It was Friday morning, and River had just arrived at the beach house. My catering partner was holding three shopping bags in one hand and a pet carrier in the other. An unearthly shriek was coming from the carrier, enough to make my arm hairs stand on end. “I didn’t want to,” he told me as he swung the bags onto the counter, “but my friend that was supposed to cover for me on my petsitting gig totally flaked. I couldn’t leave Puffy unsupervised, because he’d get mad and completely destroy his owner’s apartment.” “So you brought him here to destroy a mansion?” “I didn’t know what to do. I was hoping there’d be a garage or something that we could keep Puffy in, someplace where I could check on him a lot and try to keep him calm.” “My brother brought another unexpected guest along, too,” a voice from the doorway said. Skye was balancing a huge stack of produce boxes, and I rushed over to give him a hand. “Hey, you convinced River to let you come!” I said as I took the top two boxes off the stack and set them on the counter.
