“Not that again.” Molly groaned. This was a regular joke that Felicity—all of her sisters, actually—teased her with, but it was as far from reality as it could possibly be. “He wants me to work for him. Since I keep refusing, he wants to steal my skips out from under me. That’s all there is to it.”

“He’s in loooove,” Felicity cooed, and Molly jabbed her sister in the side with her elbow. “How have you not realized this? He basically has cartoon hearts where his pupils should be whenever he looks at you.”

“Hush.” Even though Molly knew it wasn’t true and that her sister was just trying to get a rise out of her, the running joke still made her squirm…mainly because the teeniest, tiniest, stupidest part of her felt a ridiculous surge of hope.

Although Felicity smirked at her, she did fall silent, to Molly’s relief.

“Would you mind finishing up with Maria and Darren?” Molly asked. “I need to retrieve our dog.”

“Sure.” Felicity jogged to catch up with the deputies, who were ushering Donnie around the corner to where they must’ve parked their squad car.

“You’re my favorite sister!” Molly called after Felicity before crossing the street. Her pace slowed as she neared John and Warrant, their twin accusing stares making her feel a bit guilty, even as she had to bite back a grin.

“Thank you for holding him,” she said, taking the leash. “I just had to take care of something.”

Instead of yelling about getting ditched, however, John’s attention ran over her grass-and-dirt-stained clothes and settled on the scrape on her forearm. His eyes narrowed. “What happened?”

She flapped her hand to dismiss his concern. “I just didn’t feel like climbing over a fence today.”

“That makes no sense.” He eyed her carefully, as if searching for other injuries. “You okay?”

“Of course. All in a day’s work.” She couldn’t help smiling at him. No matter how aggravating John Carmondy was, it was kind of nice having someone worry about her.

She quickly nipped that thought in the bud. If she allowed herself to get mushy where John was concerned, he’d start stealing jobs from her left and right. Even worse, if she didn’t stay on her guard around him, she’d end up agreeing to work for or with him, and one of them would surely end up dead in short order. It was important for their continued safety that she resist any urge to soften toward her biggest rival.

“You are hurt, aren’t you?” His voice was full of concern as he took a half step closer, as though ready to administer first aid. Molly didn’t find the idea of John’s big hands on her as repugnant as she should have. In fact, the thought of him taking care of her, of letting her lean against his broad chest as he checked her scrapes and bruises was almost…nice.

That thought brought her back to reality, and she turned sharply away, tossing him a muttered “bye.” That was why it was important to not let Felicity’s insinuations take root in her brain. Molly had to be careful, since she had a bad habit of playing the sucker for a pair of puppy-dog eyes and a sob story. Although she’d been forced to develop a hard shell when she and her sisters started their bail recovery business, there was nothing she could do about her soft, marshmallowy center. She was pretty much stuck with that.