Page 36 of Just a Wrong Turn

When Miller looked at her with his mouth open, she answered the question he was thinking. “I found a piece of paper in the side table next to the futon with all your username and passwords on it. Surprised you’d just leave that lying around.”

Miller rubbed his pounding forehead. “I hate always having to reset my passwords—wait, you were looking in my drawer?”

“Sorry, I’m not good at resting.”

With a deep exhale, Miller stood. “I’m… gonna run… an errand.” Miller needed air—like straight oxygen—to keep his mind and body from failing.

As he sat in his truck, Miller closed his eyes and reminded himself,I’m doing this for Abigail. All the attention will help the dogs. Those are the only two things that matter. Abigail and the dogs.

His phone vibrated. Looking down he saw a new text from Liza.What now?Clicking on the message he saw, “Hey, you okay? Good news… Our SupportACause page shows that we’ve raised $1,150! Also, we already have 8 people signed up for the 5k!!”

A chuckle rumbled out. And then another. Leaning his head back, he closed his eyes.This just might work. Liza could save the rescue…He wasn’t sure if it was shock or relief, but he took a deep breath and felt calm. The mountain of pressure and stress he had been shouldering felt slightly lighter.

Opening his truck door, he walked back into the rescue. Liza had Snowdrop by her side. “Did you see my text?” she asked, leaning forward on her tiptoes.

Miller grinned and nodded. “Thank you.”

Shrugging, Liza walked toward him. Placing a hand on his shoulder, she said softly, “We got this.”

Miller found her eyes. The moment extended. Liza’s elbow relaxed and her hand slid down to his bicep. The feeling of her near him, touching him, made him crave more. Breath caught in his chest. His mouth felt dry, so he cleared his throat—unintentionally breaking the trance.

“Pizza okay… for dinner tonight?” Miller backed away, trying to recover. Blood was coursing through his veins. He couldn’t believe how badly he wanted to reach out to Liza. He had been tempted to wrap his arms around her waist and pull her close. He had almost made a fool out of himself.

“I’ll go order it.” Running his hand through his hair, he walked to the front office. Liza’s footsteps followed him.

“Miller,” she called out.

Sinking into his desk chair, he stared at the papers in front of him.

Bills.

Yes, think about the bills and the stress and the need to focus. Not on—

Liza shot through the door and stood in front of him, leaning her elbows on the counter. “Hey. Are you totally freaked out by being my boyfriend for the week? I’m sorry, we don’t have to do this. Your friendship is way more important to me than—”

“Don’t—” Miller cut her off. “Worry about it. I’m fine. It’s alllll good.” He cringed hearing himself emphasizing the word “all.” It sounded extremely unnatural and not at allll convincing.

“Okay.” Liza cocked her head, clearly not buying it. “If at any time you change your mind, just say the word and we’ll call the whole thing off. I mean it.”

Miller leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest. “It’s helping the dogs. I’m in.” That was the reason… the only reason, right? It had nothing to do with his growing fondness for Liza.

She drew in a breath while peering at her hands. “Great.”

“Yep.” Miller nodded.

After a moment, Liza broke the silence. “So, since we’re still doing this… I put together a schedule for the week.”

“A schedule?”

“Yeah, we have a lot to do if we’re gonna get you back with Abigail and make it to all the wedding events.”

“Events? Isn’t the wedding one day?”

“Oh no, there’s the bridal shower Thursday—which most of the time is just the ladies, but Chase and Maggie want to have a jointweddingshower. They're so in love apparently they can’t be apart for that long.” Liza stuck out her tongue. “And then, there’s the rehearsal dinner on Friday and the actual wedding is on Saturday.”

“So you just need me toward the end of the week for boyfriend duty?”

“I think we need to post some photos earlier in the week too. I’ll take some pics of our shopping adventure Sunday, and then Monday I thought we could do a date out on the town.”

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