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.Alcohol was only going to make this little dust up more entertaining.Marisol raised an eyebrow.“I beg your pardon.My madre’s was a very cute doggy.”“Yes, well, I’m sure she thought so.” Armand rolled his eyes.Holly clamped her hand on top of Marisol’s, effectively curbing an assault.Damn.Lee wasn’t giving up so easily.“So what does a Chinese Crested look like?”The guy pulled out his phone and pulled up about seventy-five thousand pictures of his dogs.“This beauty here is Fanciful Miss Flora and her breeding stud Waldo the Winsome Wonder.”Lee started to laugh but shoved some bread in his mouth to smother it.The bizarre photo stream continued with commentary.He poked Holly in the ribs.“Hey, he has a bald dog, too.” Lee waggled his eyebrows at his sister-in-law.Candy smacked his arm.“Milo is her dog? I never said her dog was going bald.” She directed her attention to Holly.“I never told him that.”Holly rolled her eyes and ignored Lee.“My Milo is a Yorkie.”Armand continued gamely on, oblivious to Lee’s chortling.“I’m planning to breed the bitch again when she comes into season—”Lee choked on his bread and everyone at the table turned their attention to him.Holly and Candy both whacked him on the back.He was never going to be mature enough to not laugh when someone referred to a dog as a bitch.Eventually dinner arrived and while Lee managed to contain himself it seemed like Armand did his absolute best to be as pretentious as possible.He insisted on making the wine decision for the table and, since Lee didn’t know jack squat about wine, he didn’t care.He stuck with his craft beer.Armand prattled on about bullshit no one cared about.Holly was too polite to say anything about it.Lee and Marisol exchanged amused glances, and at one point she kicked him under the table.Candy was suspiciously mum.Even if she’d wanted to contribute to the conversation, Armand never stopped talking long enough for her to interject an opinion.To spice things up, Lee brought up the Rockets’ second baseman again without giving any context to the bizarre topic change.Marisol glared at him, which piqued Holly’s interest, but Lee didn’t tell his friend’s secret.Armand opined that he didn’t like sports and thought them to be gladiator-style contests that induced sweating and baser human instincts.That was a direct quote.That pretty much put Marisol off for the rest of the evening.Candy had no opinion one way or the other about any second baseman, or any basemen in particular, although she did agree that sweaty sports did make for excellent athletic bodies.Lee took that opportunity to mention that his league team was doing well that season.It was stupid, but he felt the need to remind Candy that he had an athletic body.A vision of her straddling him flashed across his memory and he had to look away.God, he was so lame.They had the Drunken Cupcakes for dessert because they were everyone’s favorite.Candy didn’t seem to pay him any attention at all.* * *Candace refolded the napkin on her lap for the thousandth time.Just let the nightmare be over.Armand was a complete ass but that wasn’t the worst part.Lee’s girlfriend was absolutely, breathtakingly, make-you-sick-to-your-stomach gorgeous.And a sportswriter.Could he have found a more perfect woman? It wasn’t like she’d expected he would never have another girlfriend.She just hadn’t thought she’d care so much when he did.That had clearly been a stupid, short-sighted thought on her part.After all, they hadn’t broken up because they didn’t love each other, no matter what he’d said at the time.You don’t love him now either.That was true—she didn’t—but it didn’t explain the awful tension she seemed to be the only one experiencing.She ate her salmon and tried not to make it obvious she was jealous and miserable and childish.Why did his choice of girlfriend matter? She thought back to their last fight and tried to recall the venom in Lee’s voice as he’d said hateful things to her.Unfortunately a vision of how thoughtful he’d been to design her surgery around her left-handedness intervened, and how he still remembered her coffee order.During Armand’s lecture on what modern art exhibits he thought were worthy of seeing—of course, they weren’t the ones Holly had just seen—Candace excused herself to the bathroom.She couldn’t take sitting squeezed in next to Lee anymore.She still couldn’t figure out how the seating arrangements had managed to work out that way, but it was damned uncomfortable.She sure as hell didn’t want to snuggle with her date, but when she shifted to avoid touching him, she came in contact with Lee’s thigh and shoulder.She kept alternating between turned-on and embarrassed, then cranky and miserable.Enough.She stood.“Excuse me, please.”Lee, being the gentleman that he was, stood and gave her some room.Armand leaned to the left, but didn’t stop his discourse on photorealism.She took the opportunity to whack him on the back of his head with her purse.“Oops!” She used her pageant smile.“So sorry about that
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