It took him a moment to realize she’d stopped talking and was staring at him, her eyebrows raised and her chin lightly tilted.
Had she asked him a question?
“What do you prefer I call you?” she asked in her soft, sweet tone. She was clearly repeating herself.
Yep. He’d missed a question, all right.
“United States Marine Corps Sergeant Aaron Jamison is a bit of a mouthful,” she continued when he didn’t answer.
He frowned. For almost his entire adult life, he’d been Sergeant to the people who mattered most to him. He’d never even considered what he was supposed to be called to those he’d meet now and in the future.
“Just call me Aaron,” he finally said, cringing inwardly. His name sounded so—barren. Pathetic. Useless. It didn’t say anything about him at all.
But it would be equally unworkable for her to use any other name. His marine corps career was behind him, and it was about time he faced the wretched future in front of him.
“Okay, Aaron. Are you ready to meet your new service dog?”
Aaron grinned. He’d always preferred action over speaking or paperwork, and he was anxious to see the dog with whom Ruby had paired him. “Now you’re talking.”
“Great,” Ruby said, walking around the desk and leading the poodle at her side toward him.
“Aaron, meet Oscar, your new best friend.”
* * *
Ruby wasn’t altogether surprised when Aaron gaped. She was fairly certain he hadn’t expected this particular turn of events. The rough-edged marine sergeant being given a standard poodle was, in a way, somewhat laughable. But Ruby had been working with service dogs for well over a decade and knew exactly what she was doing. She’d given a lot of thought to which of her dogs would be appropriate for Aaron and his specific physical issues, and Oscar was perfect for what he needed.
Aaron was just going to have to deal. He was the key to her receiving a military contract that might make or break their program’s ability to continue, and she wasn’t going to back down just because he didn’t happen to like her methods.
Still, she had to admit she was already somewhat discouraged by their meeting. Usually, clients arrived excited and eager to train.
But the one time she needed cooperation, it appeared as if she wasn’t going to get it. Unless she could change his mind.
“Oscar will be perfect for your needs,” she assured him, reaching down to scratch the poodle’s head.
“That froufrou dog? No way, ma’am. Not gonna happen.”
“Excuse me?” She’d expected him to hesitate but not downright reject her idea.
“Look, Ruby, if you like Oscar so much, then keep him for yourself. I need a man’s dog by my side, not some...some...”
“Poodle?” Ruby suggested, her eyebrows disappearing beneath her long ginger bangs. She could either get angry or laugh at the situation, and she’d always been prone to the latter, as difficult as it was for her now.
“Right. Whatever. Lead me to where you keep the German shepherds and I’ll pick one out myself.”
“Hmm,” Ruby said, rubbing her chin as if considering his request, although she really wasn’t. At length, she shrugged. “No.”
“No?”
That obviously wasn’t the answer he wanted to hear nor what he’d expected her to say. He was clearly used to giving orders, not taking them. He was gritting his teeth so hard she could see his pulse pounding in the corner of his scruffy jaw.
“No,” she repeated firmly. “First off, we don’t currently have a German shepherd as part of our program, much less several from which to choose. Nor do we have any Mals, before you ask.”
She didn’t tell Aaron that if she’d truly believed a GSD—German Shepherd Dog—or a Belgian Malinois would be the right breed for him and his circumstances, she would have searched the local shelters high and low and reached out to her contacts to find one. No use adding fuel to the fire.
“I’d even take a pit bull.” He was beginning to sound desperate.
Ruby had a wonderful brown-and-white-spotted pit bull named Tugger currently on her program roster, but he definitely wasn’t the right dog for Aaron. Just the way the marine had said he’d even take a pit bull told her all she needed to know on that subject.
“Nope. Nope. And nope. Look, Aaron. Either you’re going to have to learn to trust me and my judgments where my specialty and training with service dogs are concerned or you may as well just leave now before we start. I don’t have any inclination to constantly knock heads with you at every turn. This isn’t going to work unless you’re ready to listen to me and do whatever I tell you to do.”
His eyebrows furrowed. “I understand chain of command, ma’am. There were many times as a marine when I didn’t exactly agree with my superiors, but I understood why it was important to follow orders.”
“Okay. I guess that’s one way to look at it. Let’s go with that.”
Talk about making her uncomfortable. She’d always considered herself a teacher and not so much a leader, especially the type this military man was used to obeying. She couldn’t even imagine running a boot camp here and barking—pun definitely intended—out orders at him, and yet she suspected that was exactly what Aaron thought he was about to experience.
“For me,” Aaron continued, standing, “following orders is black and white. My marines’ lives under my command often depended on it. But as you can see, I’m having difficulty making that transition in this situation. We’re not talking people’s lives here.”
