Carly watched them wrestle with a bemused expression. When the mutual love fest slowed down, she offered, “He’s probably starving. He wouldn’t take much from me. Bring him in the house. You can feed him.”
They followed her in through a side door that led directly to the kitchen. Before she could say a word, an attractive fiftysomething woman dressed in silver skinny jeans tucked into high-heel boots and a black velour sweater with a rhinestone zipper confronted them, a hand on each hip. “Who’s this young man?”
“He’s the man I—we met last night at the fire.” Carly began fluffing the curls atop her head. No need to start more rumors than necessary.
“Are you the owner of this animal?” Aunt Fredda pointed to Harley, who was still doing a happy dance all over his master.
“Yes ma’am.” Noah pushed Harley away, a game they played. The dog skidded a few feet across the spotless tile floor. Almost instantly he got traction and galloped back to throw his full weight into his handler. Noah oofed softly but did not go down behind the knee block.
Aunt Fredda’s lips pursed as she watched. “I want you to know that dog is a menace. He ate my pound cake.”
Carly gaped at her aunt. “Why would you think that?”
Her aunt pointed to a piece of paper lying on the breakfast nook table. “That’s what the note Jarius left me says. Now what am I supposed to do about the church social tomorrow? I always bring my pound cake. Folks expect it.”
“I’m sorry, ma’am.” Frowning at his K-9, Noah gave Harley the “down” sign. The dog instantly complied. “Harley has a history of food boundary issues. I’d be happy to replace your missing cake. How about one from Blue Bonnet Bakery?”
Aunt Fredda worked her mouth, trying not to smile. “They do make some decent cakes. But I have my reputation to maintain. Everybody is expecting my pound cake.”
“I’m sure that’s true.” He looked again at his dog. “Bad dog, Harley.”
The German Shepherd gazed up at his master, head kicked over to the side with ears on high alert.
Noah smiled. “He says he didn’t do it.”
Aunt Fredda glanced down at the animal. “You’d take that shaggy bag of bones’ word over mine?”
“Harley didn’t eat the cake.” Both parties looked over at Carly.
“Are you sure?” Noah looked at her doubtfully. “To be honest, Harley does have a history for unreliability around unsupervised food. That’s why he’s not a seeing-eye dog.”
Aunt Fredda tucked her arms together. “I’d like to hear about that.”
Noah smiled. “He was kicked out of the guide-dogs-for-the-blind program after he ate a burger off the plate of a blind man during his probation period.”
Carly burst into laughter before she could clap a hand over her mouth. “Are you serious?”
He grinned back. “Yep.” He reached down to pet his partner. “But Harley’s been retrained to eat only from my hand. And, honestly, he doesn’t like sweets. So you might be right, Carly. There might be another culprit.”
“Harley hadn’t come up against my prize-winning pound cake before.” Aunt Fredda looked almost pleased to have tempted the dog beyond his training. “You keep him away from my cakes, he’ll be fine.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Carly glanced again at the note. She didn’t want to throw poor Harley under the bus, but she hated to rat out her cousin to his mom.
“You two had lunch?”
“Yes—No.” Carly and Noah glanced at each other as they had both answered at the same time.
Aunt Fredda chuckled. “Men don’t lie about hunger. I got some chicken salad from Costco this morning. And some grapes. You go sit while I pull some lunch together.”
“That’d be much appreciated, Mrs. Wiley.”
Aunt Fredda turned to Noah. “You know my name. I know you, too, don’t I?”
“Yes, ma’am. I’m Noah Glover.” He held out his hand. “You were kind enough to invite a member of the fire department arson investigation unit to speak at your Neighborhood Watch group last year. That was me.”
She nodded and shook his hand. “That’s why you look so familiar. I don’t usually forget a handsome face.” Then, as if a light bulb went off, her friendly expression hardened into her courtroom face. “But that’s not the first time we met, is it?”
“No, ma’am.” Carly was astonished to see Noah blush. “I came up before you once in juvie court. I was hoping you wouldn’t remember that. Not my finest moment.”
Aunt Fredda frowned as she shifted through her memory. “Ah, yes. Noah Glover. Joy-riding without a license in a stolen vehicle. Your uncle turned you in, said he did it to teach you a lesson.”
“Yes, ma’am. That was me. I’m amazed you remember that.”