Page 7 (1/2)

"Yeah Do you see the key? It’s in the metal hide-a-key"

Yeah, she saw the metal hide-a-key She also saw the spiderweb The , fat, hairy brown spider craith badass authority into her line of sight, giving her the evil eye He was ready to rumble Gulp Not lass elevators But spiders? Spiders topped her list, and the hairs on the back of her neck stood up

"Grace?"

"Yeah?" she whispered Was it her iesture with two of its spindly legs?

"There’s a pool out back," Josh said "You can’t get to it from the side yard where you are Toby can swi outside and into the pool on his oas too awful to bear She closed her eyes, plunged her hand into the sprinkler box while silently chanting "pleasedon’tbitemepleasedon’tbite bitten

She ran to the back door and let herself in, racing through the kitchen, skidding to a halt in the living rooain in hand, whipping it around

Whoosh, vrrmm-whoosh

Grace nearly collapsed with relief She’d handleda sweat, and yet at this, just one little boy and a puppy, she needed a nap "Well, that was a fun fire drill"

"Toby?" Josh asked in her ear

"All in one piece" She sank to the couch and put her head between her knees "Your house is a little crazy, Dr Scott"

"You ht at hoh "Hey, you’re the crazy one" She fingered thepeople so e of you"

"I’e of"

Okay, so that was undoubtedly true, she thought "But--"

"Did you lose Tank?"

Only for a minute… "No"

"Did he shit in the house?"

"No"

"Then you’re worth every penny," Josh assured her "Listen, I’et there as soon as I can"

"But--"

But nothing He was gone She lifted her head and found Toby standing there, a lock of dark hair falling across his forehead, lightsaber still in one hand, a squir Tank in the other

He really was pretty daht This would be okay She could totally do this for an hour It’d be like the tiuys in payroll

Toby wrinkled his nose like so was stinky, then hastily set Tank down

The puppy was panting, and his stomach looked uncoet him outside

Too late Tank hunched over and horked up all the trash he’d eaten

On her feet

"Arf," Tank said, looking like he felt all better

"Arf," Toby said

Chapter 6

There are four basic food groups: plain chocolate, milk chocolate, dark chocolate, and white chocolate

One painfully long hour later, Grace was exhausted This was nothing like babysitting the guys in payroll First of all, Tank never stopped otten stethoscope fro room Around the couch, up and over the coffee table, until he’d inadvertently trapped the end on a chair leg and been caught up short A sound like air leaking out of a balloon had coht up in the air

Grace had thought he’d killed hiotten to hi on her sandals five minutes later

And five minutes after that, the wooden kitchen chairs

And the wooden banister poles

And so him an electrical cord to chew on next when she heard the front door open Josh stepped inside wearing a white doctor’s coat over his sexy office clothes, a stethoscope around his neck like a tie He picked up Toby and flung hi the kid squeal with abandon

Josh gave a tired s upside down behind hi in the front door The driver of the pickup ith her Twentysoainst the doorjauy back a step until Slacker Dude stood on the other side of the jamb Josh then shut the door in his face

"Josh!" Anna was horrified and pissed "You can’t do that to Devon!"

"Just did"

"You--"

"Later," he said curtly