“I disagree. We’re very much talking lives—yours. You may not yet have a clear vision of what you’ll be able to do with Oscar, but a service dog can make all the difference in the world.”
“Yes, but you just insisted the best dog for me is a poodle. I’m sorry, but that can’t be right. If you knew anything about me at all, you’d know the last dog in the world I’d choose would be a poodle.”
“And yet I still believe I’m right,” said Ruby with a wry smile. She couldn’t back down now. Somehow, she had to convince this man she knew what she was doing. Internally, she was sweating. “I carefully studied your file before you arrived, Aaron, and specially selected Oscar for you to work with. I’m the expert here. So how are we going to get over this hurdle?”
“I have orders from the VA to make this work. How will it look to them if I turn back so quickly and give up before I even start the process?” He shook his head. “No. Don’t answer that. It will look as if I wasn’t able or competent enough to complete my mission. That’s never going to happen. I’ll always pull through, no matter what the circumstances.”
Ruby was having difficulty considering her working relationship with Aaron a mission, but then, that was probably the only worldview the tough marine knew. She realized she’d do better to speak to him in terms he could comprehend and act upon.
“I’ll do my best to work with you in a way you understand,” she promised him. “In terms of giving orders and such.”
That’s what she did with her dogs, after all. Looked at each one as an individual and worked with them in a way they understood. Not that Aaron could even remotely be compared to her canines—except perhaps for the occasional bared teeth.
“This is my first time working with a military man, so give me some leeway.”
That wasn’t entirely accurate, and her gut squeezed painfully. She’d had experiences with military men before—both her father and her high school sweetheart, who’d returned from the Middle East troubled and with issues they ultimately couldn’t overcome.
There was the irony. It was one of the primary reasons gaining this military contract was so important to her, and yet it was the very reason working with Aaron and others would be so difficult.
Her heart had already withstood so much. If it wasn’t that the service-dog program was on the bri
nk of folding, she might not have accepted the challenge to begin with. She believed with her whole heart that A New Leash on Love was a ministry to those it served. But even ministries needed funding, and hers was full of sweet canines who needed food and veterinary care.
It was worth it. But she had to dig deep to find the courage to confront her past and rise to face her future.
She believed she could help. But what could she do if Aaron didn’t give her the opportunity to prove it to him?
“Look, ma’am,” Aaron said, his jaw finally loosening as he moved out of parade rest. She shot him a look and he corrected himself. “Ruby, I mean. I never turn away from challenges. Not in boot camp, not in Afghanistan and not now, no matter how I personally feel about it. That’s what makes me a good marine.”
He paused and blew out a breath. “Made me a good marine,” he corrected.
“‘Once a marine, always a marine,’” she gently reminded him. “Right? I’m sure I heard that somewhere. Look—” she swiped a palm across her cheek “—if you’re willing to push through the awkwardness, then so am I. I think—hope—you’ll find it isn’t as bad as you imagine it will be. Don’t discount the training process. Who knows? You may even grow to like Oscar.”
“I don’t know about that, but despite my reticence, I’m willing to give it a go. Conquer this new terrain.”
Ruby thought it was an odd way of looking at their working relationship. But then again, it kind of made sense to her, in a what-it-must-be-like-to-be-in-the-marine-corps kind of way.
She only hoped he didn’t expect her to shout out orders like some kind of drill sergeant. That wasn’t her teaching method and never would be. She believed in positive reinforcement both for her dogs and her clients and couldn’t even imagine what it would be like to yell at someone. The man was troubled enough without her screaming orders at him.
She was the sweet talker in her family. Her wins came from her soft-spoken nature, while Aaron’s, no doubt, were from a heart that was as rough and scarred inside as his outside. She couldn’t even imagine what he’d seen and experienced, but she knew no one could walk away from such circumstances without it affecting them in some way.
That’s how it had been for Daniel. She’d thought she’d be married with children by now. She and her high school flame had so many plans. And then he’d entered the army and come home...different.
Ruby was now more convinced than ever that Oscar would be the perfect service dog for Aaron, a dog who wouldn’t constantly remind him of everything he’d been through. He’d probably had military-trained German shepherds and/or Belgian Malinois in his unit. Oscar was a sweet, even-tempered dog who could offer Aaron comfort and a sense of peace, maybe something he needed even more than the physical aspects of the work they would do together.
And maybe—just maybe—Ruby would be the right teacher for him, too.
Copyright © 2021 by Debra Kastner
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ISBN-13: 9780369715036
Their Surprise Amish Marriage
Copyright © 2021 by Jocelyn Ord
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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