Chapter 70

The Step Back Inn's welcome sign read FREE BREAK S AND PETS. Hopefully they meant free breakfast and not broken dreams, bones, lightbulbs, or whatever. If they also meant free pets, I'd be okay with that. Studmuffin definitely wouldn't be though.

I pulled into the dirt parking lot next to Cass's sea-green Pinto and then reluctantly left Bernadette's air conditioning. Even at nearly eleven o'clock at night, it was muggy and hot. It was the kind of heat that made me want to crawl inside my refrigerator. If only Studmuffin had opposable thumbs to let me out again, I'd do it.

A little bell tinkled overhead as I strode into the inn. A man with bronze skin, a loud Hawaiian shirt, and a warm smile stood behind the front counter.

"Good evening," he said. "Welcome to Step Back Inn."