Free Full Share (Shore House Book 1) by Eliza Freed Page A

decision was made to pay the claim based on the police report and witness statements.”
    “What police report?” he screamed into the phone. “That fucking car hit me in my driver’s side door. He nearly killed me.”
    “According to this police report, he had the right of way.”
    “That’s bullshit! I could have been killed.” I kept reading. “That accident was not my fault, and that damn cop wouldn’t believe me.”
    “Sir, it says here that you were ticketed for driving under the influence at the accident scene.” For the first time in our conversation, Mr. Watkins was silent. “Sir?” I could hear him breathing. “Sir, are you still there?”
    “No,” he said, and when the following silence became too awkward, I hung up.
    “You okay?” Ricky asked.
    “Why do I get these people?” I kept typing. “And how does someone not know they’ve gotten a DUI? Like, is he drunk now?”
    “You get them because you’re the best at handling them. He’s having a bad day. I would have hung up on him, but you . . . you were nice to him. That’s why the universe sent him to you.” Ricky was unusually enlightened today.
    “Did you smoke at lunch?”
    “No.” He stood up straight. “I fucked a yoga instructor last night, and she made me meditate with her before work this morning.”
    “Oh, how nice.”
    He nodded. “She’s very flexible.” He stared at the ceiling with satisfaction covering his face.
    “Ricky, have you ever just slept with a close friend?”
    Ricky perked up. “You want to sleep with me?”
    I shook my head. “No.”
    “This is how it starts. First we sleep together and then we”—he bounced his eyebrows—“Sleep together.”
    “You’re not understanding me. Like, if we were friends for, say . . .” I calculated Mila and Jack’s acquaintance in my head, “nine years. Do you think we’d ever sleep in the same bed together but not have sex?”
    I could tell by the look on his face I was confusing him.
    Sharon cleared her throat and glared at us.
    Ricky smiled at her and said, “We should discuss this in bed.”
    Ricky was my sanity. He kept the job from becoming real. “Do you ever think about the fact that in all the offices of all the world, you and I sit next to each other in this one?”
    He lowered his brow and let his mouth hang open. His head tilted as if he needed to hear me better. “Are you guys eating shrooms at that beach house? What the hell has gotten into you?”
    “Like, it’s all a huge master plan that we were meant to be together here, in this specific situation.”
    He nodded his head as if he were catching on. “Okay. If I actually let myself think this horrible job was part of a master plan for Ricky, I’d drown myself in liquor until this life ended.”
    “So, no?” I shook my head.
    “No.” Ricky turned and sat down at his desk.
    I still believed in Tank’s theory. Ricky was ridiculous, but he wasn’t random.

    Rufus wouldn’t come to the edge of the cage. Not even after I read Scooby Doo to him twice. His big, sad eyes just stared at me from the back wall.
    “I know what you’re thinking. That you’re better off alone. But you’ve got to trust me on this.”
    His head tilted to the side, and then he rolled over until I couldn’t see his face anymore.
    We were moving in the wrong direction.
    On my way out, I stopped to talk to Janine. “I’m worried about Rufus. He’s worse than ever.”
    She shook her head. “He didn’t eat this morning. I’ll have the vet check him out when he’s in this afternoon.”
    I glanced back toward the dog room. “Okay. I’ll see you Monday.” I wasn’t sure I should leave.
    “See you.” Janine patted my shoulder as if she’d read my mind.
    “Call me if he gets worse?”
    “You got it.” She smiled at me. She knew how much I loved him. Now, if I could just get him to believe it.
    Rufus stayed on my mind the entire drive to Dewey. When I stopped at the last traffic light before our street, I