged his way between us and promptly shoved at the back of her arm with his nose. “Hey! That’s myboob.”
Lila and Aspen laughed. Luke and Connor groaned. I, on the other hand, got a strong visual of thatboobcupped firmly in my hand. A very distinct image that had blood rushing below my belt.Not fucking now. I reached for my drink and gulped.
“Do we need a U-Haul?” I asked, desperate to distract my rampant thoughts.
“Got one booked,” Lila announced, setting her phone to the side and reaching for another slice of arugula pizza I couldn’t bring myself to try. “You’ll pick it up in Omaha.”
