Considering the streak of yellow snow leading from his formerly more-or-less clean van, he felt he was being extraordinarily gentle, but he complied with his daughter’s request all the same. To be fair, Jeeves was a cute little thing, his curls flopping into his eyes and alternate patches of black and white all over his warm, chubby body. He was even cuter once Emily got hold of him. Ford had no idea whether all the puppies at Lila’s kennel were this well behaved or if Emily had some kind of sixth sense, but Jeeves had taken to his daughter as quickly as she’d taken to him. As soon as the cockapoo—a name Ford found almost as ridiculous as his own—was clasped in her puffy-coated arms, he hefted a sigh of pleasure and rested his little head on her shoulder.

Only try to separate us now, that little head seemed to say—and in a British accent, too. Unlike him, Jeeves von Hinklebottom the Third had been aptly named.

“Oh, how sweet!” Helen cooed. “You got a pet. Isn’t he the most precious, sweetest little—”

Emily stiffened. “Jeeves von Hinklebottom the Third is not a pet,” she informed their neighbor in the exact same tone Lila had used with her. The stern, serious look was also identical. They both wore it too well for Ford’s peace of mind. “He has a very ’portant job to do. You can’t touch him.”

“Well, really. That’s not very nice.”

“No, it’s not. Her delivery could use some work.”

Apparently, Emily disagreed. With a pert toss of her head, she added, “He is a servistus animal. No one can pet him but me and Daddy and Princess Lila.”

“Is there a reason she keeps referencing Star Wars?”

Ford had to laugh. Helen Griswold was the divorced mother of two very imaginative, very rambunctious boys who believed the entire world began and ended in a galaxy far, far away.

“It’s Princess Lila, and she’s the dog trainer,” he explained. He also started hoisting supplies out of the back of his van, even though he had no idea where he was going to put them all. For such a small animal, Jeeves had an awful lot of baggage. People had sailed on the Titanic with less. “Jeeves here is Emily’s new hearing service animal. Or he will be, after six weeks of intensive training with Washington’s finest dog expert.”

Helen wrinkled her nose. “Washington’s finest dog expert is a member of the royalty?”