Bad to the Bone by Roxanne St. Claire

Author:Roxanne St. Claire [Claire, Roxanne St.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: South Street Publishing
Published: 2018-01-19T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

Trace had managed to make it through the afternoon. After the crew went home for dinner, he’d stared at the diaries for a long time before opening one.

He had no desire to read her ramblings, astrological garbage, and bad poetry. He flipped through the journal that had the latest date and found a single piece of paper slipped inside with the name Annie Kilcannon written in blue ink, a phone number, and some cryptic notes.

Trace had tucked that into his jeans pocket, but since he’d met up with Molly in town, there were so many people and two completely crazy golden retriever puppies on leashes, so they hadn’t talked at all about what they’d discovered today.

By silent agreement, they were waiting for the right time, which seemed to be the theme for their entire relationship.

“I don’t remember Bitter Bark being quite this festive,” Trace said as he and Molly walked toward Bushrod Square, which was so lit up with white lights on the trees that it felt like daylight as they got closer. Tashie and Bo tugged at their leashes and scampered ahead, both of them wearing sparkling rhinestone collars that Molly explained were given to all the puppies in the parade. They weaved back and forth, getting tangled, barking so hard they both jumped on their hind legs like toy dogs.

And everyone who passed oohed, awwed, and stopped to pet them.

“First of all, this is Better Bark,” she reminded him. “At least for this calendar year, and we’ve always put white lights on the trees in the square all year long.”

“Never noticed.” Trace squinted into the crowds that filled the square, as many dogs as people, it seemed, and there were many, many people. The night was clear, and the temperature had cooperated to make for a picture-perfect setting for the town’s first Puppy Parade. “Guess we’ll see some familiar faces.”

“Some.” Molly wrapped Natasha’s leash around her hand with the expertise of a person who’d handled dogs since birth, easily guiding the puppy around a stroller. Of course, everything was easier with Natasha. Boris was borderline bat-shit crazy, darting back and forth on the sidewalk, peeing on the grass every ten steps, greeting every other dog with a noisy, high-pitched bark. “But a lot of these people are tourists, too. Which was the whole idea of the Better Bark name change. You are walking through the Most Dog Friendly Town in America.”

“Brilliant idea,” he mused, smiling as a few little girls stopped to squee over the puppies.

“Chloe is gifted at the whole tourism thing.” She added a laugh. “She won over the whole town and my brother Shane, too.”

“So, once they get married, all three of your brothers will have met their wives and gotten married within, what, the same twelve months?” When she nodded, he added, “Shane credits your father for that, you know. He told me that one day in the kennels.”

“Oh, I know. Dad’s a bit of a matchmaker, it turns out.”

“But he hasn’t matched you.

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