Third Time's a Charm (22 page)

Smaller breeds? Meaning there were larger breeds? An image of Ken’s giant mongrel loomed in Tori’s mind as she cautiously made her way to the back corner of the store to find Zoe. She eyed the double row of kennels warily, but none of the dogs appeared to be saddle-ready.

She found Zoe inside an eight-foot-square area cordoned off by a waist-high wall. A sign on the wall read “Pet Play Area.” Two folding chairs sat empty in one corner while Zoe crouched on the floor, giggling as she tossed a stuffed toy for Miss Muffett. The little dog hopped across the floor after the toy, which was as big as she. The girl looked up as Tori approached.

“Hi. You’re name’s Zoe, right?”

A strand of dark hair that had come loose from high pigtails waved as the child nodded.

“Your daddy told me to come help you get some more puppies out to play with.” She held up the cookie jar. “We’re supposed to give them treats to keep them quiet.”

As though to emphasize the point, the dogs’ barking grew louder. Tori glimpsed Susan through the aquariums, her grim expression magnified to fierce proportions by the water.

“We can get them all?” Delight lit Zoe’s face as she leaped to her feet.

“Well . . .” Tori glanced around the play area. “Do you think they’ll fit in here?”

“Sure they will.” The girl opened the half-door and eased out, gently keeping Miss Muffett from escaping with her foot. Tori set the cookie jar on the floor and followed her to the kennels.

The chorus of barking increased to a frantic pace as Zoe opened the bottom kennel and lifted out a wiener dog puppy. A pink tongue appeared and bathed the child’s face, which sent an answering flutter of revulsion to Tori’s stomach. Gram and Grandpa had a dog when she was living at home, and she used to let that one lick her in the mouth. Until Allie pointed out that dogs used their tongues as toilet paper.

“You get those,” Zoe instructed, pointing to the kennel on top of the wiener dog’s.

Tori eyed the much larger kennel’s occupants. Two puppies, each one easily three times the size of the little one Zoe had taken to the play area. German Shepherd, the sign mounted on the front of the wire crate read. Both puppies shoved noses through the grating, their long, thin tails wagging behind them as they tried to see which could out-bark the other. Tori lifted the spring-loaded handle on the kennel and eased a hand inside. Her fingers touched fuzzy puppy fur.

“Okay, just stay calm,” she told one while she tried to get a grip on the other one, who was using her fingers as a teething ring. “I’ll come right back for—oops!”

Just as she lifted one puppy out, the other, determined not to be left behind, leaped out of the kennel toward her. She snatched it out of the air with a scooping motion, wedging it to her body with her free hand and arm. The wiggling creature dangled with its front paws scrabbling at her skirt and its hind claws digging into the skin of her neck.

“Aack! Help!”

She whirled to find Zoe rushing toward her, arms outstretched. “You’re supposed to use two hands,” the little girl chided as she rescued the animal.

“I was trying. That one is a kamikaze puppy.”

Zoe cocked her head, a question on her face. “No, her name is Shaylee.”

The child marched to the pen and opened the door a crack to wedge her way in without letting the two inmates escape. Tori tried to ignore the stinging in her neck as she followed, holding tight to the other puppy. Giant ears stood at attention on top of a narrow face like satellites, the poor thing. This baby was going to have to do a lot of growing to justify ears that big. Tori’s hand encircled the soft fur of its chest, and felt a wild heartbeat pounding against her palm.

“Here, I’ll take her.”

Zoe stood inside the pen, arms outstretched. The tiniest hint of reluctance surprised Tori as she handed the puppy into the little girl’s arms. Then she felt the stinging scratch on her neck, which had become a long welt.

“Ouch.”

Zoe tilted her head up to inspect it. “You’ll be okay. Just wash it with soap when you get home.”

