“I’mnotdancing,” Harrison snarled.
“Did I ask you to dance?” I shot back.
“What’s the timeline?” Harrison asked.
I held up my phone. “The minute you give me the greenlight, I’m calling my guy atAfter Dark. Scarlet is scheduled to go on in a few days, and I want to make sure they add some time after she performs for the flower moment.”
I held my breath as Harrison worked through the scenarios before him.
“Fine,” he finally said. “Make the call.”
He stood up abruptly and left the conference room, and I let out a long sigh of relief.
A few people applauded, and Denise gave me an approving nod.
“You just did the impossible,” she said.
I tilted my head at her.
“You got that man to agree to something he didn’t want to do. It’s your first day, and you’ve already achieved wizard status. Congrats.”
I glanced toward where Harrison had just stormed out. I might’ve won the first skirmish, but I had a feeling the war between us was just beginning.
7
HARRISON
If I had the bandwidth, I’d take them all home. All four of the squirming, nipping, adorable terrors who were trying to occupy my lap at the same time.
It wasn’t the smartest move to skip changing out of my suit prior to arriving at the shelter. I was sitting on the floor, and my Dolce pants were getting coated in puppy fur and slobber. But at the same time, it was not like it really mattered, since I had two dozen more of the same cut in my closet. And I didn’t want to waste time going home to change.
After tough days, I needed the hit of waggy serotonin. Icravedit. And today qualified as an extra challenging day seeing as my new hire had just gotten me to sign off on a ridiculous plan to clear my name.
“Now, Muffin, come on, stop biting your brother.” I urged the scruffy pup with the black mask to focus on the toy I was offering and not his sibling’s ear. “Pancake doesn’t taste like his name, I promise you.”
Finding names for the hundreds of dogs that passed through a shelter wasn’t easy, so the staff had christened this batch of pups after breakfast foods. Over the years, I’d come across dogs named after the cast ofFriends, Greek gods, the periodic table of elements (Cobalt and Copper were cute names, butSeaborgiumdidn’t exactly roll off the tongue), and from the works of Shakespeare. This crop of pups, Pancake, Muffin, Bagel, and Toast, was heavy on carbs.
“Hey, hey, Mr. Toast,” I chastised the light brown pup as he tugged on the edge of my blazer. “Can you not?”
The puppy doubled down, his little paws slipping beneath him as he backed up with the fabric in his mouth, making little growly noises.
“Excuse me, sir,” I said as I tried to pry his mouth open. “Enough.”
The other puppies concluded that Italian wool tasted delicious, because within seconds my blazer was gleefully attacked from all directions by the four carb-pups.
“Hey guys,stop,” I chastised, trying to hide the fact that I was laughing at the ridiculousness.
“Looks like you could use a hand.”
I spun toward the voice, but I already knew who it was. What I couldn’t figure out was why she was here.
The puppies sensed fresh meat and let go of my blazer in tandem before racing over to attack Gwen.
“Hi, hi, hi,” she laughed as they leapt at her. She knelt down and was rewarded with a kiss on the mouth from Bagel. “Wow, you guys arecrazy.”
I stood up and brushed myself off, a little mortified that she’d seen me having a wrestling match with the pups.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, trying to not be charmed by her bright smile.
