«Anytime, honey,» Peggy White replied, slowly closing her door as Carol and her grinning, tail-wagging dog moved along to the next one where the weary divorcee paused to fumble in her purse for the key.

Inside, Carol immediately kicked off her low-heeled shoes. Leaning back against the wall, she took turns massaging the toes and instep of first one aching foot, and then the other, while Sultan watched with interest. «Oh, baby, you don't know how heavenly that feels,» she breathed down at her loving and constant companion. «If only you could, I know you'd do it for me, wouldn't you, darling?»

The big, sleek-coated animal whined his answer up to her, his rounded brown eyes glowing with affection. The pleasing sound of her voice relayed her feelings to him. She was his whole world and he could not understand why she left him with the other female person. She was nice enough to him, but never could she take the place of his warm-eyed mistress.

The shapely divorcee smiled fondly down at her faithful companion, suddenly realizing, as she had a million times over the past lonely year, how empty her life would be without him. Even living with her parents from the moment Jonny had left her, up until their divorce became final some ten days before, she had spent more time with Sultan then she had with her own mother and father. But her folks had seemed to understand, or at least thought they did, tying her emotions toward the animal to her lost singer-husband and the heartbreak of her broken marriage. They had been wrong, but Carol had seen no reason to enlighten them. Her feeling for her ex-husband had been long dead, ever since the second year of their marriage when she had found out he was running around while she slaved in a department store and he chased career dreams. By the end of the third year what little feeling remained inside her for him was breathing its last. She had refused to be the sole support between them and had quit her job. A week later, Jonny Gains landed his first worthwhile contract in a cheap Las Vegas nightclub and began paying the bills … plus flaunting in her face his open escapades with other women. Now that she could objectively think back on it, Carol felt certain that he'd brought home the little German shepherd puppy «to keep her company» as more of an insult than anything. Hadn't his favorite term for her been «bitch?»