“Do you think we should take anything?”
Casey shrugged. “I don’t think so. I asked Kate’s dad what kind of pizza toppings he was using. He said he’d surprise us.”
Sarah had never cared for surprises but they’d been popping up all week. Unexpected changes to her routine, a dog, a man who offered to cook for her. The same man whose morning routine she knew almost as well as her own. She knew what time he left for his run along the seawall and she knew when she would see him return in a sweat-soaked T-shirt if she happened to be looking out her window.
“Mom?”
“What?”
Casey looked puzzled. “I said lunch is ready and I’m taking mine out to the deck. Do you want yours out there, too?”
“No thanks.” Her face felt warm. Was she blushing? “I’ll take mine to the store with me. Is that okay?”
“Sure. Come on, Petey. Let’s go outside. After lunch we’ll play ball.”
Sarah put her bowl away and ladled chicken noodle soup—Casey’s favorite—into a small thermos. The store was always busy on Saturday afternoons and she would have plenty of work to do. All she had to do was stick to her routine and not let herself be distracted by a man who had thrown her off her game.
CASEY QUICKLY CLEARED away the lunch dishes after her mom left for work, then she snapped a picture of Petey and sent it in a text message to Kate. Having Petey here was one thing but getting her mom to let her keep him was a whole other matter. What she needed was a plan, and since she and Kate sort of already had one, it was time to put that plan in motion.
My new dog!
Srsly? BRO!
The doorbell rang a few minutes later. She scooped Petey into her arms so he couldn’t run outside, and opened the door.
“Omigosh, he’s adorable.” Kate stepped inside and shut the door behind her. “I can’t believe your mom is actually letting you have a dog.”
“Well, that’s the thing.” Casey set him on the floor and he raced circles around them. “She didn’t let me have him. I just brought him home.”
“He’s a stray?”
“No, this is Petey. The shelter dog I told you about.” She filled Kate in on the flood and the broken water main. “So now I only have a week, maybe a little more, to convince my mom to let me keep him.”
Kate grinned at her. “Then we’d seriously better get to work on our plan.”
Problem was, how were they going to get Kate’s dad to ask Casey’s mom out on a date? “I’m not sure that’s going to work.”
“Of course it will. When my parents were splitting up and my mom starting seeing Xavier they let me have anything I wanted.” Kate cupped her hands around Petey’s face. “You are so cute.”
Her friend might not see the flaws in this plan, but Casey did. “You were just taking advantage of a situation. That’s not the same as creating the situation and then taking advantage of it. I just don’t see how we’re going to get our parents...you know...together.”
Kate was grinning again. “You’re still coming over for dinner tonight, right?”
Casey nodded.
“And Petey will need to be walked, won’t he?”
“Um, yeah.”
“Well...” Kate said, drawing out the word for dramatic effect. “Something will come up, something very last-minute, and you and I will have to go out after we eat. You won’t be able to walk the dog, so you’ll ask your mom to do it. Beg her if you have to, and I’ll convince my dad he should go with her.”
“I don’t know. What’s going to ‘come up’?” Nothing in her life ever happened at the last minute.
“Well...” she said again. “What if you get Henry to call you? He can say he has friends coming over because he’s been away all summer and wants to get everyone together. Your mom knows you missed having him around. I guarantee she’s enough of a softy to walk the dog so you can hang out with him.”
Casey had never attempted anything so devious, but Kate was right. If she asked, her mom would definitely let her go over to Henry’s after dinner.
“I don’t want to tell him about our plan, though. He might tell his parents.” Or even worse, let something slip to her mom.
“We’ll figure something out,” Kate said, with the self-assurance of someone who’d had plenty of practice at deceit. “All he needs to do is send you a text after dinner so it looks totally last-minute. We don’t have to tell our parents what’s in the text.”
“Okay. We can talk to him this afternoon and see what he says.” And she would leave most of the talking to Kate.