“He’s so adorable!” Em said, tossing a toy so Hugo could chase it down. Instead of bringing it back to her right away, he squeaked it a few times, did a little dance, then rushed to where she was sitting on the floor in front of the couch.
“Did you see that? I bet we could train him to do the dance on cue,” she said, giving him scratches so good that he flopped over to show his belly.
“We won’t have him long enough,” I reminded her. That made me check my phone again, still nothing from Gale. I shouldn’t be impatient; it had only been a few hours.
On top of that, there was nothing from Danzig or Marduk. Guilt was eating at me for dodging them, even though I hadn’t given them permission to follow me.
I kept asking myself if I’d acted stupidly or not by going up to that front door. I couldn’t decide.
“I don’t believe you,” Em said, making me drop my phone back in my lap and look over at her. I was sitting on the floor also, but I was closer to the front door, so Hugo had plenty of room to run and play between the two of us.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“You bought him food and water bowls,” she said, pointing to the adorable little stand with his bowls sitting on a bone shaped mat.
“He needed those,” I defended.
“A couple of regular human bowls would’ve been fine,” she said.
“I guess, but they were on sale.”
“What about all the toys?” Em asked, gesturing to the dozen toys scattered between us.
“They were also on sale,” I said.
“Suuuuurrre they were,” Em said. “What about the shirt?”
“He was wearing a cute Hawaiian shirt when I rescued him,” I said. As I spoke, he rushed back to her and tossed the ball in her lap. His look of pure anticipation as he tippy-tapped in front of her was yet another adorable thing about him.
He was close enough so that she could tug at the collar of his bright blue sweatshirt that saidToss The Ballon the back. “This is not a Hawaiian shirt.”
“Excellent deduction,” I intoned dryly. “The other shirt was, uh, dirty, so I got him the sweatshirt to replace it.”
I hadn’t told Em about the bodies, even though she knew about the magic world. After Mila mated to a vampire and a wolf shifter, it would've been hard to keep it from Em. Despite that, I didn’t want to expose her to what I’d seen. It was too much, which was why I’d tossed Hugo’s old shirt and gotten him several replacements.
Okay, maybe I’d bought too much, but I’d been so careful with my money since moving here that it was fun to have an excuse to splurge.
When Em wasn't fast enough at throwing the toy, an impatient Hugo grabbed the squeaky toy and galloped to me. He dropped it on my lap, on top of my phone, looking very proud of himself.
“Thank you, Hugo!” I exclaimed, picking up the toy. I squeaked it a few times, then tossed it a short distance away. He watched it sail past him but didn’t chase after it. He was panting pretty heavily so maybe he was done with exercise for the moment.
My guess was proven right when he climbed into my lap. I pulled my phone out of his way as he flopped down on my thighs.
“You have the cutest snort-pant ever,” I said. I looked up at Em. “Is that normal?”
Em and her siblings had grown up with all kinds of animals, which happened when your parents were both veterinarians. I’d never had a pet before, not even a goldfish. My parents hadn’t believed in keeping animals in captivity.
“Breathing like that is normal for dogs with stubby noses,” she said with a little shrug. “He’ll probably fart and sneeze a lot.”
As if he understood her, Hugo sneezed three times in a row, spraying doggy spit all over my leg. Aww, even his sneezes were adorable!
“I don’t think I’ll have to worry about the sneezing or farts for long,” I said. “He’ll probably go home tomorrow.”
“Can’t you tell Gale you couldn’t find him?” Em said. “I miss having a dog. We could start with Hugo, then get him a friend.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “Friend?”
Em nodded “Dogs need friends. I bet Hugo would love a small or medium-sized dog. Oh, we could get a beagle!”
