“So late, so late, for a terribly important date,” Dawn added. The rhyme was playful, but her voice was not. “We won’t keep you any longer, Patrick. Thanks ever so much for stopping by.”

Patrick opened his mouth as if to argue but wisely closed it again. No man on earth was strong enough to fight that pair when they went into full protective mode. Lila watched, somewhat dazed, as her sisters slid out of the booth and strong-armed Patrick to his feet. She knew she should say something—apologize back to him or fly up in her own defense or even ask never to see his face again, thank you very much—but she was having a difficult time processing it all.

In the end, the only words she could muster were ones she had to borrow from someone else. “Wait, Patrick. Before you go…”

Her sisters each had one of Patrick’s arms in their own as they propelled him toward the door. At the sound of her voice, all three of them halted and looked back.

“I just want to know one thing. Do you gargle with bleach, or do you use that new charcoal toothpaste everyone is going on about?”

Patrick’s heavy—and square—eyebrows snapped together. “What?”

“Your teeth,” she said and made a gesture in the general direction of his mouth. “A friend of mine wants to know. What do you do to make them so bright?”

“You can’t gargle with bleach, Lila,” he said in his best doctor voice. “The soft tissue damage alone would be unthinkable.”

He sounded so earnest, so concerned about the state of her oral health, that Lila actually found it in her to laugh. It sounded brittle and felt tight, but it was a laugh all the same. Sheesh. She might be not be warm and fuzzy, but at least she knew a joke when she heard one.

“I’ll keep everything you say in mind, Dr. Yarmouth,” she said and ignored the clenching in her chest. Some of the things he’d said had been real doozies. “As always, your wisdom knows no bounds.”

Chapter 7

Lila strolled through the front door at exactly eight o’clock in the morning, her arms laden with bags of all shapes and sizes. “We’ll start with tea, I think,” she said as she set them down.

“Good morning to you, too.” Ford rubbed his eyes, wishing he had a fraction of her energy. Jeeves might not actually howl at night, but there was no denying that the advent of the puppy into his household was seriously disrupting his regular sleep cycle. “I was planning on starting with a fifth of bourbon, but to each his own.”

Lila stared at him for only a second before accepting this remark. “As long as you drink it from a teacup, I don’t care what vices you indulge in. Where’s Emily?”