Page 31 of I Hate You More

“That’s a good boy,” he said as he gave the dog a treat and rubbed his head. “The usual, please.”

Eva gave a small jump. “Wait… Could you say that again?”

“What? The usual?”

“No, before that. When you were talking to Jujubee.”

Spencer waited until he placed the dog on the floor and clipped on his leash before speaking. Eva had been acting strange all day, skulking around his office and asking a bunch of questions she already knew the answers to. In addition to a highly suspicious query about a cat who showed signs of being anemic, she’d asked him to consult on a leg fracture for an older sheepdog—both of which she could have easily handled on her own.

“I can’t get him to… What’s the word, again?” she’d asked as the sheepdog had stood on the table, his right foreleg held aloft. “I need him to relax and get comfortable so I can perform the exam but he won’t…?”

“Sit?” Spencer had suggested.

“Yes!” Eva had beamed as though she’d just been handed a million dollars. “That’s exactly it. What a help you’ve been.”

This whole poking her head in to ask about lunch was another sign that something was off. First of all, the receptionist always put in the lunch order for the office. Secondly, he’d ordered the same thing every day for the past four years. Turkey sandwich on rye, no cheese, extra pickles, light mayonnaise…

His heart gave a heavy thud. She wouldn’t.

“I said ‘good boy,’” he said, emphasizing the words. “Good. Boy.”

Eva’s eyes lit up with so much excitement that he knew his suspicions were correct.

“And about the lunch order,” she added in the same voice her kids used whenever they were up to no good. “Tell me what your usual is, again? Isra’s busy with the appointment book and asked me to put today’s call in, but I can’t for the life of me remember what you like on your sandwich.”

“I like mayonnaise,” he said with painstaking care. “Lots and lots of mayonnaise.”

“Oh dear.” A giggle escaped before Eva could stop it. She slapped a hand over her mouth. The sound had the effect of startling Jujubee, who was already showing signs of being nervous at his continued presence in the exam room.

Spencer could only shake his head in wonder. It was exactly as he’d told Lawson. Eva had all the stealth of a militarized wombat. He passed the leash to her with one hand and held the other out in command.

“Give it to me.”

Although Eva had been caught tape-recorder-handed, she showed no signs of remorse. “Sorry, Spencer. I can’t.”

“You can and you will. Where is it?”

“You don’t want to know. I suspected something like this would happen and took precautions.” She dropped her voice to a theatrical whisper and added, “It’s in my pants.”

“Eva, you traitor. How could you?”

She giggled again. She also showed no sign of reaching into whatever mysterious part of her body where she’d hidden her phone, which wasn’t a good sign. “I was just trying to help my new friend,” she said. “You’d have done it if you’d been there, too. She begged. She pleaded. She offered to watch my kids for a weekend.”

That last one caused him to start. “Shewhat?”

“I know, right?” With a cluck of her tongue, Eva shook her head and added, “I think you should just man up and face the truth. You’re going to have to let Wheezy in the show. Anyone willing to go that far to get what she wants is an unstoppable force. For all we know, Ruby has a backup plan in case this doesn’t work. Her next step is probably to have your house bugged to get a recording—and youknowCaleb would go along with it. He’d think it was hilarious.”

Eva wasn’t wrong. Anything that might cause Spencer annoyance or embarrassment was something Caleb would embrace with both hands. The only way to prevent something like that happening was to confront it head on.

And to confrontRubyhead on.

The idea wasn’t as unpleasant as it might have been a few weeks ago. He still wasn’t sure why Ruby was so determined to get Wheezy into the dog show—or why she’d decided that the only way to accomplish it was to declare Spencer her personal enemy—but he was starting to enjoy this game.

Especially since he had the upper hand for the first time since she and Wheezy had tumbled into his life. He might not be able to control what his brother or Ruby did, and he’d never been able to predict which way the winds would take Eva, but dogs he knew. Dogs he understood.

“You know what?” he said. “You can go ahead and toss that recording out. I’ll make a better one and give it to Ruby myself.”

“You will?” Eva was instantly suspicious. It had been so long since Spencer had allowed himself to playanything, let alone a twisted game of one-upmanship with a woman he couldn’t get out of his mind, that Eva’s suspicions were justified. “Why? What are you going to do?”