by April Hunt
“Have some cheese fries.” He pushed the carton over to her and got up to get them each a glass of water. She looked like she was about to inhale the cheesesteak and he wanted to be sure she had something to wash it all down before she choked.
He also needed time to get his stupid grin under control because watching her enjoy a simple sandwich was incredibly entertaining. In all sorts of ways.
“What kind of cheese is this?” Lyn asked. He glanced back to see her studying the end of a coated fry before popping it into her mouth.
Bad, bad pictures flashed through his head. Jesus.
“Cheez Whiz.” Not his favorite, but then Rojas had been the one to actually go for the food. “It’s one of the favorites on-site.”
“One of?” she asked even as she took another bite.
Even eating messy, she was cute. Hot. Both.
He returned to the table with glasses of water and sat down again. “Everyone has their taste. I like my cheesesteaks better with real provolone.”
“Hmm.” Another bite and a very thoughtful look of concentration as she pondered. “It wouldn’t go over the fries as easily.”
He nodded. “True. I still like the fries better with Cheez Whiz.”
She sighed, studying her now half a sandwich. “It’s too bad this is so very bad for us.”
“Doesn’t hurt to enjoy once in a while.” Life could be short. Painfully so. Living for the moment helped. This was fun, much improved from her indirect attitude earlier. “If you like it that much, we’ll have to make sure to take you into Philly and have you order your own at one of the classic places for them.”
She chewed some more, swallowed, and took a sip of water. “Aren’t the best places Pat’s and Geno’s?”
He shrugged. “Probably the ones you hear about most often. There’s Jim’s on South Street too. A lot of places in Philly do a good cheesesteak. I like Tony Luke’s on Oregon Ave.”
The cheesesteak in her hands had more of her attention than his words did. No issue there. He liked a woman with her priorities straight.
There was a lot to like about Lyn Jones from what he’d seen over the last day, and he’d rather focus on the positive. The way she could enjoy a good sandwich every bit as much as a swanky meal in an expensive establishment was high up on his list of good things about her so far.
“You think Atlas would do well on a socialization walk through the city?” She was back to the fries and looking at him with a clear, crystal green gaze. He decided not to tell her she had cheese on the corner of her mouth, or that he wanted to kiss it off.
“Maybe not today, but not out of the question later this week if he keeps improving.” He glanced at the dog, who was steadfast in trying to ignore them. Normally he didn’t eat in front of the dogs. No need to tease them with what they couldn’t have. But it didn’t hurt their training to have temptation around them sometimes. “I was thinking maybe I’d take you out to dinner and give him the night off.”
She swallowed. Hard. “Dinner. Like a date?”
Ah. Maybe not. “That was the idea. Maybe I read things wrong but I thought we had a moment back there.”
“Oh.” Her fair cheeks flushed pink. “No. Yes. We did. I just…”
“It’s okay if you’d prefer not.” He schooled his expression to carefully neutral. She was important to helping Atlas and he didn’t want her to feel uncomfortable working with him just because he’d asked her on a date. Dumb idea anyway.
She bit her lower lip but had the grace to look him directly in the eye. “You’re a very nice man, David. And I can’t thank you enough…”
He held up his hand. “No need to thank me.”
He’d slam his own head into a wall before letting her accept a date with him as a thank-you for what any decent person should’ve done for her. Interested in her? Yes. But everything in him rebelled at the idea of pressuring her. He liked his women willing and he didn’t exactly have a problem finding them. This just needed to quit being so damned uncomfortable.
“I’d like to keep things at the professional coworker level…and friends. Is that okay?”
How could he say no? He wasn’t an absolute dick. And besides which, his priority was Atlas. The dog needed for them to work well together and David wasn’t about to let his hormones screw anything up.
“We’re good.” He gave her what he hoped was a reassuring smile. “Totally professional and no hard feelings.”
She let out the breath she’d been holding and gave him a small, unsure smile.
He pushed the fries closer to her and handed her a napkin. “Have another fry. You’ll need the energy this afternoon working with our friend here.”
* * *
“Agility?” Lyn studied the course. It wasn’t the standard agility course she was used to seeing but rather a more rugged course. There were items specific to K9 training like the broad jump, catwalk, and brick wall jump. The Catch-A frame was completely new to her. The car door jump and window jump were actually painted in more realistic colors as opposed to the standard white. The equipment was familiar to her but not part of her usual clientele’s goals.
David took the lead off Atlas. “He can do all of it. Easily. The question is whether he wants to.”
She nodded. A dog learned exponentially faster with internal drive. Incentive could help too, but a trainer learned to align training with the natural drive of the dog for the best results. Which meant finding a situation in which the dog wanted to perform a particular action.
At the moment, Atlas was sitting next to David and not even looking at the agility course. Not interested.
“What’re we using for incentive?” She’d used treats usually for clients, but the K9 and military trainers didn’t always have the same practices.
David pulled a tennis ball from his pocket. Atlas watched the slow arch of the ball as it crossed the distance between them. Lyn was happy she caught it. It would’ve been insanely embarrassing if she’d dropped it considering how much time David had given her to catch it.
