Pierce My Heart (Women of Willowbrook Book 1) by Kelsey Jensen Page A

Anna?”, “He was hot, seriously freaking hot, and he was in to you! You kept brushing him off.”, “Again, what the fuck?”
    That was about the gist of it.
    I had no answer for her. At least, not one she’d like or accept.
    She wouldn’t agree with me, she’d just tell me to live and have fun.
    I’d ‘lived’ and while the second experience wasn’t much fun, the first sucked something fierce. I did not want to bring that shit up then, or ever, so I ignored it. And when that didn’t work (Evan was like a dog with a bone about stuff like that), I distracted her with questions about Manny.
    She noted my subject change with one of her signature looks that told me she knew, but didn’t seem to care much. Not if her nonstop talk about him on the way back to my place had anything to say about it.
    They’d exchanged names and numbers and he’d said he would call her. The rest was filled with details about his voice—sexy—his hair—really sexy—and his body—so sexy she thought she’d cream herself on the spot if he’d touched her.
    That earned a nose scrunch from me.
    I loved her, but the girl was crude.
    When we pulled up, Evan grabbed all the extras from the car and I grabbed Juliet’s leash to help her out. Luckily, she was calm during the drive because there was absolutely no room for her to roam around in the back. She ended up sprawled across the backseat with her head propped up on the center console.
    As soon as she cleared the car she had her nose to the ground, snuffling loudly and exploring her new surroundings. It took a good five minutes for her to make it close enough to the door to entice her inside. And once she’d cleared the door to the inside, her nose was glued to the ground for a repeat.
    I decided to give her time, praying that even though it was a new space she wasn’t going to mark her spot everywhere, and unclipped the leash from her collar. I half expected her to take off like a shot the moment she was free, and while she did wander a small ways away (not that there was very far to go) she kept me in range.
    I hit the mouth of the hallway and saw the bags on the breakfast bar out of the corner of my eye, but Evan sprawled on my couch was what took my attention.
    She’d stuffed the distressed navy toss pillows behind her head and kicked her shoes off. She knew if she didn’t I’d kick her off—literally, I’d done it before (you don’t put dirty shoes on suede, no freaking way). She also had the remote in one hand and was looking relaxed and comfortable as she started clicking through channels.
    For some insane reason I thought she’d be leaving.
    “Uh, Evan? What’re you doing?”
    “What’s it look like? I’m getting comfy and checking out your DVR. You’re way better at remembering to record your shit than I am.”
    Apparently she was sticking around.
    I sighed and headed for the kitchen. Juliet, I noted, was dutifully following (and sniffing) along.
    She was right and she was wrong about remembering to record things. If I hadn’t set the recording days (sometimes weeks) in advance, or gotten lucky to stumble across the show before it started, I had the memory of a goldfish when it came to stuff like that.
    At least, that’s what Mom said.
    But the shows I managed to record were shows I liked, so I did my best to remember to record them. Otherwise, there was Netflix and Hulu.
    I could wait if I had to, though I usually preferred not to.
    I grabbed the bag I got from Grace and ripped it open, pulling the dog bowl and food out of it. Looking around, I tried to find a spot where I wouldn’t trip over Juliet while she was eating and I was cooking, and zeroed in on the spot to the side of the back door.
    I didn’t know if it had been the sounds of the bags rustling or the smell of the food, but she forgot all about exploring her new place as her whole body shook.
    “Hang on, baby, I’m coming,” I said through a smile.
    She let out a short bark that I’m sure