Sweet Hearts Read Free Page A

his
best effort to mount her.
    “Oh, god,” Sam yelled, “stop
that! You dogs, get over here!”
    Like they were going to mind her
commands.
    The wet Irish Setter had flung
soapsuds all over the room and now he circled the Sheltie from the other side.
Sam reached for him but she might as well have been trying to grab a fish
barehanded. None of the dogs had their collars on, but Kelly had grabbed up a
leash with a loop in it. She snagged it over the head of the Lab and pulled at
him. Toenails screeched across the tile floor and it took all Sam and Kelly
could muster to pull him back to the work room.
    “That’s his crate,” Kelly said,
indicating one of the ones with the open doors. “Somehow he figured out how to
open the latch.”
    They shoved the Lab inside and
slammed the door, double checking the latch.
    “We better get that other one—”
    A scream came from the front.
    Kelly’s eyes went wide. Her feet
slithered sideways as she headed for the other room.
    Sam was right behind her
daughter, and they found a woman standing inside the reception area, clutching
a wide-eyed Yorkie to her chest.
    “What is—?”
    “Give us a minute, ma’am, if you
could,” Sam said.
    Kelly had looped the snare over
the Setter by now and Sam found another one to use on the Sheltie. She held the
smaller dog aside while Kelly basically slid the bigger dog across the floor on
his wet feet. They disappeared into the back room.
    “Sorry about that,” Sam said to
the new customer. The sound of a metal crate clanged from the back. “I’ll
just—” She tilted her head toward the hallway and started pulling the Sheltie
with the cinched-in lead.
    Kelly passed her in the hall, her
brown curls sticking out at wild angles, her plastic apron askew over her
chest. She rolled her eyes as she headed toward the front, and Sam could hear
Kelly putting on her best customer service voice as she greeted the stunned
woman as if she’d not witnessed anything out of order.
    Sam found a crate for the
Sheltie, across the room from all the other occupied ones. When she had the
little girl securely locked inside, she turned off the spray hose at the sink.
    “The lady decided to wait for
another day to get the Yorkie groomed,” Kelly said as she walked into the room.
    “Gosh, I wonder why.”
    Sam and Kelly both dissolved into
giggles.
    “What on earth—” Erica
Davis-Jones’s silhouette showed against the open rear door.
    “Oh, gosh, Riki, I am so sorry!”
Kelly grabbed up a mop that Sam hadn’t noticed before. “We had a little mishap
. . .” She began mopping at the pool of water.
    Sam mouthed an apology to Riki
and then headed back to the pastry shop. And she’d thought life as a baker got
a little crazy at times.
    By that evening, when Kelly
walked into the house, the whole incident had taken on tall-tale proportions.
Sam had hoped to have quiet time at home to work on her chocolates, but two
people had already called to ask about the riot at the dog groomer’s place and
Jen said it was all the bakery customers could talk about all afternoon.
    “Yeah, a few people said they’d
heard that dogs were getting away and running all around the plaza,” Kelly
said. “Riki had her hands full, explaining that her shop really is a safe place
to bring your dog.”
    “Sheesh, I hope that one witness
doesn’t cause her to lose too much business. It’s amazing how much harm an old
gossip can do.”
    “Nah, you know Riki. She was a
little peeved with the owner of the Sheltie for bringing the dog when she was
in heat. Riki has a rule about that and the woman didn’t tell her. But by the
time she finishes telling the story in that cute accent of hers, everyone
actually gets a good laugh over the whole thing.”
    Sam handed Kelly a truffle she’d
made. “What do you think? Honestly.”
    Kelly took a bite and let it rest
on her tongue. “Well, it’s not Bobul’s. Sorry, Mom. It’s good. Really. Creamy
and tasty.”
    “But I don’t know