“He gets this after completing each exercise.” David lifted his chin toward the ball in her hands. “Then we’ll see if we can get him to do the whole course for the ball.”
She raised her eyebrows. “That’s assuming a very fast learning curve.”
He shrugged. “This is all review for him. He used to run a course like this for the sheer joy of doing it. If we get him back into a mood to do it at all, I don’t think it’ll take long for him to demonstrate how easy this is for him.”
She laughed. Atlas did seem to have his fair share of pride. “Okay.”
“Walk to each obstacle and give the command. Let’s take them one at a time and see how much he needs to obey.”
“Obedience.” She frowned. “We haven’t confirmed he’s consistently obedient yet.”
Only a few commands this morning and during lunch. Every time, she’d seen the pause, the consideration, as Atlas had decided whether he wanted to obey.
“He’s still got solid obedience.” David spoke with utter confidence, almost irritating. “There’s a delay but he doesn’t ignore commands. He just doesn’t care enough to execute immediately.”
She frowned. The delay in behavior might not be a big deal in the civilian world. Some regular owners might not even think twice about the delay even if it became a habit. But…he could be testing her. “The delay isn’t acceptable for military work.”
David shook his head, no hint of whether he’d been leading her to saying so or not. Just responding. “Not at all. But then, at his age, he might not be redeployed at this point. It really depends on how well he comes through this.”
So cold. Matter of fact. She kind of hated David a little bit for the way he casually talked about Atlas like that. As if it was all about practicality and not about an injured soul.
Her heart ached for Atlas. Part of her wanted to cut him slack, let him have the leeway in his training to ensure he’d be allowed to retire and enjoy lif
e here. But Atlas was a working dog. He might not be happy no longer working. It had to be up to him. Find his balance again and working might be what he lived for.
“You do basic obedience with every dog here, right?” Seemed as if she’d seen the other trainers working with various dogs. Both Alex Rojas and Brandon Forte had been out with various dogs all morning.
“We make sure every working dog here trains for thirty minutes in obedience every day. Then they spend time in their specialization.” Still brisk and all business, David pointed toward the kennels. “Any puppies Rojas breeds are also taught basic obedience as a package deal with the buyers. We use the time in the basic obedience classes to confirm the new owners are a good fit for our dogs.”
Good practice, assessing the owners to be sure they could handle the dogs they were purchasing. The trainers were less likely to lose track of a puppy somebody might decide to abandon. Too many people purchased a dog, invested in training, then dropped it in a shelter rather than admit to the breeder they’d decided they didn’t want the dog anymore.
Perhaps she was reading too much into his tone. He was being practical but maybe he wasn’t uncaring. She realized she was biased because of her dealings with her stepfather, looking for callousness in David. But David had been very generous with answering questions. Especially considering she’d turned him down earlier, he could’ve taken a completely different tack. She appreciated his willingness to really work with her.
“How many of your puppies go to private homes?” She’d thought they specialized in working dogs.
David studied Atlas. “Not every dog is suited for military or K9 work. We start assessing temperament right away and do our best to find good homes for the puppies not suited for working. They start training early and we watch them for the right combination of prey drive, aggression, intelligence…all of the traits necessary for them to be successful.”
“And those same traits make them difficult home pets.” High aggression and intelligence made for destroyed homes when those same dogs became agitated in a high-density neighborhood or got bored while owners were away at work or even on short errands. It was amazing what level of destruction a single dog could do in the wrong environment.
David’s grin drew an answering grin from her. It was ridiculous how much of a difference his expression made from his previous attitude and how happy she was for them to be on the same page when it came to training. She’d butted heads with other trainers in the past and the experience had been frustrating. She’d really thought he would be another one of those when she’d first met him. This—and seeing him with Atlas—was proving her wrong in the best of ways.
It’d been the right decision not to go out to dinner with him. This level of professionalism was something much better, even if he was also one of the most distractingly attractive men she’d ever worked with.
“Well, I might not have the same commands you’d use.” She figured it would be best to clarify before she confused Atlas. “I did look up the basic Dutch commands but I need to do more studying.”
David swept his arm out toward the course. “Let’s give it a try and take those spots where we run into them. I can give you the correct command if Atlas is looking like he’s up for the course.”
Good point. First step: see if the dog was actually willing. This entire exercise could end quickly if he only walked up to the first obstacle and sat there.
“All right. Let’s give this a try.”
Chapter Six
Please tell me you’re not going to keep her here on a gorgeous Saturday while the rest of you all pretend it’s just another day of the week.”
Lyn looked up at the speaker, an extremely attractive Asian woman with way more energy than anyone ought to have at 0500 on a Saturday morning. Seriously, the woman literally exuded vitality.
“Sophie, we are holding no one hostage.” From his position behind the breakfast counter in the communal kitchen, Brandon poured a new cup of coffee. He added cream and sugar then held it out to her.
He was going to give her caffeine? Seemed like a questionable choice.
