The woman lifted her hand in the air, the one holding the now-full poop bag, and glared at him. “I think I got it.”

That look. He knew that look. Narrowed eyes. Set jaw. I-have-had-enough tension in the other person’s shoulders.

Okay, she was pissed.

“Of course you do,” he said, trying to explain it so that she saw he wasn’t meaning to be an asshole. “It’s just that there are tricks you can use—”

“I’ve had dogs my entire life,” she nearly growled out, causing her dog to forget about the squirrel and move closer to her, doing a lab’s best version of a doggie glare, which—to be honest—wasn’t very intimidating. “Trust me, I got it.”

Way to go, Beckett. You couldn’t just keep your big-ass mouth shut like everyone tells you?

“Yeah, okay,” he said, already moving away. “Sorry.”

Nash took a swig of the lukewarm coffee and continued down the path, crunching on the last of the season’s red-and-yellow leaves scattered across the asphalt getting dusted with snow.

Why had he agreed to meet this woman in a dog park, of all places?

It wasn’t like he had a dog. There was no room in his life for that. He was too busy making sure his amicably-living-apart parents didn’t drown in overdraft fees, since his father, who had given up all of the money and business connections to Beckett Cosmetics before retiring to a commune upstate, and his mom relied on “the universe” to take care of all of life’s mundane tasks. They weren’t bad people. They just didn’t do well with the daily business of life.

Then there were his younger brother and sister, who he insulated from having to deal with any of their parents’ laissez faire disasters as much as possible. Bristol and Macon had their own lives that didn’t need to be centered around making sure their mom didn’t live in the dark and their dad didn’t go to jail for bouncing too many checks.

Nash was the oldest.

Keeping everyone on top of things and out of trouble was his job.

And that’s why he was here, in a dog park, searching for his mom’s friend—because she needed help, and that’s what he did.

The fenced dog run was up ahead, along with an open-air café that offered human and dog snacks. His mom had told him that Chelle Finch would be waiting for him there and that he’d know her when he saw her. When he’d pressed for more details—even hair color—his mom had said the universe would let him know and promptly hung up the phone.