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“Don’t you ‘Abby love’ me.” She frowned. It was cute. “Why are there alpacas in our garden?”
“Because I couldn’t get a hold of an elephant?”
Lawrence barked a laugh, only to cut it short at Abby and her mum’s looks of censure. Flynn gave the man a sympathetic smile. When mother and daughter teamed up, they were a force to be reckoned with.
“I thought we agreed you wouldn’t bring home any more animals?” Abby said.
“Technically, I didn’t bring them home. They were delivered.”
“You can’t keep taking in people’s strays. We’re getting overrun here.”
He nuzzled behind her ear, delighted when she gasped. “I promise no more animals after today.” It wasn’t a lie. The animals on the other side of the house had been delivered already.
She narrowed her eyes. “What have you done?”
“I don’t know what you mean.” He tried to pull off an innocent look. The one the girls got away with all the time but never seemed to work for him.
“Flynn Boyle, what else did you bring home from the surgery? I know that look. Where did you hide it?” She turned in his arms, her full belly pressing into him and making him feel the same surge of protectiveness he usually felt when she was near.
“Have I told you how beautiful you look today?” He kissed her delicious lips.
She smacked him on the chest. “Stop dodging the question. Everyone in the Highlands knows you’re a soft touch for abandoned and injured animals. It’s only gotten worse since you started training to become a vet. We’re running out of space to put all the rejects you keep bringing home.”
“It was your idea to study veterinary medicine, Abby. If you hadn’t pushed me, I wouldn’t have done it.”
“Is it also my fault our house is being overrun by everyone else’s unwanted animals?”
“I didn’t say that.” Flynn looked at Lawrence for help. The man held up his hands to tell Flynn he was on his own. Flynn gave him a look he hoped conveyed he was going to find himself a new lawyer. Lawrence just laughed.
“I’ll stop, I promise.” He’d try hard, anyway. She was right. He was a soft touch.
“Muma.” Josie ran into the room, followed closely by a grinning Katy. “There’s big birds in the garden. Can I ride them, can I?”
Josie wrapped her arms around Abby’s legs and begged with her eyes, while Vicky climbed up onto her namesake’s lap and snuggled in. Vicky and her grandmother were pretty much inseparable.
“Big birds?” Abby snapped at him.
“Tattletale,” he told Josie, making Katy laugh.
Abby shrugged out of his arms and stomped to the back of the house, closely followed by the whole family.
“Ostriches?” It was a screech. “There are ostriches in the garden.” She spun on Flynn. “Why are there ostriches in my garden? Why are there ostriches in Scotland?”
“Calm down, Abby love. Think of the baby.”
“Idiot,” Katy said. “Dumb thing to say.”
Abby kicked him hard on the shin, making sure to aim for his undamaged leg. Although he could walk and run fine now, it still ached now and then. Hence Abby’s consideration.
“It’s like this,” Flynn said. “Ostrich farms were fashionable a few years ago. Same with owning alpaca—having exotic animals was trendy. But there isn’t any market for them now, and people don’t want them anymore.”
“And you thought our house was the best place for these animals to retire?”
Flynn tried his charming smile, hoping it swayed her. “I can’t take them back now. I promise to try to find another home for them. This is only temporary.”
“You’ve been saying that since the goat.” She pointed to the animal who was currently eating the washing from the line.
“Aye.” Flynn pulled her into his arms. “I’ll admit the goat might have been a mistake.”