Lyn wasn’t a morning person by nature. Most of her clients preferred to meet at reasonable times in the morning, like nine or ten. However, Hope’s Crossing Kennels had a much more active routine than the average home owner. The trainers were up and beginning morning chores by 0500, as they put it. The early morning was filled with feeding, then basic obedience for the working canines and the boarded guest dogs. Later in the morning, people would begin arriving for obedience and agility classes with Alex while Brandon and David took the working canines through specialized training. The afternoon went along the same lines, with various dogs getting individualized attention. Evening saw people arriving for more classes into the night.
The trainers of Hope’s Crossing Kennels easily worked sixteen-hour days, with long breaks in the slow times of the afternoon to balance out their long hours.
Lyn’s involvement was solely regarding Atlas but she sure as hell wasn’t going to sleep in when David was up and getting started with the freaking dawn. What she hadn’t anticipated was how ragged she’d feel once the weekend hit and they were all still getting started right on time.
One never appreciated sleeping in on the weekends until one couldn’t. It’d been especially hard to climb out from under the comforters this morning. The guest bed was warm, cozy and comfortable. David’s bed.
Lyn took another sip of her own coffee. No good could come of her brain being allowed to continue half-asleep at this moment.
“You all may continue with your routine,” Sophie was saying, coffee mug in hand and a stolen piece of bacon in the other. “But your guest here might not know there are options for her. Like actually leaving kennel grounds and enjoying a day off.”
“We take days off.” Alex sat at the table across from Lyn and gave her a grin. She lifted her mug in acknowledgment.
Sophie scowled in his general direction.
David slid a plate of eggs sunny side up and bacon in front of Lyn and her attention snapped to the wonderful smell of breakfast. She lifted her fork. “Thank you.”
“No problem.” David was already digging into his own plate of food.
He’d been incredibly considerate through the entire week. Breakfast was always like this at the kennel. They ate together, went through the day’s schedule and any potential issues. Lyn was included as a contributing member. Maybe not one of the inner circle, but a part of a team. It was refreshing, interesting, as compared with the solo work she usually did in her training and consulting business.
“The least you could all do is introduce us properly.” Sophie had a plate of breakfast by now and she seated herself.
Brandon sat next to her, absently passing a plate of iced breakfast rolls over to Lyn before offering it to Sophie, too. They smelled heavenly and Lyn immediately bit deep into golden, pillowy goodness. When blueberries burst across her tongue, complemented by the vanilla lemon icing, Lyn closed her eyes to focus every fiber of her being on enjoying the flavors.
Alex chuckled. “Pretty sure Lyn’s going to be your friend forever if you keep bringing baked goods on your visits while she’s here. And you know who Lyn is because as soon as you noticed we had a guest you followed Brandon around until he told you. Not sure any other introductions are needed.”
Lyn finished chewing and swallowed, coming up for air before taking another bite of happiness. They all accepted the other woman with an easy air of long acquaintance. She was like a little sister, running around bugging her big brothers for attention. Brandon glanced at Sophie as she reached over him for salt and quickly stuffed his own breakfast roll in his mouth.
Well, mostly big brothers. There was something else going on there but it wasn’t Lyn’s thing to get into the middle of those situations.
“Lyn, it’s a pleasure to officially meet you.” Sophie extended her hand across the table. “I’m Sophie and I do the accounting for the kennels.
”
“She also keeps giving us all reason to keep up our cardio, otherwise her baking would make us fat.” Despite his commentary, Alex helped himself to another sweet roll.
Lyn quickly wiped her hands on her napkin and reached out her right hand to accept the handshake. “You made these? They’re incredible.”
“It’s a hobby.” Sophie’s slender hand caught hers in a firm grip.
Nice. Lyn hated limp handshakes.
Sophie gave her a friendly smile. The sort of open, genuine smile Lyn couldn’t help but return. “I was going to do a little shopping in New Hope today. Why don’t you join me?”
“Oh.” Lyn glanced at David. “I don’t want to miss any work with Atlas.”
“Today’s his rest day. No plans besides easy exercise time and relaxing with him.” David didn’t look up from his plate. “You can always spend time with him after you get back.”
The week had been interesting, learning how to take Atlas through the various specialized training. They’d only covered agility and scent training this week, with one session on bite work. David had asked a friend from the local police force to come and wear the big protective suit when they’d done the bite work.
It’d been frightening and fascinating to see Atlas spring into action. She’d worked with K9s in the past but Atlas, as an Air Force military working dog, was on a different level. His aggression was higher if at all possible, and his speed was heart stopping. Plus, there’d been a distinct difference between biting to apprehend the way K9s did and biting to kill the way a military working dog needed to.
“Can we speak privately for a minute?” She put her fork and knife on her plate. “So we’re on the same page about Atlas.”
David didn’t respond but pushed his chair back and rose.
In minutes, they were down the hall in his office. She still couldn’t stop blushing when she looked at the door. Eavesdropping hadn’t been the greatest moment of her life.
“Is this because of yesterday’s bite work session?” She wasn’t going to waste time circling the question.