Page 102 of So Wild

“Toby?” Sam squinted at him. “What are you doing…?”

But that immediately became obvious. Sam could see a wicker basket peeking out from behind Toby and inside it were six fat black and gold puppies tucked into the side of their snoozing mother.

“Oh fuck off!” Sam whirled around to look at her sister. “Are you serious?”

Her sister held up her hands. “Okay, yes, it’s not ideal but we need to keep them here, even just for a little bit. Otherwise, Toby’s parents are going to bump them off!”

“I’ll bump you off! Wecan’tkeep them here! This is a tattoo shop. I have clients! I can’t be mothering a bunch of puppies.”

“I’ll do it,” Tabby interjected. “I’ll look after them!”

“You’ve got three sessions booked for today! You can’t be running out of the studio every fifteen minutes to feed puppies!”

“Ms DaSilva?” Toby ventured. “I can understand why you’d be upset, but I can’t take these dogs back home. If I do, my parents will get rid of them. That’s why Tabby offered to let them stay here.”

Sam whirled around to face the young man and realised his clean-cut handsomeness had one hundred percent played a motivating factor in how this had happened—her youngest sister could never resist a good-looking boy.

“Look, I feel for you and the pups,” she told him. “But Tabby was in no position to offer you our courtyard. Is there anywhere else they can go?”

“Well…”

A plaintive whine caught Sam’s attention. The puppies were wriggling their way out of the cloth basket and running toward Sam. She briefly admired their round eyes and silky coats before snapping back to Toby. “I get you guys were just trying to do the right thing, but we can’t keep them here. There must be other options. Puppy kennels? New owners?”

“Well, they shouldn’t be away from their mum right now,” Toby said, his blue eyes wide.

“That’s why we brought them here,” Tabby said. “When they’re weaned and ready to fly the coop, I’ll do an Instagram spray and people will snap the pups up like lattes.”

“But until then, they’re just going to live in our concrete courtyard inhaling Noah’s cigarette smoke?”

“They’ll be totally fine,” Toby assured her. “I’ve brought everything you need to look after them. I’ve got puppy milk and Weet-bix and water bowls—”

“What about Scott?”

Toby blanched. “Um, what about him?”

“He’s your boss. He was also thinking about getting a puppy. Does he know you’re here, bulk-storing them in my courtyard?”

Toby mumbled something incoherent.

“Sorry, what was that?”

“Scott, uh, doesn’t know about the puppies. He told me that he’d pay to put them in a kennel if I asked him to—”

“Great! Problem solved.”

“Only it isn’t,” Tabby said. “We looked it up and keeping six puppies and Mopsy in a kennel until the pups are weaned would cost almost six thousand bucks.”

“Fuck!”

“That’s what I thought,” Toby said quickly. “I was worried if I told him about the pups needing a home, he’d feel obligated to pay for the kennel, anyway, and then he’d hate me. Also, maybe fire me.”

Sam pressed her palms to her temples. “Right, okay. This is problematic.”

“What should we do?” Tabby asked.

“Just give me a second,” Sam pleaded. “I need to think.”

Mercifully, Tabby and Toby backed away, crouching over the basket and crooning to the puppies. Sam closed her eyes and contemplated her next move. On one hand, she had an obligation to make sure the puppies were safe. On the other hand, she was not equipped to deal with a dog rescue. Fadeout was less than forty-eight hours away and for the first time since her dad left, Silver Daughters was fully booked for the day. She needed all hands tattooing and answering phones, not patting adorable mini-dogs. She wanted to recruit Scott’s help, but that felt selfish, not to mention childish. She was a fully grown woman, she shouldn’t be running to her…whatever Scott was, to make her problems go away.

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