Free Undone (A Country Roads Novel) by Shannon Richard Page B

lawn.”
    “Can I pet her?” Paige asked, holding out her hand.
    “Yeah. She isn’t mean or anything. She just tends to ignore people who she doesn’t know or like, so don’t be offended if she walks away.”
    Paige held her hand in front of Sydney’s nose to sniff. Sydney stuck her nose into Paige’s palm and her tongue shot out, wrapping around the back of her hand.
    “Hi, pretty girl,” Paige said, running her fingers through the fur on the dog’s head and down to the side of her neck. “What is she?”
    “Part Siberian husky and part something else. My brother thinks she might be part black Lab and that there’s a little German shepherd in there somewhere. Come on,” Grace said, rounding the corner.
    Paige followed her into the kitchen where Lula Mae stood in front of the stove, a sunshine-yellow apron tied around her waist.
    “Morning, Grams,” Grace said, kissing her on the cheek.
    “Morning,” Lula Mae said, turning around. “Paige, I’m so glad you came.”
    “Thanks for having me,” Paige said, leaning against the counter. Sydney came up to her, butting Paige’s leg with her head. Paige leaned down and started scratching her neck again.
    “That’s weird,” Grace said.
    “What?” Paige asked, looking up as she continued to pet Sydney.
    “She doesn’t normally respond well to women who she doesn’t know, or to any girl who my brother has dated.”
    Sydney pawed at Paige’s legs so Paige sat down on the tile floor. Sydney sat down in between Paige’s bent knees and Paige scratched her chest. She closed her blue eyes as her back leg started to hit the tile with a loud thump, thump, thump .
    “It’s true,” Lula Mae said, looking at Paige and the dog, her eyebrows raised in surprise.
    “The last girl my brother dated, Sydney ate her shoes.”
    “Oh, and she hated Marty,” Lula Mae added, pointing to Sydney. “Whenever she would come over, Sydney would whine the entire time.”
    “Yeah, well, I felt like crying whenever Marty was around too.”
    “I’m so glad she isn’t in the picture anymore.”
    “She wasn’t good enough for Brendan anyway,” Grace said.
    “Brendan?” Paige asked, looking up panicked. “Your brother is Brendan?” she asked, looking at Grace. “He’s your grandson?” she asked, turning to Lula Mae.
    Grace and Lula Mae looked at Paige with matching expressions of amusement and guilt.
    “Did we forget to mention that?” Grace asked innocently.
    “Well, isn’t this an interesting picture?” a deep voice said to Paige’s right.
    Paige turned and nearly swallowed her tongue. Brendan was standing there wearing a pair of green athletic shorts and sneakers. Sweat dripped down his face and bare chest. He had a light dusting of blond hair across his tanned chest; the trail narrowed as it traveled down his flat stomach and disappeared into shorts that hung low on his hips.
    He had a tattoo on his left bicep. It was on the inside of his arm and all that Paige could see was what looked like a tree trunk extending down to just above the crook of his arm.
    It was then that Sydney started swatting Paige in the face. Paige had stopped scratching her chest, being too distracted ogling everything that was Brendan King.
    *  *  *
    Brendan was jealous of his dog. There was no other explanation for it. Sydney was sitting in between Paige’s thighs getting her chest scratched and looking like she was in heaven. He was pretty sure that if he could’ve traded places with Sydney, he would’ve had a dazed look on his face too.
    The last thing that Brendan had expected when he’d walked into his grandmother’s kitchen was to find Paige sitting on the floor playing with his dog, a dog he was now extremely jealous of. Then it hit him; Paige was playing with Sydney, Sydney who hated every girl he’d ever brought home. And at the moment, Sydney was swatting a stunned Paige in the face, trying to get her to resume her scratching.
    Brendan had noticed the way that Paige