Free Red Sole Clues by Liliana Hart

The jaguar print booties—leave it to Ro to wear animal print to a dog show—with the four-inch spiked heels amped up the destroyer-of-men factor.
    “She’s right,” Lucie said. “I mean whoever saw an eighty-five-pound Olde English bulldog rocking a limbo? It’s fantastic.”
    And truly, it was. Otis’s owner, Mrs. Lutz, had spent hours teaching him to crab walk under a broomstick hovering a mere thirteen inches off the ground. At first, Lucie considered this limbo a little nuts, but then the timing of the whole thing hit her. Mrs. Lutz’s husband—Lucie’s former boss—had just been shipped off to serve a yearlong prison stint for financial fraud and she’d needed a distraction.
    Go figure.
    “Wha, wha,” Joey said. “I still want him to win.”
    Of course he did. Being the degenerate gambler-slash-bookie that he was, her brother was probably taking action on this.
    The next competitor, a tap dancing poodle, was announced and the crowd let out a whoop.
    “Great,” Joey said. “Another dancing dog. And that Dachshund? He’s a problem. The way he sniffed that girl and then found her scarf?”
    “Uh- maze -ing!” Ro sang, swinging her long sable hair over her shoulder.
    Joey glared at her and she lifted her perfect chin. “Hey, the scarf was buried under all those smelly gym mats. All I’m saying is it took skill.”
    Lucie shot off a text to Mrs. Lutz and then stood, lightly backhanding Tim on the shoulder. “I’m going to check on Otis and then see how Mom is doing. Wanna come?”
    Tim stood and scanned the packed bleachers for the best exit route. Bodies in all directions. They’d have to push through.
    Ro looked up at Lucie. “I texted your mom before Otis went on. We were running low on the Hawaiian print shirts. By now, they’ll be gone. I knew we should have made more of those.”
    In addition to the fun of watching Otis limbo in front of thousands, Lucie had seen an opportunity for Coco Barknell, her fledgling dog accessory business. She and Ro, her V.P. of sales, had set up a booth near the gym’s entrance, featuring their bestselling jewel-studded collars and coats. They’d included three-dozen Hawaiian print shirts—the same shirt Otis wore while doing his limbo.
    Who knew a market for doggie Hawaiian shirts existed?
    Lucie high-fived Ro. “Next week, we need to get busy on more of those. Thanks to your brilliance.”
    Yep, things on the Coco Barknell front were moving right along and that made Lucie one happy camper.
    She and Tim dodged their way out of the gym into the equally busy—and stinky—hallway. Holy cannoli, they needed to check into booth availability at all local dog shows. With this many people in attendance, the possibilities for expanding Coco Barknell’s brand awareness might be endless.
    “Detective,” Lucie said to Tim, “you might have to start badging people so we can get through this crush.”
    He once again grinned down at her, smiling in that way that made his freckles and green eyes dance. Darn, the man was handsome. And buff. And sweet. And protective and…a whole bunch of other things that sent Lucie’s stomach fluttering every time he came within three feet.
    One thing they both knew was Tim wouldn’t abuse his badge and even if she liked to tease him about it, she adored him for it.
    Tim O’Brien. Tim O’Hottie, as Ro called him, might be the most honorable man Lucie knew.
    He got her hormones firing in a way she hadn’t felt in a long time. But in the six weeks they’d been dating, they were taking things slow. Slow, slow, kill-me-please, slow.
    All because he wanted to make sure Lucie was over her ex.
    “Excuse me,” Tim said to a man wearing a shirt with the dog show logo on it. “Where is the staging area for the dogs?”
    The man pointed. “Take this hallway to the end and make a right. You need a pass, though, or one of the owners can get you in.”
    “Thanks.”
    Tim grabbed Lucie’s hand and drilled through the crowd, his big