Page 61 of Mistletoe Mischief

“You are just a pain in the ass, aren’t you?”

The puppy stood on her back end with her paws up, and Pike took her into his hands, lifting her into his arms and holding her against his naked chest.

“What am I going to do with you today? I can’t leave you here to terrorize the neighbors.”

Pike put her down and used his towel to finish drying off before he got dressed, trying to avoid stepping on the puppy, who was underfoot. He finally picked her up and tossed her on the bed. She followed him as he moved around the room. When Pike sat down to get his shoes on, he found himself dodging the darting puppy tongue again. “We’re going to have to work on that licking stuff. I can’t stand licky dogs.”

Apparently, the licker didn’t care, because she rushed him again, swiping his hand. “You know what?” Pike rolled her over onto her back and gave her a raspberry on her stomach. “How do you like it?”

She squirmed away and launched herself at him. Pike caught her and carried her into the bathroom so that he could finish doing his hair and beard. While he got ready, his phone rang. He tapped the talk button and greeted Ryler. “Good morning.”

“Good morning,” she said. “We’re grabbing coffee and breakfast. You want something?”

“Thanks, that’s nice of you. You at Kiss My Donut?”

“We are,” she said.

“I’ll take a cinnamon roll latte and a ham and cheese croissant. I can Venmo you if you text me—”

“Don’t worry about it; it’s on us,” she said. “You’re technically off this weekend and still taking us out to explore.”

“Alright, thanks. I’ll meet you at Kiss My Donut, and you can follow me out to the first landmark.”

“Is your partner going to meet us, still?” Ryler asked.

“Yeah, I think so. I just need to check his location.” Pike smoothed his beard oil over the strands, using his comb to shape them.

“What do you mean check his location?” Ryler asked.

“We have a GPS app that tracks our locations.”

“Seriously?” She laughed.

“Yeah, it’s for safety in case we’re out with clients and something happens. Don’t you do that with your family?”

“Alia is my only family, and we are always together.”

“It’s still weird to think of you two as cousins.”

“If you say you can’t see the resemblance, I’m hanging up now.”

Pike laughed. “That wasn’t what I was going to say— No!” He hollered when he saw the puppy taking a whiz on his bath mat. “Bad dog.” The puppy tucked tail and rushed for safety at his harsh tone, knocking over the wastebasket. “Damn it.”

“Everything okay over there?” Ryler asked.

“Not at all! My sister thought it would be a good idea to get me a dog, and the creature doesn’t let me sleep and pees all the time on everything.”

“Aw, what kind of dog?” she asked.

“A Pomeranian, I think.”

“Aw!”

“It’s not aw, like ‘how cute.’ It’s a small fluffy demon.”

“Are you going to bring her?”

Pike got down on his hands and knees and pulled the dog from her hiding spot with a grunt. “Only because I’m a little afraid to leave her home and find an eviction notice on my door when I get back.” The puppy trembled against him, and guilt tightened his chest. “Hey, I’m sorry I yelled and scared you. I didn’t expect you to use my bath mat as a toilet.”