and laughed as she leaped, letting him catch her and pick her up.
After one quick glance back at the guy, Toby carried Bat to the exam room where Erica was giving Harry his shots.
“Woof!” The huge baritone bark greeted him as he walked in, getting a more tenor reply from Bat. He couldn’t claim soprano, no matter how ladylike she was, since he’d observed that despite her mere eight or nine pounds of weight, she had a large, impressive bark. No yapping for the Princess. Too middle class, no doubt.
Erica plunged a needle into Harry’s loose skin, and he didn’t flinch.
Toby shook his head. “I can’t believe you can get him to do anything you want with no protest. You’re a miracle worker.”
She chuckled. “Harry and I understand each other. And speaking of handling, Batshit sure likes you. She’s pretty discriminating. Maybe you just need a much smaller dog?”
Toby smiled and sighed at the same time. “Molly wanted a big dog for protection. Unfortunately, Harry’s more likely to drag Molly into danger than out of it. My God, she almost got mangled on Pacific Coast Highway chasing Harry across it. And the one time we had a stranger knock on our door in the middle of the night, Harry slept through it. Fortunately, the guy was just lost.” He patted Harry’s muscular flank. “We love the beast, but he’s a handful and expensive to feed.”
A wet lick on his face got Toby’s attention, and he looked down into the huge eyes of Batshit.
“Woof.”
He chortled and ducked his ear away from an incipient wet willy. He did love the little critter. He and Molly—and of course, Harry—had been there the first day that Finn had brought the Papillon in to Dr. Fairweather after finding her on the street. She’d become pretty famous since then in dog shows and even more as an intrepid heroine who’d helped capture some bad guys. Toby didn’t know all the details, but he gathered Champion Rosewell’s Marisol of Treadwell, aka Batshit, was quite a canine sleuth.
The door to the exam room popped open, and Dr. Fairweather, who was the main attraction at Beachside Animal Care for more reasons than his great veterinary talent, stuck his head in. Standing over six-three with cheekbones almost as spectacular as his ass and shiny platinum-blond hair, Em set the hearts of both women and men aflutter. He was highly attached however, to the equally adorable Finn Morgenstern, adopted daddy of Batshit.
Em’s eyes widened at his dog. “Well, hello there.”
“Woof.” Bat greeted her parent but didn’t even wriggle to get down.
Erica handed Em a file folder from the counter and chuckled. “Yep, the princess has adopted Toby into her reverse harem.”
“Interesting.” Em gave Harry a pat. “How’s the big guy?”
“Good as gold.”
Toby snorted. “Easy for her to say.”
Em laughed, then asked Erica, “Are you taking Ernest next?”
“Yes. He came in at the same time as Toby, but I figured I better get the Batshit and Harry Show out of the lobby as soon as possible.”
Em nodded. “I’ll take Mrs. Quintana. She’s on a tight time schedule.” He nodded at Toby. “Good to see you. The way Bat’s looking at you, you may have to take her home.” He laughed and left the room.
Toby nodded back, but his brain was still on Ernest. “Uh, is Ernest the guy with the cat? The one who kept me from breaking my nose?”
“Yes.”
Just when he wanted Erica to add lots of details, she gave him a one-word answer. He said, “That sure is an interesting cat. Is he okay? He seems really skinny.”
“Oh yes. And getting better every day. I guess Ernest found him in a dumpster, pretty beat up. But he takes good care of him.” She gave Harry another injection. “It’s funny. The cat’s an Abyssinian. They tend to be very lean. But they’re very expensive felines and usually quite pampered. Finding one stray is weirdly rare.”
“Kind of like Batshit, huh?” Everyone had been amazed that Finn had found a champion Papillon wandering on the street. Of course, it turned out she’d escaped from some con artists who’d used her as bait for robbery victims.
Erica nodded. “Except Ernest advertised everywhere and no one claimed the cat, so he kept him.” She smiled. “It’s good. They needed each other.” Toby’s ears pricked, but Erica patted Harry. “All done, my good werewolf.” She said to Toby, “Stop at the desk and Betty will give you your paperwork for the license board.”
“Thank you, Erica.” He started