Page 63 of Puppy Kisses

Dawn blinked, taking in the sight of her sister with a slightly bemused air. It was always nice to see her, yes, and she’d never say no to hand-delivered Veuve Clicquot, but she was still reeling from her day with Adam.

“Hello to you, too, Soph,” she managed. “What’s the party for?”

Lila appeared next to Sophie and dropped an airy kiss on Dawn’s cheek. “Have you ever needed a reason for a party?”

Actually, yes. Contrary to popular opinion, Dawn didn’t regularly crack fifty-dollar bottles of champagne and invite everyone she knew to drink it with her. She liked parties, it was true. Most people did. They also liked champagne and having a good time and the occasional bout of casual sex. None of these things made her an anomaly.

To hear the people in her life tell the tale, however, everything Dawn did was completely and utterly frivolous. With her sisters, it wasn’t so bad, since they assumed her frivolity took the form of fun-filled sprees of drink and dance. With Adam, though…

She took a deep breath and forced a smile, since to do anything else would only open the floodgates to questions she had no intention of answering.

Adam sees me exactly the way everyone else does, and that’s all there is to it.It didn’t mean anything. He was allowed to sleep with all the women he wanted, share any parts of himself he felt inclined to, hide any parts he wanted to keep tucked away. In fact, that probably explained what he was doing with her in the first place. With Dawn Vasquez, what you saw was what you got. She promised a good time, a quick fuck, easy intimacy with no strings attached—and that was exactly what he asked of her. Nothing more, nothing less.

She wasn’t going to punish him just because somewhere along the way, she’d made the mistake of falling for him.

“You’re right,” she said brightly. Her smile felt like it was about to split her face, but she wasn’t going to look this gift champagne in the mouth. Not today, at any rate. “I don’t need a reason to party. Crack that sucker open and blast some Lily Allen. We haven’t had a feminist sing-off in ages.”

Sophie pulled the bottle out of her reach, taunting her with the radiant happiness shining out of her eyes. Harrison had gotten back to town a few days ago, so Dawn could only imagine that they’d been reunioning harder than two people had ever reunioned before. Sophiealwaysglowed like that when he returned from his fire crew.

“It just so happens that we’re here on a mission,” Sophie said. “We’ve got a surprise for you.”

“A surprise?” Dawn echoed. In the normal way of things, she also loved surprises, but she wasn’t sure how many more of those she could take today. The look on Adam’s face when she’d admitted her fidelity had been enough to last a lifetime. “What kind of surprise?”

“One that’s hopefully going to take care of a few of those bags under your eyes.” Lila swung her key ring around her finger and grabbed the oversized beige purse she carried everywhere. “No offense, Dawn, but you’re looking a little peaked.”

Peakedwas polite Lila-speak for looking like hell—a thing Dawn had been fully able to ascertain for herself in the rearview mirror on the way home. Her skin was pale, and her mascara showed an alarming tendency to run.

“Thanks, Sis. I feel a little peaked.”

“This doesn’t have anything to do with that guy, does it?” Sophie asked with an insight Dawn would have gladly dispensed with.

“Which guy?” she asked. As if just remembering his existence, she added, “You mean Adam?”

Sophie nodded and watched her. Lila’s gaze became downright dangerous. If Dawn wanted to get out of this day intact, she was going to have to tread carefully.

“After the things we did in my car today, I definitely hope not,” she said with a toss of her hair. It had grown sweaty and shiny with the heat, its usual bounce flattened to match her spirits, but she pretended not to notice. “In fact, it’s better if one of you drives to wherever we’re going until I can get that thing detailed.”

Lila’s eyes widened, but Sophie just laughed and linked her arms through Dawn’s. “Let’s take Lila’s car,” she said. “That way she can drive…and you can tell me all the sordid details.”

* * *

“Uh, guys?” Dawn blinked as Lila lifted her hands away from Dawn’s eyes, taking a moment to adjust to the suddenly bright lights. “I hate to break it to you, but an empty living room in an empty house isn’t a surprise. It’s depressing.”

A cork popped as Sophie opened the bottle of champagne and began liberally pouring it out into three plastic flutes. “There. I filled yours to the top.Nowit’s a celebration.”

Dawn accepted the glass but didn’t sip, looking around the house with interest. Her sisters had pulled out all the stops to make this an affair worth noting, even going so far as to tie a blindfold around her eyes and make her swear not to count the stoplights to guess where they were going.

For a brief moment, Dawn’s heart had swelled with the thought that Adam had somehow gotten to her sisters, asked them to intervene on his behalf so he could pull out a grand, romantic gesture fit for the movies. But that moment hadn’t only been brief; it had also been foolhardy. Things like that didn’t happen to her. Men liked her just fine. A few of them had even loved her. But the ease with which she slipped into their lives was matched only by the ease with which she eventually slipped back out.

So as soon asthatmoment of madness had passed, Dawn had settled back and allowed her sisters to lead her to the supersecret surprise. Which, as it turned out, was this house.

It was a nice enough place, if a little on the suburban side. She watched enough HGTV to know that features like vaulted ceilings and quartz countertops were a thing to be valued, but it all looked a little tame for her tastes.

“Okay, I give,” she said. “What am I looking at?”

“Welcome to the future home of the Ford family,” Sophie announced in her best television anchor voice. “It provides over two thousand square feet of modern living, complete with walk-in closets on both floors and a pantry big enough to feed a family of twelve. There’s radiant heating throughout the main floor, and I have it on good authority that there’s a jetted tub in the master suite.”

Dawn broke into a genuine smile. The house, which had looked so barren before, suddenly took on new meaning.