Page 33 of The Payback Plan

‘Paige!’

The irritation in Oliver’s voice carried all the way up the stairs to Paige who was sitting at the table, ostensibly working but actually messaging with Bella. ‘Oops,’ she murmured to Pavarotti who had instantly stopped running on his wheel at the sound of Oliver’s voice.

Pavarotti had a total dude crush on Oliver.

‘Someone’s wearing his cranky pants today.’

Paige

Gotta go, methinks Oliver is having trouble finding the remote control again.

Bella

Where’d you hide it this time?

Paige

I can neither confirm nor deny that it may have *slipped* down between the side and the cushion.

Bella

You are so evil for messing up his system like that.

Paige

Who? Moi?

She signed off then before another, ‘Paige!’ thundered up to greet her.

Smiling, she headed down the stairs. ‘You bellowed?’ she said as she stepped into the media room. Casper, thoroughly at home after only two days, lay stretched out on the couch, his tail thumping in greeting.

‘Where’s the damn remote control?’ he demanded, his cheek kissing the floor as he peered beneath the couch.

Paige clamped her lips together to stop from laughing. ‘Have you checked under the dog?’

Oliver climbed to his feet. ‘Yes.’

She pressed her lips even harder as she took in the lolling dog all freshly spruced, brown and white again, his fur snowy soft, looking like the sofa was not only his but that it had been made especially for him.

Paige folded her arms. ‘I thought he was only allowed on the floor in front of the fire?’

Shoving his hands on his hips, Oliver was distracted as he looked around for any obvious signs of the remote Paige had hidden last night after he went to bed. ‘Yeah, he’s not great at following commands.’

She narrowed her eyes at the dog. Paige was pretty sure Casper understood far more than he was letting on. In fact, she’d even hazard a guess after he’d dropped that damn ball in the hallway like it had been made of lava, that he was not only highly trained but highly intelligent.

He certainly had Oliver figured out anyway.

Sure, Oliver might outwardly protest their presence but Paige knew Pavarotti perked up whenever he heard Oliver’s voice and she’d bet her last penny Casper would be sleeping on the end of Oliver’s bed before too long.

‘The remote?’

Dragging her attention back to the problem at hand, Paige put on a good display searching for an item whose location she already knew. ‘I swear it was on the arm of the chair when I finished watching last night,’ she murmured, tapping her index finger against her mouth feigning concentration. ‘Maybe it… fell down the side of the cushion? Did you look there?’

He glared at her impatiently. ‘Yes.’

Well… sheknewit was there so he couldn’t have looked too damn hard. Although she hadcrammedit down.

Quirking an eyebrow at him, Paige made a huge show of crossing to the couch and feeling down between the cushion and the arm. She rummaged around for a bit, digging her fingers in hard towards the back, her fingertips just scraping it on a second sweep.