Zandra crouched behind one of the piles of stuff that filled Emmett’s half of the garage. Still filled his half of the garage. To be fair, it had only been five days. She’d given him a week to do it, and if she was going to put as much in as she expected from him, she’d give him the week without saying anything else.

At first Fiyero tried to nose through the clutter to get to her even though he was way too big. She’d expected him to barge his way in and crawl right up onto her lap. Then the second the garage door went up, he’d take off running through the construction supplies toward Emmett and ruin what she had planned. But after thirty seconds of looking for a way in, he’d plunked down on his bed and closed his eyes. The big guy was snoozing like 22 hours a day lately.

Elfie was keeping close eyes on Zandra and Fiyero, obviously confused but rolling with it for the most part. She didn’t try to follow Zandra’s path into the maze of boxes and once in a while she stood, walked over to Fiyero, sniffed him, then walked away a few feet and sat down.

“Buddy,” said Zandra. “Why can’t we figure out what is wrong with you?”

Zandra shifted positions and her foot hit something big and rubbery. Back in the piles of stuff where she was hiding, it was mostly dark, so she had to stick a hand down to feel what it was.

Almost as big around as a bowling ball, with a rubber handle. “Oh, Fiyero! Look what I found.”

He opened his eyes but didn’t lift his head until she got the Jolly Ball high enough for him to see and waved it in the air.

“Woof!” said Fiyero, climbing laboriously to his feet. The excitement didn’t go beyond his eyes and voice, but at least he was moving.

Zandra tossed it with a little spin over the granite slabs that separated her from the dogs’ sleeping area. It bounced in an unpredictable pattern that Fiyero couldn’t track with his eyes, much less his mouth, but it wasn’t for lack of trying.

The big goof finally tracked the ball down, once it came to a stop. It took two tries but he scooped up the handle in his mouth and strutted over to Elfie to show it off. Elfie hit it with her nose just hard enough to dislodge it from Fiyero’s mouth. It bounced a couple times then rolled in a circle.

Fiyero followed it with his eyes and this time waited for it to stop completely before picking it up and carrying it back to his bed, where he laid down with it between his front legs. That was it. No more dropping it and chasing it, no chewing, he was content to just hold his favorite toy. It had only been lost for a month, but the last time he’d had it he’d attacked it like it was a possessed raccoon that he had to protect the rest of the family from.

Was her baby finally growing up and getting more mature? Or was he just lethargic because of whatever was going on with him?

She fought off the temptation to go over and love on him. With what she had planned for Emmett, it wouldn’t do to smell like a giant dog and have her hands and face covered in hair and slobber. One of Emmett’s three requests/demands/ideas was more excitement in the bedroom. Big shocker.

She pulled her phone out of the pocket of her robe and checked the location app. Oh good, he was just about to pull into the driveway. Zandra felt a little thrill and a touch of nervousness. She had to admit, Emmett was on to something.

The garage door started to rise and Fiyero forgot all about his Jolly Ball. Tail wagging thunderously against the granite, he tottered over to the rising door and shoved his nose under it as if he could make it go up faster. By the time Emmett parked and pushed his door open, Fiyero had done a full lap around the truck.

“Hey, buddy,” said Emmett, tucking his cell phone into his pocket. “Looks like you’re feeling good.”

“Woof,” answered Fiyero. Zandra suspected it was the I found my toy woof.

She waited for Fiyero to run over to his bed and tell Emmett about the plan, and bring Emmett’s attention to the garage, possibly exposing Zandra. But Fiyero was more interested in getting his ears scratched. Elfie came up and nudged her way in.

“Look,” said Emmett, “a dog sandwich.” With his hands as the bread, and their heads side by side, he dug in for another minute.

Oh how she loved seeing her man interacting with the dogs like that.

Possibly the best thing that had come out of the incident last week was that he was now willing to consider, consider, having kids soon. She couldn’t wait to see him with a baby in his arms. And one on his lap. And a couple climbing on his back.

He was close to giving in and Zandra wasn’t above using her womanly wiles to convince him.

“Alright, outta the way,” said Emmett playfully. “My baby’s waitin’.”

Zandra smiled as she ducked her peeking eye away from the spot she’d been spying through. He couldn’t find her until she was ready for him.

His footsteps clipped through the garage and into the house without slowing down. The door closed and Zandra hopped into action.

She ran to the passenger side of his truck. There was only one more question mark in the whole plan, and as soon as she opened the door she saw what she was looking for.

“Come to mama,” said Zandra as she pulled Emmett’s tool belt from the floor of the truck. She closed the door as quietly as possible, then crept back into the garage.

Taking a quick breath, she tucked the tool belt inside her robe and squeaked when the cool leather wrapped around the bare skin of her waist. The tightest setting was still loose on her, but it caught on her hips instead of falling all the way to the floor.

“Here goes nothing,” she said to the curious dogs, then gripped the lapels of the robe. If seeing her wearing nothing but his tool belt didn’t do the trick for exciting, she didn’t know what would.

The tool belt buzzed. Like a … a cell phone alert. But she had seen him tuck his phone into his pocket when he climbed out of the truck.

Zandra worried if she should be nervous. That clasp on the bottom of her stomach was on the verge of springing open, sending her into a furious despair.

As slowly as if she was reaching into an active beehive, she stuck her hand into the buzzing pocket and pulled out a cell phone. It looked brand spanking new.

“Options?” wondered Zandra quietly. “No.”

She clicked the wake up button and an image of the woman she’d tried to forget about appeared on the screen. All of the woman. Wearing even less than a toolbelt.

Zandra clicked back to the text thread and saw various images, all of them seductive or downright graphic, interspersed with encouraging texts from Emmett such as, More! Or From behind.

The phone buzzed again, Zandra didn’t want to see any more of the woman than she’d already seen—as if that was possible—but she dared a peek.

Just a teaser until tmw, Emmie! Say hi to the ball and chain.

Zandra heard a growl and looked at the dogs to see where it came from. They both stared at her, and Elfie’s hackles on her rump were standing on end.

“Don’t listen to what’s about to happen, Fiyero. I don’t want your ears to burn.”