Page 80 of The Best Trick

I stroked my thumb over his sturdy knuckle, over the rough tendons on the back of his hand, liking the sound of that. “It will take an enormous amount of weight off all of us.”

Zeus nodded.

We grabbed Doris without incident. Not only without incident, but Zeus, being a brilliant person, brought along a sock that he'd nabbed out of Denko’s laundry basket. He had me tie it around his wrist before we went into the dog hotel, and when they brought her out, he kneeled down and put his hands out for her, and she definitely warmed to him right away.

I gave her a bit of beef jerky we’d picked up along the way, and that really sealed the deal. We were friends.

Doris was even cuter than the photos showed, with a really fun smile, and while she didn't have the best breath in the world, her excitement made up for it.

I sat in the back with her on the way home, feeling happy, and not just about the fact that we’d get to pretend we had a dog for a while like an actual family; Doris was going to be the ticket to our freedom.

Thor and Odin were waiting on the stoop of the Airbnb when we pulled up. A gray sedan was parked nearby.

“What the hell? Where’s Alfred?” Zeus asked as Doris bounded up to them.

“He’s tied up in the trunk,” Thor said, vigorously petting Doris’s scruff.

Odin tipped his head at the sedan. “We wanted to stop at a pet store to get ready for Doris and we found Alfred’s keys and realized we could just take Alfred with.”

Zeus grumbled about that. Inwardly I winced—were we going to have another fight about rules? But Doris was racing around, jumping on us and happily licking our faces, and somehow it made everything okay.

Zeus checked the trunk to make sure Alfred was secure, and Odin showed him the alarm system he’d set up to make sure he stayed secure.

My heart warmed, seeing them get along like this.

We headed inside and I was just laughing when I saw the heap of dog toys on the table, along with several different types of leashes and treats and foods. “The proud papas went shopping!” I said.

Soon all of us were vying to pet and play with Doris, getting her excited about her new toys and giving her treats. Needless to say, she was in doggie heaven.

Zeus called Denko to let him know that we had her.

Denko wanted a picture of her.

“In due time,” Zeus said, just to make him sweat. Denko wanted to know who’d her had, but Zeus held that back, too. Knowledge is power, after all.

We spent a glorious afternoon playing with Doris. Thor and Zeus took her on a run down the beach. Odin taught her to shake hands.

“I can't believe Denko didn’t teach her any tricks,” Odin complained while we were hanging out in the back pool area. “Dogs love to be taught tricks.”

I shifted in my hammock so that I was facing him. “I can't believe you taught her to shake hands so fast,” I said. “I didn't know that you were the dog whisperer.”

“Makes perfect sense to me,” Thor said, setting down a bowl of chips and some dip, which Doris of course wanted and did not get, save for exactly one chip that Thor allowed her to have.

“How does that make sense?” I asked innocently. “Odin is trained to run psychological operations on men…but dogs?” I made a big show of looking around at my guys. “Oh, riiiiight,” I teased.

“What is this insinuation, goddess?” Odin asked.

“Insinuation?” I asked innocently.

Zeus came over and tickled me. “You are going to take that back,” he said.

“Not likely!” I squirmed and laughed. “Not likely at all!” I tried to tickle him back.

Doris barked like mad.

“Help, Doris! Get him! Bite him!” I cried.

“Stop traumatizing Doris!” Thor said.

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