Ruby halted, her hand on the doorjamb to settle herself. Maybe she wasn’t so eager to talk to this woman after all. Mrs. Orson was supposed to tell her about Norbert, not Spencer.

Spencer, she knew. Spencer, she understood.

“It doesn’t matter.” Ruby set her jaw. “We’re not going anywhere near that dog show.”

“Oh, you’re going to be in it. And you’re going to win. You promised me, remember?”

Ruby couldn’t recall promising to do anything, but she was willing to play along for the sake of this conversation. Taking a few tentative steps into the room, she moved behind the nearest couch. She used the back of it to brace herself.

She wanted to stay standing for this. She would stay standing for this.

That was the thing Spencer hadn’t understood—the thing he’d crushed with his sweet, stupid smile and his even sweeter, stupider offer to throw away the West Coast Canine Classic. After everything Ruby had done to get to this point, the lies she’d told and the work she’d put in, the way she’d clawed her way out of the grave she’d buried herself in for the past ten years, she was supposed to win the dog show on her own two feet—or at least to lose the dog show on her own two feet.

That was the whole point of Spencer. Unlike everyone else in her life, Spencer had never once hinted that she could use her looks as an all-access pass to the future of her dreams. In fact, he did the exact opposite. He liked her in spite of her face. He kissed her only after she dared him into it. He refused to be charmed by Wheezy’s soft brown eyes—or by her own.

Until today. Today, she’d been at her lowest point: covered in a rash and worried about Wheezy, caught in a lie and fired from her job. And instead of taking her by the shoulders and telling her that she was a strong, capable human being who had yet to balk at anything life had thrown at her, he’d offered her the easy way out.

He’d meant it, too—that was the worst part. He’d have whisked her into his car and driven her home, where he’d have done all those things her mother dreamed of: given her money and gifts and a dog-show trophy, provided a future where she didn’t have to do anything but be a pleasing addition to his life. In other words, he’d forgive her for her little foibles, and all she had to do in return was smile gratefully for it.

The thought was enough to make Ruby scream. And cry. In no particular order.