“Of course.”

She didn’t ask how he knew her kryptonite. Everyone she knew worshipped at the magical griddle inside the magical food cart outside their building that a woman named Rayna ran. Pru snatched the bag from Finn and decided to forgive him. “Do not think that this means we will be reenacting what I was dreaming about.”

“Absolutely not,” he said.

She paused, her gut sinking to her toes unexpectedly. “Because you don’t think of me that way?”

He paused as if carefully considering his next words, and she braced herself. She was good at rejection, real good, she reminded herself.

Apparently deciding against speaking at all, Finn rose to his full height. Since she was still in her chair, this put her face right about level with the part of his anatomy she’d had a grip on only a moment before.

He was still hard.

“Does this look like disinterest to you?”

She swallowed hard. “No.”

“Any further questions?”

“Nope,” she managed. “No further questions.”

Nodding, he leaned over her and brushed his mouth across hers. “Ball’s in your court,” he said and then he was gone.

Chapter 8

#AllTheCoolKidsAreDoingIt

Pru got up the next morning at the usual time even though it was her day off. She pulled on her tank top and yoga capris and shoved her feet into her running shoes. “I hate running,” she said to the room.

The comforter on her bed shifted slightly and she pulled it back to reveal Thor, eyes closed.

“I know you’re faking,” she said.

His eyes squeezed tight.

“Sorry, buddy, you’re coming with me. I ate that entire huge waffle Finn brought me yesterday. And I realize you don’t care if you can fit into a pair of skinny jeans without your belly rolling over the waistband, and you don’t even know who Finn is, but trust me, you wouldn’t have been able to resist him or the waffle either.”

Thor didn’t budge.

“A doggie biscuit,” she said cajolingly. “If you get up right now I’ll give you a doggie biscuit.”

Nothing. This was probably because he knew as well as she did that she was out of doggie biscuits. She would have just left him home alone but the last time she’d done that, he’d pooped in her favorite boots—which had most definitely taken some time and effort on his part.

“Fine.” She tossed up her hands. “I’ll buy biscuits today, okay? And we’ll go see Jake too.”

At the name, Thor perked up. He knew that Jake kept dog cookies in his desk so he lifted his head, panting happily, one ear up and the other flopped over and into his eye.

She had to smile. “You’re the cutest boot pooper I’ve ever seen. Now let’s hit it. We’re going to run first if it kills us.”

Thor hefted out a sigh that was bigger than he was but got up. She clipped his Big Dog leash on him, and off they went.

They ran through Fort Mason, along the trail above the water. Not that they could see the water today. The early morning fog had slid in so that Pru felt like she had a huge ball of cotton around her head. They came out at the eastern waterfront of the Port of San Francisco, constructed on top of an engineered seawall on reclaimed land that gave one of the most gorgeous views of the bay.

It was here that Thor refused to go another step. He sat and then plopped over and lay right in front of her feet.

A guy running the opposite way stopped short. “Did you just kill your dog?”

“No, he doesn’t like to run,” she said.

Clearly not believing her, he started to bend down to Thor, who suddenly found a reserve of energy—or at least enough to lift his head and bare his teeth at the strange man who’d dared to get too close.

The guy jumped back, tripped over his own feet, and fell on his ass.

“Oh my God. Are you all right?” she asked.

He leapt back up, shot her a dirty look, and ran off.

“Sorry,” she called after him and then glared down at Thor. “You do know that one of these days someone’s going to call animal control on me and get you taken away, right?”

He closed his eyes.

“Come on, get up.” She nudged him with her foot. “We’ve got a little bit more calorie annihilating to do.”

Thor didn’t budge an inch except to give her the low growl now.

“You know what? Fine. We’ll risk not fitting into our bathing suits. I don’t like swimming anyway,” she said, happy enough for the excuse to stop. They walked the rest of the way to the Aquatic Park Pier, which curved out into the bay, giving the illusion of standing out on the water.