Page 158 of Save the Date
Cara raced inside the shop and picked up her cell phone. She touched the icon with Jack’s number, praying he would pick up.
***
Fifteen minutes later, he pulled the truck around to the lane in back of the shop. He used his key to unlock the courtyard door.
Cara sat at the table under the umbrella, clutching her phone in her hand, her face etched with worry.
“Are you nuts?” he exploded. Shaz jumped up and planted her paws on his chest. “Down!” he said sternly, but she was not to be deterred. Finally, he scratched her head and her ears. She dropped to the ground, rolled over, and allowed him to scratch her belly.
“What if this doesn’t work?” he asked, glaring at Cara. “You don’t know Zoey. She’s a total flake. There’s no telling what she’ll do. She could drive straight through to New Orleans, and you’ll never see Poppy again. And then what? You’ll blame me, even though if you’d run this harebrained idea past me, I would have told you how crazy it was.”
“Five more minutes,” Cara said, glancing down at her watch. She reached her hand out for Jack’s phone. “Let me see Zoey’s number, so I can type it into my phone.”
“She might not answer,” Jack warned. “She won’t know who’s calling. Or maybe she won’t even hear it. She plays the radio in that car at full volume.”
“Just give me the phone, please,” Cara said.
He handed it over and she tapped in the number.
“Why did Zoey even come over here?” he asked.
Cara was still staring down at her phone, but she looked up now. “She wanted to check out what she thought was the competition. And she clearly didn’t see what you could have seen in me.”
“That’s textbook Zoey. She’s about as deep as an Arizona mud puddle.”
“She had a lot to say about you, Jack. And none of it was very flattering. She says you’re cold and emotionally distant.”
“Sounds about right.”
“And cheap. She says you never gave her a single piece of jewelry.”
His answering smile was grim. “Seems like I’ll be buying her some now, whether I like it or not. I’d just walked in the door five minutes earlier when you called. She wasn’t content to just take Shaz. She also cleaned out my sock drawer.”
“Zoey stole your socks?”
“She left the socks, but she took my stash. Sometimes my subs want to be paid in cash. I figure she got about two thousand dollars.”
Cara held up her phone so Jack could see it. “Okay, keep your fingers crossed. It’s been thirty minutes. It usually only takes about twenty minutes for Poppy.”
She tapped the Dial button on her phone. Zoey’s phone rang once, twice, three times, before the voicemail recording came on.
“Hi, this is Zoey,” the sultry recorded voice said. “You know what to do.”
Cara shook her head and disconnected.
“See? I knew this would happen. She probably thinks you’re a bill collector or something.”
“Or maybe she’s got her hands full right at the moment,” Cara said, swallowing her fear.
She dialed again, and this time Zoey picked up. Cara could hear the rush of traffic in the background.
“Oh, Zoey,” Cara cried with absolutely authentic relief. “Something awful has happened.”
“You’re telling me,” Zoey said.
“I must have gotten the dogs mixed up. Poppy and Shaz were both running around in the backyard, and they look identical, and somehow, I must have given you my dog, Poppy, instead of Shaz.”
“Thanks a lot,” Zoey said. “This damn dog has been barfing for ten minutes. She barfed all over the car, herself, me, it’s everywhere. It’s disgusting.”
