SATISFIED THAT THE duct system was in place and the air conditioning was finally going to be installed today, Deacon took what he thought was a well-deserved break for lunch. He ate his salad on the porch. After he finished, he made a few calls and was just about to go inside when he heard a commotion coming from Loretta’s bookstore.

“I am so sorry, Janice. I don’t know what got into him.”

Loretta walked outside with Otis on a leash, followed by an older woman who didn’t look happy.

“It’s all right.”

“It is not all right. You go on inside and Camila will fix you a nice glass of iced tea. I’m going to the flower shop right now to replace your bouquet.”

Loretta caught sight of Deacon as she rounded the corner of her shop.

Loretta walked over to Deacon and thrust the leash at him. “Oh, good. Here, you deal with him.”

“What did he do?”

“He ate Mrs. Harrison’s bouquet of flowers. She set them on the counter to pay for her books, and he grabbed them. Before I could stop him, he’d eaten the entire bouquet. I’m heading over to replace them. I’ll be right back.”

She shot a glare at Otis. “Very. Bad. Dog.”

Otis hung his head and leaned into Deacon while Loretta stalked off.

Deacon resisted the urge to smile. Instead, he took a seat on the top step. He didn’t even have to give the command for Otis to follow him. The dog had apparently grabbed a clue that he was in deep shit, since he was clinging to Deacon’s side. He sat next to Deacon, who looked over at him and snorted as he realized the dog had pieces of daisies and other flower petals on his head and his nose. He swiped them away.

“Dude, what did you do?”

Otis just gave him a look that said, “Flowers are tasty.”

“You know you made her really mad, right? You’re gonna have to do better.”

Otis responded by resting his head on Deacon’s shoulder. Deacon shook his head.

“I’m not the one you need to impress. She’s the one who buys your dog food and lets you sleep in the house at night. Eating a customer’s flowers? Not cool, pal.”

Otis raised a paw.

“Nope. Not playing with you right now. You’re in the doghouse. Down, Otis.”

With a heavy sigh, Otis slunk onto his belly and laid his head on his paws.

Otis had the sad, pitiful dog look down, but Deacon wasn’t buying it, and sure as hell neither would Loretta. Deacon would have to figure something out that would bring her around, because she was downright pissed at the dog. She was probably pissed at him, too, since he’d been such a dick the day before. And when he saw her walking back up the street a short time later with an armful of flowers, he had an idea.

Otis lifted his head when he saw Loretta, his tail thumping back and forth.

She walked past him. “I’ll be right back. And you,” she said to Otis, “don’t even look at me right now.”

Otis whined.

“I told you, she’s mad. We’re both going to have to put some effort into making this up to her.”

Otis looked at him and smiled a doggy smile. Deacon smiled back and scratched behind Otis’s ears. Deacon was easy to impress. Loretta? Not so much.

A few minutes later Loretta came out with her client, who seemed placated and was smiling. And also had an armload of flowers and a bag of books.

“Thank you so much for being so understanding, Janice. I can assure you this will never happen again.”

When the woman got in her car and left, Loretta heaved a frustrated sigh, then headed over to where Deacon and Otis were sitting on the porch steps. She stood on the sidewalk. “I’ll take him now. Thanks for watching him.”

“Looks to me like you replaced more than the one bouquet.”

“I bought her extra flowers. And threw in three books for free. I was mortified.”

“They were just flowers, Loretta.”

“He ate her property.” She glared at Otis. “Vandal.”

Deacon snorted, and Loretta shot a scathing look at him. He raised his hands. “Okay, fine. He was very bad. I gave him a lecture.”

“Oh, right. I’m sure that did a lot of good.”

“Have you been using the sit and stay commands?”

She wrinkled her nose. “Well, we’ve had a lot of kids in the store, and they really love playing with him, so . . . I’m going to have to go with no to that.”

“If you’re not going to confine him to one area of the store or consistently make him stay, then you can’t blame him for roaming freely. And when he screws up, then you have to accept partial responsibility for what he does.”

She opened her mouth to object, then shut it again, folding her arms in front of her. She tapped her foot a few times, then finally nodded. “Fine,” she said in a clipped tone. “May I have my dog now?”

“How about dinner tonight? You can leave the felon at home, and I’ll take you out someplace nice to eat.”

She looked like she might say no, but she finally answered. “Fine.”

He resisted the urge to smile at her one-word answers. “Great. How about I pick you up about seven?”

“Fi— That would be great. Thank you for the invitation.”

“You’re welcome.” He stood and walked down the steps, then handed her the leash. He gave Otis a firm look. “Behave.”

Otis wagged his tail, then gazed lovingly up at Loretta.

It must have worked, because Loretta sighed. “Come on, doofus. We’ve got work to do.”

Deacon grinned and headed back inside. He had work to do, too.