Fort barked again and head-butted Nora’s leg.
Quinn pressed her lips to Nora’s forehead. “We promised him an outing.”
“You promised him an outing,” Nora corrected.
“But think of how much energy he’ll burn off from the excitement of it all!”
“That…” Nora smiled and shook her head. “That is an excellent point. Okay.” She took a deep breath and smoothed her hands over Quinn’s shoulders. “Do we need to go pick up your truck, or would you rather I drive?”
“You can drive if you want. I mean, my truck’s kinda loaded with stuff for the market anyway, so…”
Nora nodded. “Okay, then.” She pressed onto her toes to steal one last kiss before turning to Fort.“Bil?”
Fort barked as he spun in a happy circle before taking off down the stairs.
“Why am I not surprised that he knows the word ‘car’ in Norwegian?” Quinn chuckled.
“Oh, but the best part,” Nora said, her eyes sparkling with amusement as she started after Fort, “is that he only knows the words ‘car’ and ‘walk’ in Norwegian, so if either are said in English, he just stares at you with that perfect, empty-headed smile of his.”
“Smart.”
Nora threw a wink over her shoulder. “I know.”
After they got their shoes on, Nora helped Fort into a harness, and she gestured toward a door that Quinn had assumed led to a closet. “We’ll take the elevator down to the garage.”
“Wait.” Quinn blinked at her. “This place has a private elevator?”
“Yes?” Nora shrugged and finished snapping Fort in. “It’s the only way to get directly from the garage to the house since the garage is the only thing at ground level.” She pulled open the door to reveal a small, four-by-four-foot elevator and waved for Quinn to go ahead. “It’s quite convenient when bringing in groceries.”
“Yeah, I can imagine,” Quinn muttered as she stepped inside.
Fort barked as he came bombing in after her.
“It’s also nice to not have to corral Fortissimo when my hands are full.”
Quinn laughed and looked down at Fort, who was doing a happy tippy-tappy dance. “Yeah, I can see that.”
The elevator stopped, and Fort was out the door the moment Nora opened it.
Quinn whistled under her breath as she watched him sprinting across the four-car tandem garage to Nora’s Land Rover that was parked on the far end near the roll-up door.You could fit two cars and, like, a full gym in here.
“Relax, Fortissimo,” Nora called, shaking her head as she held a hand out to Quinn. “You sure you want to bring him?”
“You sure you trust that energy in your house unsupervised?”
“Fair point,” Nora admitted with a laugh.
Quinn climbed into the passenger seat while Nora helped Fort into the back, and she smiled at Nora as she buckled her seatbelt. “Do you know where the closest Home Depot is?”
“Even if I didn’t, Siri undoubtedly would, so I think we’ll be fine,” Nora drawled as she pressed her thumb to the garage door remote.
Fort jabbered as if to say,She’s right,as he made himself comfortable in the back seat. Quinn turned to ruffle Fort’s ears as Nora waited for the door to finish opening. “You ready for a field trip, bud?”
Fort barked and darted forward to kiss her cheek.
“I swear to god,” Nora warned as she backed out into a small courtyard that was just large enough to turn around in, “if you get him so riled up that he jumps up here, you’ll be the one explaining it to the police when we get pulled over.”
Quinn laughed. “You sound rather familiar with that scenario.”
