Carolina Moon

On the way back, you stop by the dry cleaners and pick up all the stuff I hauled down there last week, mostly yours anyway. God knows what you need with half a hundred silk blouses.”
    Faith narrowed her eyes. “Anything else?” she said sweetly.
    “It’s all written down there, plain as day. Give you something to do with your bored self for a couple hours. Now, go get some clothes on, it’s going on noon. Sinful, just sinful to be lazing around in your robe half the damn day. Go on, get.”
    Lilah made shooing motions, then snatched up Faith’s plate and cup.
    “I haven’t finished my breakfast.”
    “I didn’t see you eating it. Picking and pouting’s what you were doing. Now, out of my kitchen, and make yourself useful for a change.”
    Lilah folded her arms, angled her head, and stared. She had a way of staring that could wither the bravest soul. Faith shoved back from the table, sniffed, and stalked out. “I’ll be back when I’m back,” she called out.
    With a shake of her head and a chuckle, Lilah finished off Faith’s coffee herself. “Some chicks, they just never learn who rules the roost.”
    It had taken Wade three years and eighteen pups to convince Dottie Betrum to have her oversexed Lab-retriever mix spayed. The last litter of six were just weaned, and while their mama slept off the effects of the surgery, he gave each of the cheerfully barking puppies the necessary shots.
    “I just can’t look at the needles, Wade. Makes me light-headed.”
    “You don’t need to look, Mrs. Betrum. Why don’t you go on out and wait? We’ll be done here in just a few minutes.”
    “Oh.” Her hands butterflied up to her cheeks, and her myopic eyes shone with distress behind the thick lenses of her glasses. “I feel like I should stay. Doesn’t seem right to just…” She trailed off when Wade slid the needle under fur.
    “Maxine, take Mrs. Betrum on out to the waiting room.” He gave his assistant a quick wink. “I can handle this.”
    Handle it better, he thought, as Maxine helped the staggering woman out of the room, without sweet, little old ladies fainting on the floor.
    “Here you go, little guy.” Wade rubbed the puppy’s belly to soothe it and completed the inoculations. He weighed, scratched ears, checked for parasites, and filled out charts while yips and barks echoed off the walls.
    Mrs. Betrum’s Sadie slept peacefully in postop, old Mr. Klingle’s cat, Silvester, hissed and squalled in his cage, and Speedy Petey, Progress Elementary’s third-grade hamster mascot, raced on his wheel, proving he was recovered from a mild bladder infection.
    It was, for Dr. Wade Mooney, his own little paradise.
    He finished up the last pup while the siblings tumbled over each other, tugged at his shoelaces, or piddled on the floor. Mrs. Betrum had assured him she’d found good homes for five of the puppies already. He had, as always, gently declined her offer to take one for himself.
    But he had an idea just where the last of the lot could make his home.
    “Doc Wade?” Maxine peeked back in.
    “All done here. Let’s gather up the troops.”
    “They’re so cute.” Her dark eyes danced. “I thought you were going to give in and take one of this batch.”
    “Once you start, you’ll never stop.” But his dimples deepened as a pup wormed and wiggled in his hands.
    “Wish I could take one.” Maxine picked up a puppy, cuddling while it licked her face with desperate love and speed.
    She adored animals, which is why the opportunity to work for Doc Wade had been heaven-sent. There were already two dogs at home, and she knew better than to think she could talk her parents into indulging her with another.
    She’d been born in the holler, and her parents had worked their fingers raw lifting themselves, their daughter, and their two young sons out of it. Money was still tight, she reminded herself, as she cuddled and pined for the puppy.
    And money would stay tight awhile longer, she thought with a sigh. She was the first of her family to get into college, and every penny had to be saved.
    “They’re so sweet, Doc Wade. But between work and school, I wouldn’t have time to give it enough attention.” She set the pup down again. “Besides the fact my daddy’d kill me.”
    Wade only grinned. Maxine’s father adored her. “Classes going all right?”
    She rolled her eyes. She was in her second year of college and time was as tight as money. If it hadn’t been for Doc Wade giving her