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 confront Ruby head 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 play anything, 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?”

He shrugged. “It’s like you said. She’s going to fight her way into the dog show no matter what. I might as well do my part to avoid a disaster.”

Jujubee gave a sudden whimper. Spencer soothed him with some nonsense about how much better he’d feel after his surgery. He would feel better, but not right away. Like most things in life, it took time, patience, and hard work before things started to really improve. Everyone always seemed to want a shortcut in life.

Everyone except Ruby Taylor, that was.

He wasn’t ashamed to admit that he’d been wrong that first day, when he’d assumed she coasted along on her good looks. It would have been easy for her to use her charm to get her way, twisting Spencer and Caleb around in knots, capitalizing on Eva’s admiration, and begging favors from dog-show strangers, but she didn’t. She was a sneaky, stubborn cheat, yes, but she had grit.

He liked that about her. He respected it.

“Fine,” Eva capitulated. “But you’d better not jeopardize my free babysitting weekend, or I’ll never forgive you. Maury and I haven’t gone away in ages. We’re looking forward to this more than we did our wedding.”

He felt oddly hurt by this. “You could have asked me to take them. I’m always willing to help out.”