The voice of experience, apparently. Tori nodded, and then followed the child to the next set of kennels. In a few minutes they’d unloaded twelve puppies in sizes varying from Miss Muffett’s sister to an adolescent yellow lab that Tori didn’t want to carry, so Zoe led with a firm grip on the collar. When they put the last animal in the playpen, Zoe climbed over the wall and descended into the mass of fur and wiggling puppy bodies.

Except for an occasional happy yap, silence reigned. The smell of puppy fur and dog breath clung to Tori’s clothes. She brushed at a suspicious spot on her blouse, and tried not to think what it might be. In the other end of the store she heard the drone of Ed’s voice, then Susan’s, then Ed’s again, saying, “
All our animals receive the highest level
of care, and are guaranteed to be healthy and happy. Because
here at Nolan’s Ark, pets are not just our business. They’re our
family.”
At least they were getting it done.

She started to turn away, and looked into the play area in time to see Zoe break a treat into pieces and feed the two Shepherd puppies. Miss Muffett and another fluff-ball jockeyed for position in her lap while the yellow lab licked her neck from behind. The child’s delighted giggle rang musically in the store.

Tori stopped, an idea clicking into place. If the point of the commercial was to project a family appeal, wouldn’t it be better to show some family fun instead of panning across the kennels with the puppies staring through wires like a bunch of inmates while Ed’s dull voice droned in the background? Of course, she knew nothing about commercials, but Phil did say if she had any ideas . . .

She hurried over to the filming site and plucked Susan’s sleeve. “I want to show you something.”

At first she thought the director would refuse, but then the woman heaved a loud sigh and followed. Apparently she didn’t want to argue with the official representative from Connolly and Farrin. Tori led her quietly to the edge of the pet play area, where an ecstatic Zoe lay sprawled on the floor, covered in playful puppies.

Tori didn’t have to say a word. Susan watched for only a few seconds before a wide grin transformed her features. “Hal,” she called, “how quickly can you get a light set up back here?”

As the cameraman moved one of the umbrellas, Tori stood out of the way with Ed Nolan and explained. “Since you’re talking about pets being part of the family, I thought it would be a good idea to show pets interacting with a child. They’ll probably use the original voiceover idea, and some clips of you talking as well as some clips of the rest of the store. But Zoe was having so much fun with the puppies, it seemed like a good idea to capture that fun on camera.”

Ed’s eyes fixed on his giggling daughter. “She’ll steal the show from her old man.”

“I hope it’s okay,” she said. “If you’d rather not, we can always go back to the original plan. Or if you like the idea but don’t want to use Zoe, we could even schedule another shoot and hire a child actor.”

“And rob her of her chance to be a star?” He shook his head, laughing. “No way.”

“And, uh, you know what else you might consider?” Tori didn’t look at him, but watched Hal fiddle with the camera’s angle as she spoke. Phil had mentioned that Ed insisted on doing this commercial himself, so she didn’t want to offend him by suggesting too many changes. “Instead of standing there behind the counter with your arms at your sides, maybe you could be interacting with the animals too. You know, hold a kitten or something. It might help you appear less . . .” She bit her lip and cast around for a word that wouldn’t give offense.

“Awkward?”

“I was going to say
nervous
. Plus, I think it will help keep people focused on the animals, which is the whole reason for advertising, right?”

“That’s a good idea.” His grin widened. “See, this is why I hired your firm. I needed an expert to tell me what works and what doesn’t.” He rubbed his hands together. “This is going to be a great commercial. I can hardly wait to see it on TV.”

Tori folded her arms and gave a satisfied nod. She’d received a battle wound and she smelled like a cross between a doghouse and a locker room, but if the client was happy, her first commercial shoot was a success.

Tori took the time to go home for the second shower of the day before heading to work. It was almost lunchtime when she parked her car in the garage. Her cell phone rang as she stepped into the elevator. She pressed the button for the sixth floor before sliding the cover up to answer the call.

“Hello?”

“Kate Bowman here.” Tori straightened to attention, and immediately felt ridiculous. Her boss couldn’t see her all the way from Chicago.

“Hello, Kate. How’s the last day of the conference going?”

