Duchess’s nubby tail began wagging the moment Ashanti mentioned the poodle. Her dog was truly missing her man. Yet another reason Thad Sims had quickly become enemy number one. Not only had he stolen her house, but he was making Duchess miserable.
“Let’s go for a W-A-L-K,” Ashanti said, hooking a leash onto Duchess’s harness. Anyone who worked in a kennel knew to never actually say the wordwalkunless they wanted a dozen dogs scrambling to get out of their pens.
Just as she turned for the door, Kara burst through it.
“You are going to love me,” she said in a singsongy voice. Duchess seemed to have forgotten that she was supposed to be melancholy. She shot toward Kara and began trying to climb her like a tree. Her sister dropped to the floor and rubbed her ears in the same way Ashanti had. Duchess ate it up.
Pleasure hound.
“Hey there, girl,” Kara said. She looked up at Ashanti. “Guess what? I found a printer that can do glossy labels for a third less than the one we agreed to go with.”
“Why aren’t you at school?” Ashanti asked.
“It’s lunch. Anyway, we will have to make sure we are absolutely inloooovewith the design, because to get that price we have to buy like twenty thousand labels.”
Ashanti wasn’t sure she would be able to keep making treats long enough to sell another two hundred.
She didn’t want to think about this right now, but sheknew she had to. Just because she didn’t feel like dealing with it, it didn’t mean she could ignore her business.
“Send me your latest designs,” she said. “I’ll pick one.”
“I sent them to you an hour ago, but ignore those because I came up with something better.”
“You should have been in class an hour ago,” Ashanti told her. “I don’t care that you get all As, you still have to pay attention in class, Kara. And you need to stop skipping. You’re only a few weeks into the new school year.”
“I told you we’re at lunch!” Kara said. “Oh! Oh! Oh! Did I tell you that Atilla emailed me? Can you believe that? Email, like it’s the 1950s.”
“What did she want?” Ashanti asked, not bothering to correct her erroneous assumptions about the history of electronic communication. “And stop calling her Atilla.”
Even though their father’s older sister, Anita, had rightfully earned the nickname. Who was she kidding? Attila the Hun had nothing on Anita.
“She wants to take me and Kendra to a plant show in Baton Rouge.”
Ashanti frowned. “What’s a plant show?”
“That wasmyquestion.” Kara took out her phone. “I had to look it up, and it is exactly what it sounds like.” She turned the phone to face Ashanti. “An event where you go to look at and buy plants.” She said it in the same tone one would use to describe an event where you would go and buy body parts. “Why, Shanti? Why is that woman like this? Dad wasn’t like this, was he?”
“You were ten years old when Dad died. You know he was nothing like his sister.”
“Who hurt her? And why does she want to inflict us with that same pain?”
“Don’t worry about Atilla—Anita,” Ashanti corrected. “I’ll make up an excuse for you and Kendra for the weekend. Maybe I’ll tell her that you both have to help clean out the pet suites here. In fact, you can start now.”
Kara looked at her phone’s blank screen. “Would you look at that? It’s time for my world history class. I need to be getting back.” She pointed at Duchess. “This dog is suffering.”
“I know,” Ashanti said. She tipped her head to the door. “Come on, Kara. I’ll follow you to the lobby. I need to get a longer leash.”
“You have to get Puddin’ back here,” Kara said. “Fans of the doggy cam were so excited when he showed up for the pageant, but now they’re back to wanting to riot. They miss the Duchess and Puddin’ show. The public demands an explanation for why it is not happening.”
“Yeah, well, you can tell the public that the Duchess and Puddin’ show is over because Puddin’s new owner is a complete ass,” Ashanti said over her shoulder as she slid the lobby’s pocket doors open.
“Is this how you talk about all your customers?”
Within seconds her entire body went from ice-cold to raging hot. She turned, fully expecting Thad Sims to be irate. Instead, she found a subtle smile pulling at the corners of his mouth. The grin was as devastating as it was irritating.
“Umm… hey, Boss Lady,” Deja said. “Mr. Sims would like a word with you about Puddin’.”
“That is, if you don’t mind talking to a complete ass,” Thad said.
