Body and Soul (Twist of Fate 3)

On my way to check on Princess Piranha, I stopped in the bathroom and cleaned myself up before grabbing a warm cloth for Oz. Once I got to the kitchen, I saw the tiny tyrant giving me the evil eye.

“What? You gonna blame a guy for getting lucky on his engagement day?” I asked, scooping her up. “Did someone forget to give you an engraved invitation to bedtime? C’mon. I’ll give you a ride.”

I wandered back in the bedroom muttering at her. “Poor baby BooBear got forgotten in the kitchen. Don’t worry, Daddy has you. Hm, we need a way of differentiating the two dads. Maybe I can be DaddyDoc and Oz can be Daddy-O. Well, we’ll work on it. You know, if this dad thing is going to work out between the two of us, we’re going to need to set some ground rules. First, I call dibs on the beautiful, blue-eyed man. You have your own crush on the big hairy beast in town, so that means I get this one.”

I heard a snort and looked up. My favorite baby-blues sparkled in the light from the bedside table.

“What?” I asked, feeling heat crawl up my neck when I realized he’d been listening to me get goo-goo over the un-hairy beast.

“We are soooo getting another dog,” Oz sing-songed. “Sounds like someone’s ready for a new princess. Zoey said there’s a family in town looking to adopt out puppies from their new litter. The mom is a Mexican Hairless and the dad is a Puli…”

“So the dogs are hairless, but they also have dreads?” I asked, trying to picture it. “That sounds… unbelievable.”

“Right? So freaking cute!”

I tossed our existing dog onto the bed and slid in next to Oz, pulling the two of them toward me in our usual family snuggle position.

“I think I might have all the cute I can handle for a while right here.”

And I totally did.