in my shop.”
“No, I mean, talking to Mrs McGinn. You know your stuff. And you positively glow when you get excited by an idea.”
I blush at that. I can’t deny it. But it’s taken a long time to get to a place where I felt confident about my work. For so long, I felt inferior. Probably because of everything that happened to me before.
Things that I shouldn’t be thinking about on my not-a-date-maybe-a-date with Warren.
Chapter Twenty-Five
By the time we get back to the mansion, I’m one hundred percent buzzed, and not just on wine and the carbohydrates.
I’m buzzed because Warren likes me.
He has to like me.
No one does what he did without liking the person, right?
Hell, he’s even carrying all of the stuff I bought into the house. The mansion, whatever.
I look at him, and I wink. I’m attempting to be charming, but then I trip on the steps and he has to catch me. I manage to grab onto his arm before faceplanting.
“Thanks,” I say, brushing myself off and opening the door. “Maybe I should save the seduction for when we’re inside.”
He laughs. “Is that what that was?”
I’m about to answer, but then a fuzzy blur bursts through the open door. It’s Duke, wagging his tail and showering me with kisses.
“Who’s the best boy?” I ask him, scratching him behind the ears. “I hope you’ve been keeping an eye on Gary like we talked about. He needs a positive role model and you’re just the dog to do it.”
Behind me, Warren clears his throat. I look, and he’s squinting at Duke. “Is my dog wearing… a bow tie?”
The bow tie! I almost forgot that Bethany and I picked out one of the many bow ties that we made at the shop and attached it to Duke’s collar before she left. It’s plaid, and he looks thoroughly dashing.
I grin at Warren as I straighten the bowtie. “Yes! Do you like it? He was feeling like he needed a little something extra, you know?”
“Duke thought he needed”—Warren pauses—“a little something extra?”
I nod. “Sometimes he feels like everyone is looking at him, on account of him being your dog. And you post him on the Instagram and it’s important to him that he represents you well.”
“Can we circle back to how you know this?” Warren smiles like this is a joke. “Did he write you a note?”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” I tsk. “He told me via the pet psychic.”
“Right.” He nods as he walks inside. But at the last second, he stops and turns around. “You’re not serious, right?”
“Of course I am.”
“You hired a pet psychic to talk to my dog?”
“Well, to be honest, I made the initial appointment for Gary. On account of all the bad choices he’s been making lately. Obviously it made me question if I was providing him with the level of cat mom-ing he needs.”
“Obviously.” Warren nods, but I’m fairly sure he still thinks I’m kidding.
“And to be honest, the critter-catching was weighing on me. Like what if he ate the next one? I can’t live with that on my conscience.”
“You just had chicken at lunch,” he points out like my rationale is, well, irrational.
“That’s obviously different,” I reply, doing my best to not add ‘duh,’ to the end of the sentence, but I’m pretty sure my face says it.
“Please, go on,” Warren finally replies after a pause in which he taps two fingers against his forehead.
Honestly, I was hoping he’d want to hear more because I’ve been dying to have someone to talk to about this. “Okay, so then on my call about Gary she felt Duke’s energy, and she made this comment, and you know what? She turned out to be right about, um, something she said, so I’ve been calling her every now and again. And the other day, she told me he was partial to plaid and Bethany and I had made a couple of bowties with this vintage Burberry coat that met a tragic ending and ta-da!” I wave my fingers in a circular motion to indicate the magic of sewing. “And now he has a vintage, one-of-a-kind, Burberry bow tie.” I beam, watching Duke’s tail wag back and forth as he stands and puffs out his chest. “I hate to tell you, Warren, but your dog is extra. E-x-t-r-a and proud.”
Warren shakes his head as he closes the door behind us. “I feel like you just jumped about a thousand steps ahead of me. Did you say you talk to a pet