As always, niceties were lost on Kate.

“Where are you?” Undisguised irritation made her voice snap like a whip. “Mitch told me your desk has been empty all morning. You didn’t tell me you were taking the day off.”

Tori fought a wave of irritation, whether at her nosy co-worker or her demanding boss, she wasn’t sure. “That’s because I’ve been working. Phil asked me to fill in for him at a taping this morning.”

In the silence that met her, Tori worried that she’d gotten Phil in trouble. But surely he didn’t expect her to keep secrets from her boss, especially when she had been doing legitimate work for one of the firm’s clients.

“I see.”

The weight of those two words made Tori wince. She decided the wisest course of action was to change the subject. “Did you need something?”

“I wanted to let you know that the Maguire people will be in the office on Monday.”

Tori snapped to attention a second time, just as the doors opened on the sixth floor. She wasn’t ready to present anything. She barely had any ideas at all. “What’s the purpose of the meeting? They’re not expecting to see preliminary ideas, are they? Because I haven’t got anything good enough for the client’s eyes, yet.”

“You haven’t come up with
anything
?”

Tori sucked in an outraged breath, fighting against an angry retort.
Maybe if you’d stop calling and emailing every
ten minutes, I would.

The doors started to close, and Tori slipped between them. She emerged in the lobby of Connolly and Farin, where Fran sat behind her desk, tapping on her computer keyboard. Tori waited until she could speak calmly. “I’ll work on it. Do we have an agenda for the meeting?”

“Rita’s working it up. No presentations. Just a meet-and-greet. Their request, so they can get a look at the firm and the team who’s working on their account.”

The team. Yeah. What an interesting idea, letting your employees
work as a team instead of pitting them against each other.

“I see.”

“Nine o’clock. Make sure you’re not late.”

The line went dead. Tori scowled at the phone as she rounded Fran’s desk and headed for her cubicle. As expected, her computer hadn’t even finished powering on before Mitch sauntered in and draped himself across her guest chair.

“Well, well, well. Look who finally decided to show up for work.”

Tori ignored the jab. The smirky Mitch had returned. One thing about the guy, he was anything but predictable. He had more moods than a menopausal woman.

She planted her elbows on her desk and stared at him over steepled fingers. “I didn’t realize you were the official keeper of the time clock. Is that a self-appointed task, or did you receive a special assignment from Kate to keep an eye on my hours?”

“Hey, don’t be like that. I’m just kidding around.” He leaned forward. “Actually, I’ve been waiting for you to get here so I could propose a sort of truce.”

“Go on.”

“I’m sure we’ll both be working tomorrow.” He raised his eyebrows for verification, and Tori gave a single nod. Saturdays off were a thing of the distant past. “So I was thinking we might as well perform a little field research. What say tomorrow night you and I head over to Maguire’s Restaurant for dinner?”

Tori narrowed her eyes. Was he proposing a business outing between co-workers, or asking her for a date? With Mitch it was hard to tell. Probably the former, but something in the way he wasn’t breathing while he waited for her answer told her he wasn’t as indifferent as he might seem.

Her reply was forestalled by an interruption. Phil rounded the corner and entered the cubicle, a wide smile on his face. He paused for a moment when he caught sight of Mitch, but then came toward Tori with outstretched hands.

“You are terrific.”

Pleased, Tori stood and allowed him to take her hands. “I am?”

“Ed Nolan called and left a message on my voicemail singing your praises. I’ve tried for weeks to talk him out of the monologue idea, but he wouldn’t listen to me. But you?” Phil squeezed her hands. “He thinks you’re a creative genius, and he says his daughter is so excited she’s changing her career goal from veterinarian to movie star.”

Tori laughed. “As long as it’s her and not Ed who wants to become an actor.”

Phil grimaced. “Was he that bad?”

“Awful.”

“I was afraid of that. I’m so glad you were there to handle things, Tori. Thank you. I’ll make sure Kate knows how big a help you were.”