The Love Wager by Lynn Painter

            “You tell Ruthie that I already named him and you have a hard time telling me no.”

            She gave him a snort-laugh. “What’s your name for him?”

            He hit unlock and she pulled open the passenger door of his car. “Umm . . . Tigger.”

            She got in the car and said, “I might not hate that,” before slamming the door closed.

            When he got in and buckled his seat belt, she was grinning and looking at her phone. “Alex says he likes Ruthie’s name.”

            Why did that make Jack want to steal her phone and toss it out the window?

            “Sounds like Alex is a moron.”

            She rolled her eyes and laughed. “You’re not getting the baseball, you jag.”

            She texted Alex back as Jack drove his car a little too fast, and the way she grinned and made tiny noises frustrated the shit out of him. It was annoying. When he finally pulled up in front of her office, she looked up and said, “Wow, I can’t believe we’re here already.”

            “Right?” he managed, irritated by how sucked into her phone she’d been.

            “Well, thanks for this morning. I’m so excited to go back and get Tigger, if you’re still down.”

            “Sure. What time do you get off?”

            “Five, but whenever you can get here works. Also, would you mind if we swing by Target first, so I can buy things like cat litter and an adorable cat bed?”

            “Let’s at least be honest with ourselves here,” he said, getting distracted by the curl of her eyelashes as she blinked and listened to him. “If we go to Target for cat stuff, you know we’ll end up leaving with a million other things, like, ten hours later.”

            “I know,” she said, sounding excited as she opened her door. “I promise it’ll be fun. We’ll try on outlandish clothing and put on a fitting room fashion show.”

            That was so her. He said, “That’s fun?”

            “It will be when we do it.” She climbed out of the car, and once she was out, she leaned on the door and said, “Thanks for being so cool, Jackie boy.”

            “See you at five, Piper.”

            He was smiling as he pulled away, but when he met his sister, Olivia, for lunch a few hours later, he was not.

            “So she texts me to tell me that Alex is going to take her to get the cat instead.”

            “So?” Olivia looked at him like he wasn’t making any sense as she squirted ketchup onto her burger.

            “So the guy is a total douchebag, and the whole reason I went this morning was because she didn’t want to take him.”

            “So she changed her mind.” Livvie put the bun back on her burger. “Since when do you care about who your friends take with them when they get a cat?”

            “I don’t care,” he said, annoyed that she didn’t get it. “I just think she might be rushing things with this guy.”

            He explained to her their post-date Taco Hut routine, and how Hallie had ignored his text during their last one.

            Olivia screwed up her face in that overdramatic duh expression she’d given him a thousand times when they were kids. “She’s finally found someone decent, who has real boyfriend potential, and you’re pissed?”

            “I’m not pissed, Liv.”

            She raised an eyebrow. “Really.”

            “Really.” Jack stabbed his fork through his side salad and said, “I just want her to find someone better.”

            Olivia leaned back in her chair. She crossed her arms over her chest, tilted her head, and said, “Holy shit, you have feelings for her.”

            “No, I don’t.” He dropped his fork and said, “Why in the hell would you say that?”

            “So you only like her as a friend.”