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a boost to take the edge off your pain.” Mary dropped into the glider, still sitting at a right angle to the sofa.
    “Thanks.” Ellis swallowed the pill with a quick slug from the bottle. “My dog is amazing because?”
    “Because it usually takes me anywhere from thirty minutes to an hour to get Natalie into bed. Tonight, by the time I got to her room, she was under the covers. Well, under the covers except for the arm she’s got wrapped around Sam’s neck.”
    “Sounds like a Rockwell painting.”
    “It is, and when you add in the fact that Swiffer is on the end of the bed, tucked up into her usual impersonation of a meatloaf, they could be a fund-raising poster for the Humane Society.”
    “Sam and Swiffer are both on the bed?”
    “Like it’s the most normal thing in the world.”
    “No growling? No hissing?”
    “Not that I heard. They didn’t even really act out when they first laid eyes on each other this afternoon.”
    “Ah, yes, a chapter in that untold saga you’ve been promising to share with me.”
    “Not really all that much to tell.”
    “Humor me. I’ve got a royal boo-boo.” Ellis made a pathetic whimpering sound and momentarily raised her foot. “See? It has its very own pillow throne.”
    “Yes, Your Highness.” Mary bent forward and pretended to adjust an imaginary crown on Ellis’s head. “I was a little worried that Sam wouldn’t like some stranger coming into her territory, so I picked up some puppy treats at the drugstore where I got your prescriptions filled.”
    “Bribery is always a good approach.”
    “It works with nine-year-old daughters. I figured it might work on other semi-domesticated things, too.” Mary hooked her foot on the rung of the footrest and pulled it closer to her chair. “If you didn’t already know it, as a watchdog, Sam would make a good Wal-Mart greeter.”
    Ellis laughed appreciatively. “Yeah, I have to agree with you. She’s a lover, not a fighter.”
    “So anyway, I grabbed a bunch of stuff at your place and then lured Sam out of your apartment with doggie biscuits. She loves to ride in the truck, doesn’t she?”
    “Uh-huh. I’m hoping I can take her with me on some of my landscaping jobs this spring and summer. I hate leaving her in the apartment all day.”
    “You said you’d only had her about six months, right?”
    “When did I say that?”
    “More of that talking-in-your-sleep conversation we had on the drive home from the emergency room.”
    Ellis squirmed on the sofa. “Finish telling me about Sam and Swiffer, and then you’d better tell me what other stuff I blabbed to you.”
    “Guilty conscience?” Mary asked as she tilted her head and raised an eyebrow.
    “Not really. I just want a chance to set the record straight in case I said something I shouldn’t have.”
    “Okay, that will be the next topic on our discussion agenda.” Mary settled against the back of the chair. “So I loaded Sam up in the backseat of your truck and tooled on back here. She had her leash on and had long since figured out I had a pocket full of cookies she could get if she played her cards right. We came in the house through the kitchen door.” Mary flipped her hand in the general direction of the kitchen. “Of course, I could see the living room from there. Nathan was sitting in this chair, but it was in its regular place. Natalie was on the footrest, with Swiffer on the floor between them.”
    “Did the cat freak out when she saw Sam?”
    “You don’t know Swiffer. She’s quite sure she’s the reason the sun comes up each morning and likewise sure any other living thing was put on the planet to bow to her wishes. She puffed herself out to twice her usual size—which is going some when you consider how fluffy she is to begin with—and fixed a stare on Sam that should have ignited Sam’s fur.”
    “So what was Sam doing?”
    “She was mashed up against my legs as though I was her last and best hope of salvation.”
    “And