Parker couldn’t help it; he laughed again and bent to oblige the dog.
Above him, Zoe sighed. “It’s probably because in comparison to him, you smell really good.”
Parker tilted his head back. “Ah, so you do feel it.”
She grimaced. “Look, sometimes things spill out,” she said around her fingers. “Ignore it.”
“Yeah, not really good at that,” he said.
“Then it’s a good thing I am.” And with that she hightailed it out of the room.
Oreo looked torn for a moment but then huffed out a sigh and got up and followed after his food provider.
Huh. He’d come to Sunshine for a boatload of complicated reasons that had absolutely nothing to do with a real vacation or enjoying himself, but he was doing just that.
Three
Parker went outside to retrieve his duffel bag, and while he was out there he received a text from his sister.
Thanks for the pretty mountain pics! You meet your wife yet? I wanna be a sister-in-law!
Parker shook his head. She never gave up. At age eighteen, Amory was a romantic, wanderlust spirit tied to their hometown and their parents in a way he’d never been.
She claimed to be okay with that. She was sweet and na?ve and overprotected for good reasons, by both his parents and himself, but she lived for the daily pics he sent from wherever in the world he happened to be. She also lived to try to domesticate him, or at least get him to find a woman to marry.
He put his phone away and went back inside to find a set of legs sticking out from beneath the kitchen sink. Zoe? flat on her back.
He crouched at her side. “What are you doing?”
“Napping,” she said, voice muted since her head was in the cabinet. Her dress had ridden up to midthigh. She had a set of really great legs to go with her great ass.
“Need some help?” he asked.
“It’s just a slow leak, but it’s driving me crazy.” Her voice was strained, like she was trying to work a wrench. “I’ve got this.”
In direct opposition to the words, the sink began to drip faster.
“You’re making it worse,” he said, and bit back his grin when she swore beneath her breath and climbed out from beneath the sink, her face and hair wet.
“What did you say?” she asked.
“Absolutely nothing.” He grinned. “I have a question.”
She straightened her shoulders and met his gaze warily. “What?”
“Do I get a key?”
She seemed to relax marginally and moved to a drawer so full of junk he had no idea how she found anything, but she pulled out a key and slapped it into his palm.
He closed his fingers around hers. He waited until she met his gaze to ask the question he knew she’d been expecting before. “Do you greet all of your tenants with a kiss?”
“No.” She looked away. “And you’re my first tenant.”
“Setting a new policy, then,” he said with a nod. “My lucky day. So who’s the dentist?”
She stared at him as if just realizing something and whirled, eyeing the clock on the wall next to the fridge. “Oh my God.”
“What?”
“He never showed!” she said.
“Your dentist?”
“No call, nothing.” She snatched a cookie from the plate and shoved it in her mouth. She chewed once, grimaced, muttered “Dammit!” and then spit it out into the sink.
He grinned, and she narrowed her eyes at him. “Are you laughing at me?” she asked.
“Wouldn’t dream of it.”
She pointed at him. “Now that was a big, fat lie.”
“Never said that I couldn’t lie,” he said, “only that I choose not to.” Mostly. “So the dentist . . . he was a blind date?”
She blew out a sigh. “Yes. I’ve been stood up by a guy who hasn’t even met me yet.” She looked down at herself. “Which means it isn’t the dress’s fault. Ha!”
When he didn’t respond, she lifted her head, eyes narrowed. “You think there’s something wrong with this dress, too? My sister, Darcy, said it was a granny dress.”