Page 75 of Puppy Kisses

That was the only thought to leap to Adam’s mind, the only explanation that made sense. Dawn had found the papers and convinced Bea to move. This was a house being emptied for its new tenant.

“Uncanny, isn’t it?” The sarcastic male voice that sounded at Adam’s elbow caused him to jerk. Poor Uncle grunted as Adam gave the harness a hard yank. “I did the same thing when I got here. I have no idea what your girlfriend did to Bea, but the house looks amazing.”

“She’s not my girlfriend,” Adam said. It was a stupid thing to say in light of everything else, but it was the only thing he could think of when hit from the side by Charlie Smithwood. A Charlie Smithwood who, it seemed, had deeper powers of perception than he’d ever given him credit for. In an attempt at recovery, he added, “What are you doing here, anyway?”

“They didn’t tell you?” The sarcasm in Charlie’s voice was replaced by genuine amusement. “I should have guessed. I thought it was odd that you’d have agreed to this.”

It was on the tip of Adam’s tongue to demand an explanation, but he held himself stiff. As much as he disliked not knowing what was going on, he disliked even more to be at a disadvantage.

A thing his siblings knew full well. A thingDawnknew full well.

“Cigar?” asked a voice at his other side. It was feminine and familiar in a distant way—almost as though he remembered it from a dream. “I also have every kind of whiskey known to mankind, actual legitimate moonshine, and butterscotch schnapps.” There was a slightly breathless pause full of withheld laughter. “Dawn warned me about your deplorable taste, so I promise not to judge you for that last one. I swiped a swig earlier. It’s not the worst thing I ever tasted, but I wouldn’t want to wake up to a hangover full of that stuff.”

Recognition clicked almost at once. “You’re Sophie.”

“And you’re Adam. Well? What’ll it be?”

“He’s going to pretend to consider it for twenty seconds and then get the schnapps.” Phoebe’s voice was just as amused as Sophie’s—a thing that was seriously starting to get on his nerves. Was everyone in on this weird party except him? “Here, Adam. You’d better give me Uncle. Gigi is out back, and she’s getting frantic about being here without him.”

He handed over the harness without question. “Gigi’s here?”

“Yes,” Sophie answered as she placed a glass in his hand. The ice tinkled and sent up a waft of butterscotch. “In addition to Charlie, so are both my sisters, your brother, a nice veterinarian named Marcia, and the grumpy old lady who owns this place. It should be a lot of fun.”

As much as he appreciated the quick rundown of the guest list, Adam was finding it more and more difficult to make sense of all this. Was it a send-off? An intervention?

“If you want to come with me, I’ll show you to your seat,” Sophie said without providing any kind of enlightenment. “Your stack of chips will be waiting for you. Both they and the cards came from your house, so they should be familiar.”

If it weren’t for Sophie standing next to him, Adam would have reared back at this. Chips? Cards?Cigar smoke?

Enlightenment was starting to dawn—and with it, the sinking feeling that he’d been duped. There was no way that Zeke and Phoebe hadn’t known about this ahead of time. He’d been lured here under false pretenses, set up to take a terrible fall.

This wasn’t a party. This was a motherfucking poker game.

“Is it too much to ask to speak to Dawn right now?” he asked, his teeth clenched. “I’m sure she’s very busy, having set all this up and put it into execution, but it’s important that we talk.”

“She’ll explain everything in a minute,” said another familiar-but-not-familiar female voice.Lila.These were hardly the circumstances under which he would have chosen to meet Dawn’s sisters, but it felt oddly good to be given this opportunity. A woman who had written him off forever wouldn’t introduce him to the two most important people in her life.

“She could have explained everything before I left the house and saved us all a lot of trouble,” he said.

“True,” Lila agreed. “But you wouldn’t want to upset everything after all the work she’s done on your behalf, would you?”

There was a note in her voice that caused Adam to do nothing more than shake his head. Maybe he’d been a little preemptive in his optimism. That wasn’t the voice of a woman who’d been on the receiving end of high praise in his honor.

The two Vasquez sisters led him to a chair around an octagonal felt table.Thatwasn’t from his own house, he knew, but he didn’t dare question where it came from. He dropped to his seat and did his best to appear unconcerned instead.

He also carefully set his drink aside. As much as he could use something sweet and alcoholic right now, he wanted to keep his wits about him. The scuffle of footsteps and the general murmur of voices grew subdued, and Dawn’s nonscent grew more pronounced. Even without those signs, he’d have known Dawn was near because he was ruthlessly attacked by the puppy he’d been separated from for all of five days.

It was a little disconcerting to have Gigi wriggling and whimpering and leaping up into his lap while the entire room watched, but he could hardly berate the poor thing. From the way she was burrowing her face into his side, almost as though she was trying to take up residence inside his skin, it was obvious that she’d felt the separation as keenly as he had.

“Yes, Gigi,” he said, giving her his hand to lick—a thing she did with exuberance. “I missed you too, girl. Uncle and I both did. But this is no way to behave in public. You’re embarrassing yourself.”

She didn’t care. She transferred her affection from his hand to his face, licking and snuffling until she reached a comfortable spot with her head crooked against his. Literally. This was how people swaddled babies.

“What on earth did you do to that poor animal?” Charlie asked—presumably to Dawn.

This theory was confirmed when Dawn sighed and said, “Loved her. Took care of her. Offered her the very best parts of me. As you can tell, they’re not up to par.”

They are too up to par,Adam wanted to say. Maybe not for Gigi, who clearly had her priorities wrong, but for him.