An Ex for Christmas (Love Unexpectedly 5)

“It’s all right, Kelly. I was just leaving.”

“No, you weren’t,” I tell Mark’s girlfriend without turning around, hands still over my eyes. “I know what I saw, and that was not leaving.”

“I was just saying goodbye. Really,” Sheila says.

“Really?” I ask curiously, shifting my fingers to the side, to stare at the wall. “Because it looked like—”

I hear a growl from Mark and wisely shut my mouth. Something hits the back of my knees, buckling me forward slightly, and I grin, bending down to greet Rigby.

“There’s my good boy!”

The black, wriggling cocker spaniel jumps excitedly around my feet, making excited noises around the enormous bone in his mouth. A big bone.

“Well, no wonder you didn’t come say hi,” I say, rubbing his silky ears. “Looks like Santa came early for you, huh?”

He rolls onto his back so I can pat his belly, all without losing the bone.

“See ya, Kelly.”

I glance up to see Mark’s girlfriend shrugging into her puffy coat.

“No!” I stand. “You stay, I’ll leave.”

“Yes, that,” Mark says from behind me.

Both us girls ignore him. Rigby trots over to Sheila, ramming his bone against her knee in farewell.

She gives his head a tentative pat. Sheila’s not really a dog person, but I give her credit for trying, for Mark’s benefit. “No, I really was leaving,” she says. “I’ve got to get to the airport anyway.”

“Oh, that’s right. Mark said you were going back to visit your dad’s side of the family for the holidays. Atlanta?”

“Yup. Good memory.” She gently eases Rigby’s paw off her coat.

“Oh, how fun! You need a ride to the airport?” I ask.

Okay, yeah. Yeah, it’s overkill, considering Sheila and I don’t know each other that well. It’s just that I know from experience that the dating world can be tricky when your best friend’s a member of the opposite sex, so I try really hard not to make any of Mark’s girlfriends feel threatened.

And I like Sheila. I mean, I have doubts about her and Mark making it for the long haul, but only because she’s a Scorpio, and it’s just not an ideal love match for Mark’s Virgo. I mean, she’s not his worst possible match—that would be my own Gemini. It’s just…well, whatever, that’s for them to figure out. Or so Mark tells me.

“I’m good. Thanks, though,” she says with an amused smile. “Have a good Christmas.”

“You too!” I say. Sheila heads back to Mark, probably for a last goodbye kiss, and I bend down again, partially to give Rigby more attention, partially to give them a bit of privacy.

A minute later I hear Mark’s front door close, and I stand up, braced for my best friend’s irritation because I totally deserve it.

He pulls a beer out of the fridge, holding it up over his broad shoulder in silent offering.

“No thanks.” I plop onto a barstool at his kitchen island.

He pops the top off, tosses it in the trash, and turns to face me.

I give him a wide smile. “I should have knocked.”

Mark shrugs and takes a sip of beer. “Probably.”

“In my defense, it’s Friday afternoon. I thought you’d be at the restaurant.”

“In my defense…my house.”