Page 17 of Sharp Lies

“No,” I breathed.

She must have left on her own. I’d forgotten to lock the door, and she’d figured out how to open it, probably heading out into the yard thinking she was going to go with me. Which made sense. She’d been going with me for nearly her entire life, and staying at home in the house had to feel completely wrong.

But we were in a town she didn’t know. And the front yard wasn’t fenced.

I raced back down the stairs and to the front door, my mind going through every bit of advice I’d ever heard on how to find a lost dog. The problem was, this wasn’t exactly a neighborhood with fences and plenty of houses. Sure, there was a house directly to the side of my mother’s, but there was also a lot of land around us that didn’t have any dwellings. Farmland. And behind us, a wooded area.

Plenty of ways for a dog who didn’t know the area to get lost.

Oh crap, oh crap, oh crappity-crap. I went skidding out the front door, my eyes flashing from right to left as I tried to figure out where she might have gone. But once she got out the front door, there was no telling. She could be in the field to my left, or in the road in front of me, or in the forest behind me. She could be—

I paused sharply and slowly turned back to look at what I’d just seen to the right of the porch.

There was a fence out here, because Warren had fenced in his front yard. Or the person who’d owned the house before him had. A white picket fence about four feet tall ran around his entire property, clearly marking where my mother’s land ended and his began.

And there was a big hole right in the middle of it, directly next to our porch.

A Silver-sized hole.

Evidently, she hadn’t gone to the forest or the field or the road.

She’d gone to the cranky neighbor to try to make friends.

***

I SIGHED DEEPLY, TRIED to get my anxiety under control, and opened the gate that led into Warren’s front yard. I couldn’t freaking believe this was happening. I hadn’t even met this guy yet, officially, and yet I’d caught him staring at me in my reflection and then seen him undressing in front of his window. Now my dog was over there on his property doing who knew what. If she’d dug up his flowers or ripped through the siding on his house, that glare was going to get even worse.

Please, please let her be behaving herself.

Honestly, I didn’t know what to expect. My mom had said this guy was a gentleman, but all I knew of him was that he was: 1. unbelievably good looking and 2. cranky. The house looked like any house that someone had just bought: dressed up for sale. I wondered if any of this was stuff he’d even keep. It was smaller than my mom’s house but just as nice, with dark green trim and beige paint. Only one story, which was probably better for a guy who was living on his own after getting out of the military.

Was he going to be one of those men who shouted everything, like they showed in the movies? Did he scowl all the time because of what he’d seen and done in his time as a soldier?

Was he mean?

My steps quickened at that thought, because I didn’t want Silver hanging out over here with someone who was downright mean. I didn’t know what I was going to say to him or do if Silver had ruined something, but I didn’t want her over here handling it on her own. I definitely didn’t want her coming into contact with someone who might hurt her or yell at her.

I didn’t see anyone on the porch, but I did hear someone speaking from what sounded like the back of the house, so I altered my path to head that way instead. I hadn’t seen anyone else over here and didn’t think he had roommates, so if there was speaking, logic dictated that it must be him.

I shot through the row of roses that bordered the path up to the house and trudged quickly across the grass, then got to the corner of the house and turned, my breath still caught in my throat and my brain whirring through all the things Silver might have done to his property.

And then I stopped short.

Warren was crouched down next to my dog, scratching her ears and carrying on a full conversation with her.

“I just don’t think it’s a good idea for you to be over here is the thing,” he was saying. “I mean, unless you left a note for your mom. Did you leave a note?”

He paused and looked intently at Silver like he was waiting for her to answer, but she just grinned at him, her tongue lolling out and her tail wagging a million miles a minute.

I could almost imagine the suspicious look he was giving her and stifled a laugh.

“Hm,” he said, definitely sounding suspicious. “Your silence on the matter doesn’t give me a lot of confidence.”

“She definitely didn’t leave a note,” I said, walking up to them. “You’re right to not believe her.”

I caught him by surprise, and he whirled around and stood up in one smooth motion, his body moving so quickly that it shocked me. And though he’d sounded friendly and even funny when he was talking to Silver, now that he was looking at me, the scowl had come back.

In fact, he looked angry that I was there at all.