"I know, boy. It won't be much longer and we won't have to walk as far," I said to NB the next afternoon as I let us into our room at the resort.

We'd just finished up another infuriating episode of As the Page Turns with no one catching Nick in his cheating. He'd finished up his conversation with the woman at the grocery store and then taken her to get a coffee! Did these writers have no shame?

I told Barbie it couldn't go on much longer, but she said they kept it going for almost a year the last time it happened. Although, in the past, he'd never had more than two girlfriends. The addition of a third was uncharted territory. Either way, I'd never make even six months of this torment. Let alone a year. Nick was cute to look at, but cheaters didn't do it for me, so the longer it continued, the uglier he grew.

"That expression doesn't look good," Broadrick said as he stepped out of the bathroom. "What have you been up to?"

I loved being with him, but our quarters were getting tight. He was always up in my business and popping in from different angles asking questions. We needed more space. He'd made the right call by asking to rent the condo before he bought it.

"Watching a man throw away a perfectly good woman by being a dipshit." That about summed it up. Nick had such potential, and the show wasted it with every cheating situation. Soon, none of the women on television or in real life would want a piece of him.

He walked around the edge of the bed to unhook NB's leash from his collar before tossing it by our shoe collection at the door. "That sounds oddly specific."

"Nick now has a third girlfriend. It's disrespectful." I threw my hands in the air.

Broadrick stared at me with his mouth half opening and closing like a fish. "Is that the man in the show you watch with Barbie?"

"Yes!" Was he not paying attention when I talked? I'd told him all about Nick and his philandering ways.

"So... you're upset about a fake television character cheating?" He stared at me like I was the crazy one.

"Yes." I threw my hands up again, and NB barked at me. "He has a third girlfriend, Broadrick. A third girlfriend."

Why wasn't he pissed about this? I narrowed my eyes at him. Did he have a third girlfriend? Wait! Did Broadrick have a second girlfriend?

"Don't look at me like that. It freaks me out," he said.

I inched forward. "You have a lot of sympathy for a disgrace of a man."

"You're adorable." He laughed and pulled me in for a hug before releasing me and stepping away. He grabbed a small brown box off the dresser that held the room's television. "This is for you."

I took the box but made a mental reminder to keep my eye on him. He wasn't upset a proper amount about the three girlfriends thing. "Is it from you?"

"No," he said as I spotted Katy's name on the return address. "It's from Katy, which means it's something weird, so I don't want to be involved."

I dropped the box on the bed and grabbed the pen off the dresser, shoving it in the middle of the tape and jerking it toward me. "Katy doesn't do weird things."

People just didn't understand her methods. Since they rarely understood mine, it's why we got along so well. The tape ripped, and I slipped my fingers into the opening, yanking the sides of the box apart. The tape at the ends held, but another two yanks freed them.

White tissue paper rustled as I pulled the item from the box and laid it on the bed.

"What the hell is that?" Broadrick asked as I unwrapped the tissue paper to reveal fabric.

"Clearly it's..." I held it up and stared at the pile of black and white fabric sewed together. "Well, clearly it's..."

A small round piece of glass fell out from the fabric but dangled in the air from where they'd attached it to the items. I turned them sideways, and it all clicked into place.

"It's a dog costume?" Broadrick said, as I showed it to him.

I grinned. "Yeah, with a little monocle."

Katy sent NB a black and white business suit for a dog complete with monocle. They even had a little cane attached to the fake paw that would wiggle while he walked. "He's going to look like the guy from Monopoly."

Broadrick tipped his head. "I don't think he had a monocle, and this is definitely evidence of Katy doing weird shit."

"It's cute," I said, folding it again until NB had time to wear it. Although, I was pretty sure he definitely had a monocle. I didn't relate to Katy's need to buy dog clothing, but I loved how she was always thinking of the little terrier. It made me miss home.

"Do you have plans for the rest of today?" Broadrick asked, covering me in another hug. His cologne wrapped me up in scents of pine trees and ocean waves.

I squeezed him. "Tonight, I'm going to knitting night, but otherwise I'm pretty open."

I also wanted to take a minute to visit with the owners of Melissa's third longest listing to see what they felt about their real estate agent. Broadrick didn't need to hear about those plans. I'd just sneak them in whenever it worked.

"Have you finished the scarf you started yet?"

My heart skipped a beat and then started up again like a drum line had taken up residence in my chest. I stepped away from him so he didn't notice my reaction. He'd learned to be a human lie detector from the government. Who knew what else they taught him?

"I've got a few more rows to do," I said, sweeping back a loose piece of my hair and staring at the wall behind him so he wouldn't pick up on the lie. "You really can't rush creative genius like this."

He chuckled. "Dalton is in charge this afternoon, so I've got something we can do for fun until then."

"Oh yeah, what's that?"

Broadrick moved to the door and picked up a pair of his sneakers. "Putt-putt. They have a great setup by the main course."

My heart did the drum line thing again. That could not be good. "You want to go right now?"

"Yeah."

I paced a little way away from him, trying not to hyperventilate. "It's right next to the golf course?"

The same golf course where Barbie stole a golf cart and took me on a joy ride while we spied on her husband and his friend? That golf course?

Wonderful.

He tossed me my shoes, and I caught one. The other flew behind me and hit the floor.

"Broadrick, the shoes. Be gentle." I stroked the black and white Converse as I held it to my chest. He was still laughing by the time I sat on the rumpled comforter and put them on.

We left NB behind in the room and walked toward the golf course. I kept my gaze peeled to see if anyone charged us.

The path out of the resort turned to a paved sidewalk, and I started my buy-a-golf-cart talk. It made perfect sense. If we owned a golf cart, I wouldn't have to go around stealing... er... borrowing them from others.

"We should really get a golf cart for these long walks," I said as I stared at the horizon out on the water.

Broadrick turned his head in my direction. "Yeah, I assumed we'd get one, eventually."

"A purple one." There were so many white golf carts on the island they probably got mixed up all the time. We needed to stand out.

He raised an eyebrow. "A purple one? Okay."

"And it needs a windshield and a rearview mirror, and we should make sure it's gas, not electric. With a souped-up motor."

Broadrick chuckled. "That's a long list of requirements, but I'll ask Ridge if the guy he's using for our carts can help us find something."

"Ridge is getting you guys golf carts?" I asked as we passed inside the area for the golf course. Water shot out of a tall hill, and I glanced behind us. No one had rushed out of the bushes. Yet.

Broadrick held open a bright red door to a smaller building set away from the main golf course clubhouse, and I released some tension in my shoulders. We wouldn't be close to the main course or the golf cart stealing crime scene. Thank goodness. "Yeah, black ones with logos on the side."

"Oh, fancy." I grabbed a putter from a large display of them and took a few practice swings off to the side of the room.