Spencer glanced up to find Ruby standing above him, her head tilted to block the setting sun. She was a vision against the streaks of pink and yellow. If he hadn’t known it to be impossible, he’d have said that she’d convinced the sky to be her own personal lighting crew.

He scowled. “It doesn’t matter because it won’t work. That dog will never be anything but a waste of space. A cute waste of space, but still.”

A retort formed on Ruby’s lips, but Maury hoisted himself out of his seat before she had a chance to utter it. “As much as I’d love to sit here all night, eating smoked meats and watching that dog fail at everything, it’s getting late and the boys need baths before bed.”

“Late?” Spencer echoed with a glance at his watch. It wasn’t late—not by any standards but those belonging to parents of young children—but it was ten minutes past the hour. “Oh shit.”

“Balderdash,” Ruby reminded him.

He ignored her and released a short whistle. For once, it wasn’t to call Caesar or Wheezy to attention. “Hey, Caleb? I don’t suppose you noticed the time, did you?”

Caleb, who was regaling Eva with a story that was making her laugh so hard she was crying, glanced up. “What? No, why?”

Spencer didn’t say anything. He didn’t need to—nor did he particularly want to. He’d sworn time and time again that he wasn’t his brother’s keeper and that Caleb needed to be responsible for his own life, but it always came down to this.

“Ugh.” Caleb frowned as realization sank in. “Are you really going to make me pick up your dry cleaning? Now?”

Spencer felt his jaw grow tight. Trust Caleb to turn the tables so that Spencer was the one who looked like the bad guy. The truth—that Caleb was late for his weekly court-mandated gambling addiction meeting—was unpalatable and therefore covered up.

“You know me,” Spencer said. “Always a stickler for the rules.”

“You can go one week without your dry cleaning. It won’t be the end of the world.”

Spencer hunched his shoulder in a half shrug. “Suit yourself. You’re capable of making your own decisions.”

Understandably, this exchange caught the interest of the rest of the adults gathered around. Eva and Maury had witnessed enough hostility between the brothers to treat it as an everyday occurrence, so they set about carrying dishes inside and gathering up their brood. Ruby, however, watched them both with narrow-eyed interest.

“Wouldn’t it have made more sense to pick up your dry cleaning on the way home from work?” she asked Spencer.

Caleb answered for him. “He needs a special shirt. It wasn’t ready until now.”

“Then can’t he pick it up on the way to work tomorrow?”