The way he spoke—as if Spencer was the judge, jury, and executioner all in one—had her tightening her grip on the hammer to a dangerous degree. Tool safety was one of the few lessons Stepfather Deux had managed to squeeze in before her mother had squeezed him out, but she couldn’t help herself.

Yes, Spencer was attractive. Sure, he lit a fire inside her in more ways than one. And, okay, she wouldn’t have said no if he’d taken her up on that porcupine offer, but that wasn’t her main goal in provoking him the way she had.

Once upon a time, Ruby had been the sort of girl who’d let nothing stand in her way—who’d looked upon each challenge as an opportunity to strap on a tall pair of heels and crush it to oblivion. There was a lot about pageantry she had no desire to return to, but there was no denying that she hadn’t seen that girl in an awfully long time. Now that she was showing signs of returning to life, Ruby realized how much she’d missed her.

And it was something about Spencer that was drawing her out again.

“We’ll just see about that, won’t we?” She swung the hammer, pounding the nail through the wood and almost losing a finger in the process. “There’s more than one way to win a trophy.”

Caleb chuckled. “It’ll never work—not even for a woman as beautiful as you. Spencer’s not the type.”

It was a good thing Ruby’s face was turned toward the stage because there was nothing beautiful about it right now. She knew what Caleb was insinuating—that if she really wanted a shortcut to Wheezy’s success, she could use the assets that God and her mother had given her—but that was beyond insulting. When Wheezy won Best in Show, it would be because Spencer had no other choice but to give in.

And when Spencer finally realized she was more than a pain in his uptight, gorgeous backside, it would be for the exact same reason.

She was about to say as much to Caleb—and with words that would have caused her mother to wash her mouth out with soap—but the sound of a truck pulling around the side of the house prevented her. Glancing up, she found that Spencer had barely managed to park before the passenger door swung open and his friend Eva bounded out. The topaz-skinned brunette was already halfway across the yard by the time Ruby had put the hammer down.