her house. Or rather, she moved like she was doing a sort of quickstep dance move, because her skirt was so tight.
This woman was as confusing as she was pretty. She left him standing there, and after a beat or two, Max decided he was supposed to follow. He walked down the entry hall toward the couch. He couldn’t see Carly anywhere, but Hazel excitedly wagged her tail. She looked very much at home.
Carly suddenly appeared in front of him and held a shoe up in front of his face.
Max recognized that shoe. She’d sent him a selfie picture with this shoe in another text this weekend. What he remembered about that text was her. He’d noticed the tiny smattering of freckles, and how pink her lips were. “I’ve seen that before.”
“Yes, you have. You didn’t respond to that text, either.”
He looked at the shoe. He would like to see her in that shoe, actually. “It was just a picture.”
“I sent it for a reason.”
“What was the reason? It’s sexy.”
“Of course it’s sexy. But you can see the problem, right?”
“With the shoe?”
“Yes, Max, the shoe.” She lifted the shoe higher. “Look at the heel.”
Max shifted his gaze to the shoe and looked at the heel. That’s when he saw the heel had been chewed up. “Ah, I get it,” he said, nodding. “Are you implicating Hazel in this crime, too?”
“Well, there was no little girl here at the time, and Baxter has never chewed anything. Not even his tail.” She dropped her arm. “Plus, I caught her red-handed with the evidence. Your dog definitely did this to my shoe. But my dog did this.” She stooped down and picked up half of an orange pillow.
Another chuckle escaped Max in the form of a snorting cough.
“Was that a laugh? That better not have been a laugh.”
“So not a laugh,” he lied, grinning.
“It must be hilarious to you that Baxter is now a changed man. I knew you’d ruined my dog.”
“I wouldn’t go so far as hilarious,” he said, but he couldn’t wipe the smile off his face. “Sort of funny, though.” He was a little distracted by how bright her eyes were, shining with ire. The effect was strangely arousing. “And by the way, Baxter is a dog, and dogs are pretty predictable in their behaviors. Two, I didn’t ruin your dog, because one of those predictable behaviors is that dogs chew things. They do it to combat boredom and frustration. And it keeps their teeth clean.”
“Are you seriously explaining why dogs chew right now? I know they chew. But Baxter didn’t chew my pillows before you let him on your couch and fed him mac and cheese. How can you not see the correlation?”
He couldn’t stop grinning. He knew she was serious, but she was so damn pretty and weird and interesting right now. “I don’t see any correlation, but I am very sorry for it all the same. I will reimburse you for the pillow.”
“You said it would be a piece of cake. You said the two of them would keep each other out of trouble.”
“I honestly thought that they would.”
She groaned and tossed the shoe and the pillow carcass into a basket on the floor. “You wouldn’t believe the weekend I’ve had. Sure, it wasn’t all bad dog behavior—there was plenty of bad people behavior, too—but still, Baxter won’t stay off my couch now, which is all on you,” she said, pointing at him, “and now I have to humiliate myself and ask you a favor.”
“It humiliates you to ask for a favor?”
“It humiliates me to ask you for this particular favor. It’s not a favor I want to ask of anyone. I am very self-sufficient.”
“I have no doubt.”
She eyed him suspiciously. “It’s just that what I need you to help me with ranks right up there with volunteering for a root canal.”
“Wow. Okay,” he said, nodding. “So apparently, there’s nothing more reprehensible than asking me for a favor. Got it. What is this horrible awful favor?”
She sighed. She tucked her hair behind her ear. She looked away from him and said, “It would seem that I’m stuck in this adorable little number.” She gestured with a flourish to her skirt.
“Stuck. In what way?” he asked, looking at the skirt.
“In the stuck way. As in, the zipper is stuck, and it’s so tight I can’t shimmy out of it. I called my mother, but of course she is never there and her phone rolls to voice mail. And