Popping the last bit of pizza into her mouth, Riley spun. “Cassie! You’re home!”
Surprised at Riley’s odd reaction, her roommate gave a knowing smile. “Any reason I shouldn’t be?”
“What? No, of course you shouldn’t be. I mean, yes, you should be.” Goodness, she was flustered. “I’m just surprised Daisy didn’t bark when you came in.”
Reaching down to pet the dog, Cassie grinned. “You’re looking a little rattled. That have anything to do with the Jeep out front?”
Riley’s face heated. “Oh, that.”
“Yep, that.” Cassie looked around the kitchen, even though it was obvious they were the only two there. “Where is he?”
“Who?”
“You know who. The owner of the Jeep. It’s not as if I don’t know who drives it.”
On cue, the shower cut off and Justin began singing from her bathroom.
Cassie’s eyes widened. “Oh, my. He’s in your shower?”
“It’s no big deal,” Riley assured her.
“Right. Dr. Brothers is singing in your bathroom. No big deal.”
“Okay, so it is a big deal. Sort of. But really, he’s just there because he helped me with the yard. Besides, who else would it have been?”
Cassie walked over to the fridge, eyed the pizza box, raised a brow in surprise, then pulled out a cheese stick and peeled away the plastic. “The yard looks great.”
“Yes, he was a lot of help.”
“I bet he was.” She took a bite of cheese.
“Cassie!”
Her friend laughed. “Sorry. Should I make myself scarce? If so, I can hang at Sam’s tonight.”
Riley shook her head. “It’s not like that.”
“The man is singing in your bathroom and you’re blushing.” Her roommate pointed her cheese stick at Riley. “Don’t tell me it’s ‘not like that.’”
“Okay,” Riley admitted, to herself and to Cassie, “so maybe it is like that...”
CHAPTER
EIGHT
COMING OUT OF the bathroom, Justin walked into Riley’s kitchen. “Nothing like that fresh from the shower feel,” he said.
“Oh!” She jumped as he spoke, then frowned down to where Daisy sat at her feet. “That’s twice in less than an hour you didn’t bark. You’re fired.”
“Someone came by while I was in the shower?” He raked his fingers through his still damp towel-dried hair.
“Cassie came to grab some things on her way to Sam’s.”
“They’re pretty serious?”
Riley laughed. “Depends what day you ask.”
“Like that, is it?”