Page 93 of Puppy Christmas

Chapter 18

“Lila? Are you still at home? Oh, thank goodness. You just saved my life.” Helen rattled off her sentences in one string, pausing neither to draw a breath nor to let Lila get a word in edgewise. “Would you be a dear and pick up some ice on your way? I’ve been filling my ice-cube trays and stockpiling all week, but wouldn’t you know it? The boys decide to make snowballs with ice cubes at the center. Apparently, you can cause much more damage that way. I confiscated three bucketsful from the backyard already.”

Lila stared at the cell phone in her hand.

“Two bags should do the trick. Oh, and if you’re going to the grocery store on Fifth, could you also grab the cake? It’s supposed to be Santa dressed up as a pirate. I was going to make one last run, but Danica arrived early. Danicaalwaysarrives early, the beast. If you ever invite her to your house, make sure you tell her to come at least two hours late, or she’ll end up on your doorstep before you’ve had a chance to shove the laundry under the bed. Dirty laundry, too. I was never so embarrassed in my life.”

The running dialogue gave Lila a chance to gain her bearings, but she wasn’t at all sure she liked where she ended up.The holiday party. The entire block in attendance.

Ford.

“Actually, I—”

“You know what? Make it three bags of ice. My house is already starting to feel like an oven. I may have to let the boys in with those buckets of snowballs, after all.”

With that, Helen hung up, as sure of her conquest as Charlemagne setting out on his first campaign. For the longest moment, Lila could only continue staring at her phone, her whole body growing heavy with dread. In all the hustle of last-minute holiday plans and the situation at the Ford house, she’d somehow forgotten that Helen’s holiday party was to be held this evening—the same holiday party she’d promised to attend in a wench costume that no decent woman would wear in public.

For an even longer moment, Lila toyed with the idea of sending one of her sisters in her stead. Maybe she could plead a headache. Or pneumonia. Even rabies might work. That way, she could quarantine herself alongside Jeeves, the pair of them hiding away until this whole thing blew over.

“Lila Vasquez, you are a lot of things, but a coward isn’t one of them.” She forced herself to rise from the couch where she’d been laid out all day. It had been her intention to unwind and relax, maybe even take a nap, but all she’d done was count the paint specks on the ceiling.

She still had that in common with Emily. Naps were the worst. What was the point of steeping in your own woes for hours at a time? She could have accomplished a lot of work in that time—gone to the mall and purchased a new pirate costume, for example. One that contained a lot less cleavage and a lot more weaponry. She needed an arsenal if she was going to make it through this event alive.

It was with that honorable intention that Lila started to get dressed for the party with much less care than she usually took over these things. She was going to have to hurry if she wanted to get Helen her ice and cake on time.

Her rush was what she blamed, anyway, for failing to notice her sisters’ arrival. She was putting the finishing touches on her thick, smoky eyeliner when she looked up and noticed the mirror’s reflection of Dawn and Sophie, both of whom were staring at her in a manner that could only be described asagog.

“Uh, Lil?” Sophie asked. “Is there a reason you’re dressed up like an extra from Pirates of the Caribbean?”

Lila blinked a few times to clear her vision and stepped back to survey her handiwork. She’d been a trifle heavy-handed on the mascara, perhaps, but not in a bad way.

“And I’m assuming there’s a plastic sword tucked into your belt for a perfectly good reason?” Dawn added.

“Of course there’s a reason,” Lila said.

Her sisters did it again—shared that look, that sideways glance that was somehow a roll of the eyes and a laugh wrapped up in one.

“There’s also a plastic knife stuck into my boot and two butter knives strapped to my right thigh, but the dress does a pretty good job of concealing them.” She ruffled her skirts to get any wrinkles out. “Well? What do we think?”

“That you’ve finally cracked,” Dawn replied without a moment’s hesitation.

Lila almost laughed. Her sister was a lot closer to the truth than she knew. “The dress is mine, but the weapons were borrowed from Byron and Neil. Well, I confiscated them, actually. I was afraid they might try to stab a puppy if I left them unattended. Will one of you please tighten the laces on this corset? I need to get going, or I’ll be late to the party.”

“Oh dear. You wouldn’t want to be rude,” Sophie murmured, but she came forward and gave her sister’s laces a hefty tug. Lila grunted a protest, but since Sophie had managed to bring her waist in a good extra inch, she didn’t mind too much. “Does this mean you got all those kinks with Jeeves worked out?”

“Nope.” Lila tested her ability to twist and turn, pleased to find that all of her body parts stayed under wraps. “It’s a disaster. In fact, we’re probably going to have to cancel the Auditory Guild contract.”

Her sisters shared another look.

Lila had no idea what it was about that second glance of theirs that caused her to snap, but snap she did. She was tired, she was sad, and she was being forced to wear a smile and a corset for the sake of a man who had no intention of sticking around long enough to enjoy them. She’d spent most of her life doing the right thing and saying what everyone wanted to hear, and it didn’t seem to make them like her one bit more. Her beloved, well-trained service puppy had bitten the little girl he was supposed to protect, and all her professional goals were going up in smoke.

So, yes. She snapped.

“I can see you guys, you know,” she said, whirling on them. “You’re standing two feet away from me, and there’s a mirror right here.”

As though connected by an invisible—and very strong—string, their eyes started to move toward each other once again.

“Yes, that!” Lila cried, pointing an accusatory finger at them. “Right there. That thing you do whenever you think I’m being ridiculous. I can see it. I’vealwaysbeen able to see it.”