Page 8 of Come Fly With Me

Flynn vaguely noted that she’d gotten into Abby’s nail polish and painted her toes—not toenails,toes—sparkly blue.

“There are four big guinea pigs,” she said smugly. “And there are thirteen little ones.” She held up her hands, keeping them close together to show him how small.

“No.” He pinched the bridge of his nose and groaned. “That can’t be right. We had four girl pigs. I checked myself. Girl pigs can’t have babies together.”

“Why not?” Her wide eyes focused on him like searchlights. The kid had a knack for zeroing in on information she really shouldn’t.

“That’s not the point,” he said. “The point is, there shouldn’t be any babies.”

“Well, there are. And they are adorable. Like little fluffy pompoms that run around. I’m calling them Daisy, and Mindy, and Poppy, and Ruby, and…”

Flynn tuned her out as he tried to come up with a way out of his latest dilemma. He was training to be a veterinarian and had checked each pig before he brought them home. He’d promised Abby that all of them were girls. How could he have been so wrong? He was a semi-trained professional.

“This is all your fault,” he told Katy.

“That’s not what Muma’s going to say,” she said in a sing-song voice.

She wasn’t wrong.

“How are we going to hide thirteen guinea pigs?” he said as he sat on the step beside her.

“I can put some under my bed,” she offered.

“Thanks. But I don’t think that will work.” He heaved a sigh. “I need to find homes for them.”

That made her sit up straight. “Give them away?” she screeched.

“Shh!” He quickly looked behind him to check the house was still silent. “You’ll wake your mother.”

Frowning, she shot to her feet and stood in front of him, hands on hips. “You arenotgiving away my babies.”

“We can’t keep them. Nobody keeps seventeen guinea pigs.”

“I’ve named them. They belong to me.”

“They belong to their parents. And I’m sure if they could talk, they’d say they didn’t want thirteen kids either.”

Katy leaned forward until her face was mere inches from his. “You aren’t giving away my guinea pigs. They’re mine. You gave them to me.”

“I only gave you four. The rest are spares.” Now he knew how the EU felt when they tried to reason with Boris Johnson.

“I don’t care. They’re mine.” She folded her arms and stuck her nose in the air. “Anyway, I just came out to tell you not to wake up Muma because she’s still asleep. And I put all my pigs in the room with her because they were sleepy too. So don’t step on them when you go in there.”

“You did what?” He shot to his feet.

“I wanted Muma to see how cute the babies are.”

“While she’s asleep?”

“When she wakes up.” Katy stamped her foot.

“Come on.” Flynn took her hand. “We’re going upstairs. We’re going to be quiet, and we’re going to get all of the furballs out of my bedroom—before your mum wakes up.”

“But I don’t want to,” she wailed.

“Do I have to gag you?” he said as he pushed open the front door.

“You aren’t allowed to gag kids. Uncle Matt will arrest you. Then you’ll have to play football for the prison team.”