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“You forgot the dog was there?” he asked.
“We both forgot the dog was there!”
“I know.” His grin widened. “I was rather distracted myself.”
“Distracted?” I repeated. “That's what we're calling it?”
“What would you prefer?”
“Catastrophic failure of basic parental responsibility?”
He considered that. “A little dramatic, perhaps.”
I stared at him. “Our fur baby has just given us a look that could curdle milk after seeing something no child should witness, and you're worried about my choice of terminology?”
That finally made him laugh properly. The sound was warm and helpless, which was lovely under almost any other circumstances. Right then, I was seriously considering smothering him with one of the pillows.
“All right,” he said, still smiling. “I'm sorry. I shouldn't laugh.”
“You absolutely shouldn't.”
“I'll try to remember to help you shut her out of the room next time.”
I made a strangled noise and covered my face again. “There isn't going to be a next time if she keeps looking at me like that.”
Skye chose that moment to give a quiet, wounded whine.
“Oh, sweetheart.” I crouched immediately and held out my arms. “Come here. Daddy's sorry.”
She came to me at once, because she was a good dog and loved me even when I was apparently the most inconsiderate person in the galaxy. I gathered her against my chest, rubbing behind her ears and pressing a kiss to the top of her head. She licked my chin, then my cheek, before settling her considerable weight against me as though she'd decided to forgive me provisionally.
Tarek crouched beside us and scratched her neck. “And I'm sorry too, Skye. We should have remembered you were here.”
Skye accepted his apology with considerably less enthusiasm than she'd accepted mine, although she did allow him to rub her ears. I couldn't blame her. He was new to the family. I was supposed to know better.
“I think we're going to have to work on our priorities,” I told him.
“Clearly.”
“And our situational awareness.”
“Definitely.”
“And remembering that we have a dog.”
He gave me a solemn nod. “That seems particularly important, seeing as she is, as you put it, actually our fur child and not merely a canine companion.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “You're enjoying this far too much.”
“I assure you, I'm experiencing a great deal of sympathy.”
“You're grinning.”
“My face does that sometimes.”
“Not helping, Tarek.”
He kissed my temple, which was a cheap trick, because it softened me immediately. “Come on. Let's get our bed sorted out, then we can settle in for the evening.”
