She pressed a fist to her stomach and tried to remember how to breathe, but the only thing filling her mind was the people who would be negatively impacted when Buckley shut down the foundation. It had all been for nothing. All the hard work of taking what had been a throwaway tax write-off and making it a force for good in Harbor City, her shithead of an uncle and the bullshit requirements of her dad’s will, in the past.

She fucked it all up. All of it. The foundation. The books. Nash. Everything.

That’s when she heard the bark.

High pitched.

Happy.

Definitely yappy.

Turning, she spotted Nash walking over with both Mary Puppins and Groucho Barks in his arms. The dogs were ecstatically wagging their butts so hard they were practically levitating. Meanwhile Nash was glaring so hard at Uncle Buckley, Chelle wasn’t sure he would notice if the dogs did start floating.

He stopped beside her, not behind her or in front of her acting like a human shield. While the dogs were distracted from her uncle by being right next to the humongous cake, Nash was not. When he did finally stop mean-mugging Buckley long enough to look down at her, everything about him loosened up. She felt the same shift in herself, like recognizing like, love recognizing love, home recognizing home.

“Hey, Chelle,” he said, the double dimpler on full display.

Something warm and hopeful filled her chest until it seemed like there wasn’t enough room in her lungs to take a breath. “Hi, Nash.”

“Sorry I’m late.” He lifted up his arms with the squiggly dogs. “I let myself into the apartment, but when I opened the door, these two sprinted out and made a beeline down the stairs, right for the party. I barely caught them before they ran into here.”

“Those dogs are a menace,” Suzanne snarled. “I promise you this, at the next tenant meeting I’m going to get the board to vote to make this place an animal-free building.”

Uncle Buckley chuckled. “That sounds like a wonderful plan for these two fraudsters trying to make their so-called-temporary marriage seem like it was even the slightest bit real. I told you at your so-called wedding no one was going to believe someone like you would ever be enough for a man like him.”

Mary and Groucho tensed, the fur along their spine going straight up, and started making the scariest sounding growl two pugs could do. Nash squared his jaw and his double dimples disappeared so fast it made Chelle’s breath catch.

But instead of pushing his way forward or acting on his own, he turned to her and asked, his voice a harsh rumble, “Can I take care of these assholes for you?”