Read Diamond in the Ruff (Matchmaking Mamas Book 13) for Free Online

confrontation with the puppy.
    Doing her best to sound stern, or at least authoritative, she looked down at Jonathan and said, “We’re going out now, Jonathan. Try not to yank me all over this time, all right?”
    If the puppy understood what she was asking, then he chose to ignore it because the minute she opened the door, he all but flew out. Since the rope she had tethered to the Labrador was currently also wrapped around her hand, the puppy, perforce, came to an abrupt, almost comical halt two seconds later. He’d run out of slack.
    The puppy gave her what seemed to Lily to be a reproving look—if puppies could look at someone reprovingly.
    Maybe she was reading too much into it, Lily told herself.
    Still, she felt compelled to tell the puppy, “I asked you not to run.”
    Making her way out to the front of the clinic, Lily saw the receptionist, Erika, looking at her. She flushed a little in response. “You probably think I’m crazy, talking to the dog.”
    Erika’s dark eyes sparkled. “On the contrary, most pet owners would think you’re crazy if you didn’t. They understand us,” she explained with easy confidence, nodding toward Jonathan. “They just sometimes choose not to listen. In that way, they’re really no different than kids,” Erika added. “Except that pets are probably more loyal in the long run.”
    “I’m not planning for a ‘long run,’” Lily told the receptionist. “I’m just minding this puppy until his owner turns up to claim him,” she explained. Placing her checkbook on her side of the counter, she opened it to the next blank check, then took out her pen. All the while, Jonathan was tugging on the rope, trying to separate himself from her. “Okay, how much do I make the check out for?” She flashed a somewhat shy smile at the receptionist. “I warn you, it might be slightly illegible.”
    Jonathan was tugging on his makeshift leash, desperately wanting to escape from the clinic—and in all likelihood, from her, as well. Legible writing under those circumstances went out the window.
    Erika glanced at the paperwork that had just been sent to her computer monitor a moment ago. She looked up at the woman on the other side of her desk. “Nothing,” she answered.
    That couldn’t be right. Could the vet really have been serious about not charging her? “For the visit,” Lily prompted.
    “Nothing,” Erika repeated.
    “But Dr. Whitman saw the dog,” Lily protested.
    Erika looked at the screen again.
    “Well, he’s not charging you for seeing the dog,” Erika told her. “But now that I look, I see that he does have one thing written down here,” the receptionist informed her, reading the column marked “special instructions.”
    Lily could feel her arm being elongated by the second. For a little guy, the Labrador was uncommonly strong in her opinion. She tugged him back. “What?” she asked the receptionist.
    Instead of answering her immediately, Erika said, “Just a minute,” and opened the large side drawer. She started rummaging through it. It took her a minute to locate what she was searching for.
    “Dr. Whitman wants me to give you this.”
    “This” turned out to be not one thing but two things. One item was a small, bright blue braided collar made to fit the neck of a dog just about the puppy’s size and the other was a matching bright blue braided leash.
    Erika placed both on the counter in front of Jonathan’s keeper.
    “It’s a collar and leash,” Erika prompted when the woman with Jonathan continued just to look at the two items. “Dr. Whitman has a ‘thing’ against ropes. He’s afraid that a pet might wind up choking itself,” she confided.
    Given the Labrador’s propensity for dashing practically in two directions at the same time, getting a sturdy leash that wouldn’t bite into his tender throat did make sense to her, Lily thought. She certainly wasn’t about to refuse to accept the collar and leash.
    “Okay, so what do I owe you