She stood watching her new in-laws through the screen door as they made their way back up the hill, Brody and Jamie arguing the whole time. Then she turned and narrowed her eyes at Lucas. “You are so dead.”

Before he could respond something caught her eye. Her gaze left him to scan the room. “What in the world . . . is all this . . . stuff!”

She stared in horrified amazement at piles and stacks and layers of stuff. Clothes, boxes, magazines . . . The phrase “Early-American Junkyard” came to mind. Was that a shovel leaning against the TV? And what was that smell?

And through it all, Bo wove in and out, his enormous backside wagging. The dog hit a leaning tower of newspapers, and it toppled.

Lucas is a messie. She’d married a messie.

“Sorry about that.” Lucas kicked a sack aside and closed the front door. “Didn’t have time to clean up before the ceremony.”

There had been clues on the honeymoon. Socks balled up and left lying on the floor, toiletries spread across the marble counter, wet towels left on the couch.

But this . . .

She felt trapped, and she wasn’t even a claustrophobic. What was the floor even made of? She could hardly see it through the stuff. Anna could have warned her, for heaven’s sake.

Bo bumped up against her, knocking her sideways. Lucas steadied her. “No, Bo. Come here.” He rubbed the dog’s head and Bo sat. “Settle down, boy.”

Kate picked up her bag. Maybe the whole house wasn’t like this. “Where can I put my things?”

Lucas grabbed a few articles of clothing from the back of the sofa and draped them over his shoulder. “Let me show you around.”

Bo was up again, circling them, panting happily. Kate glared at him and then at Lucas. Lucas appeared to get the idea.

“Come on, buddy.” He let Bo out the front door, where the dog sat facing the screen and barking. “He’s just a little excited.”

Scooping up a Pepsi can and an empty bowl with a sticky-looking spoon, Lucas led the way down a short hall.

“This is the bedroom.”

Bed unmade, clothes heaped on the dresser.

“Yours?”

He opened a dresser drawer, shoved the clothes from the living room inside, and pushed it closed. “Uh, yeah. You can put your bag here.” He pushed the heap of clothes to the other side of the dresser, having the grace to look sheepish. “I’ll make room in the drawers and closet for your things.”

“I was planning on taking another bedroom.” Hopefully a cleaner one.

He set down the can and bowl and took her suitcase, setting it on the dresser. “I’m afraid this is it.”

Kate let this sink in as she watched him attempt to make the bed. He pulled the blue quilt up over the pillows, leaving the sheets in a wad underneath. “‘This is it’? What do you mean?”