Feliz Naughty Dog - Roxanne St. Claire Page 0,15
into a cart of phone cases.
“Yikes,” she muttered, looking ahead, busted for staring at him.
“Actually, I live with my aunt and my uncle. Well, they’re kind of like Yiayia is to you.”
“Tangentially related?” As soon as she used the SAT vocab word, she regretted it. Cute girls that he liked wouldn’t say things like tangentially.
“Actually, no,” he said, not blinking an eye at her word choice. “Not related at all, but very much like family.”
“Oh, okay. Are they older?”
“Not really. Fifties.”
“Then what did you mean when you said grandmas are your comfort zone?”
He gave her a quick look, something flashing in his eyes. Fear? Hurt? It was gone too quickly to decipher. “Long story,” he said, turning again, this time to stare hard at Bath & Body Works soap displays.
“So, I wonder if I know your aunt and uncle,” Pru said, finally getting comfortable with just talking to him. “Bitter Bark is a small town.”
“They moved here a year ago.”
“And you moved all the way from California to live with them?” She spun through all the possibilities and couldn’t come up with anything but… “Did something happen to your parents?” she asked, trying to soften any horror and brace herself for something like they died.
“Yeah,” he said on a laugh she totally didn’t expect. “They had a kid they really didn’t want sixteen years ago, split up, and kind of forgot I exist.”
“Oh…” She didn’t have any idea how to respond to that. “I’m…sorry.”
“It’s fine,” he said. “They’re just not, you know, my favorite people. But the Hernandezes are awesome.” He eyed her, just enough to nudge the butterflies to life. “I know what you’re thinking.”
God, she hoped not. “You do?”
“They left me on Christmas, but it’s cool. It was my choice not to go with them. I couldn’t leave Tor in a kennel, and he sure as heck can’t take another flight. The one from LA nearly killed him.”
“Aww, poor baby.” She patted the dog, then looked up at Lucas. “And that’s not what I was thinking,” she added.
“Your eyes are pretty much dead giveaways, Pru.”
He was studying her eyes enough to know her thoughts? An unfamiliar heat curled through her, making her slow her step so she didn’t trip or walk into another kiosk. “Well, if you must know—”
“I must,” he said, making her laugh.
“I was thinking it was sad about your parents. My mom is my best friend, and my dad…” She closed her eyes for a second as she thought about Trace Bancroft. “He’s the greatest.”
“You’re lucky, then.”
“I know, but I only met him a few years ago,” she admitted.
“So he’s your stepdad?” he asked.
“No, he’s my biological father.”
He threw her a confused look. “And you just met him?”
She took a breath, almost ready to share her strange family story, but did she trust him? Did she even know him? After a moment, she shrugged and looked away, shifting her attention to Tor, who was pulling on the leash a little harder than he had been, his attention locked on a store just ahead.
“Oh, the pet store,” Pru said, gesturing to The Animal House. “Should we attempt our first Random Act of Christmas Kindness in there?”
He looked a little dubious. “You think I should trust Tor…nado?”
She laughed at the nickname and touched the dog’s long face, which didn’t require her to bend much. His head practically reached Pru’s chest. “Okay, doggo, here’s the deal,” she said. “You behave, and you get a treat.”
His tail whipped back and forth as he looked up at her with sweet brown eyes. “You know what a treat is?” she asked.
“He knows what a pretty girl with a kind voice is.”
Her heart did an unexpected flip at the compliment. “Well, do you think he’ll follow the rules?”
“I’ll hold him tight. What’s your RACK plan?”
She had to smile, appreciating that he was into the school project enough to use the nickname. Flipping her backpack around, she unzipped a side pocket. “What you suggested. I’m going to buy a bunch of treats, and then we can take them over to that indoor dog park and give them to little kids to hand to the dogs. Sound kind?”
“Sounds like a recipe for a lawsuit if one of the dogs bites a kid.”
She gasped. “I never thought of that! You have a better idea? ’Cause your dog ate all of mine.”
Laughing, he looked into the store and thought for a moment. “You have money for this?”
“I have fifty dollars, but I don’t want to spend