“I don’t blame him. I’m tempted to leave Maury and take a stab at her myself. Then again, she seems more your type than mine.”

Spencer groaned. If Eva had any idea…

“You’d better go help her,” Eva said, laughing at his distress. “I don’t trust the way that dog of hers is eyeing his competition.”

It was a ruse, of course. Even from his position across the gym, Spencer could tell that Wheezy wasn’t eyeing his competition. Wheezy didn’t even know there were other dogs around. His whole world had diminished to the cheeseburger in front of him. His golden retriever instincts followed it like he was tracking the movements of a duck.

Aware that Eva was watching him much more closely than he cared for, Spencer strode toward the door.

“Don’t come any nearer,” Ruby said before Spencer made it all the way over. “I mean it. You’ll distract him, and we’re so close.”

“Close to what?” Spencer asked. There was no finish line that he could see, no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Just endless encounters like this one. “Maybe I didn’t make myself clear before, but a cheeseburger isn’t on a heart-healthy dog diet.”

“Don’t listen to him, Wheezy. This bacon-cheddar masterpiece has your name written all over it. Look at how it oozes. See how it glistens.” Although she had yet to turn toward Spencer, she nodded at the doors they’d come through. “Pretty please will you slam and bar those doors? I don’t know how much longer this is going to work.”

Spencer would have liked to dig in his heels and refuse to play along—with this or any of Ruby’s outrageous schemes—but there were a hundred dogs and just as many people watching in the background. Besides, he was curious to see how this would play out. What did she think would happen to Wheezy once he was trapped inside the gym?

No sooner had Spencer clicked the doors shut than he heard a whoop of triumph.

“Ha! I got you, sucker! Take that.”

At first, he assumed he was the sucker and that he’d just fallen for some elaborate trick plotted at his brother’s hands, but he turned around to find Ruby taking a triumphant bite out of the burger.

“You didn’t actually think you were going to get any of this after what you put me through, did you?” she asked with her mouth full. She took another bite before she’d swallowed the first. “Let that be a lesson to you. Rule number one: Your pageant coach isn’t your friend. They’ll find ways to ruin your life that you didn’t even know existed.”