by Deb Kastner
Ruby knew the exact instant when her words touched his heart. His entire expression changed from the stubbornness he’d carried since the moment he’d arrived in Whispering Pines to one of incredulity and wonder.
And suddenly Ruby understood just what Jake had been after here, forcing him to hold baby Felix. Man to man, without a word, he was showing Aaron a glimpse of what his future could hold if he’d just open up and embrace it.
Aaron glanced up and their gazes met and held. His smile was deep and real and reached out to her in a way she’d never experienced before. For her to be here with him, to be part of something so incredibly lifechanging for the marine who’d thought he’d lost everything, was a blessing beyond any she could have anticipated when she’d first taken on this project.
Yet there was more in his gaze, something to which Ruby didn’t dare put a name. His chocolate-colored eyes were full of emotions and a plea for her to help him understand what he was feeling.
But it made her panic and take a mental scramble backward. She’d seen a side of Aaron today that attracted her in ways she couldn’t have possibly imagined when the difficult man had first arrived at her facility. A gentler, more tender side of him that rounded him out. He was no longer a cardboard figure of a rough-edged marine who made her want to bang her head against the wall in frustration, but a real three-dimensional man.
And that scared her. Because he was participating in the service-dog program, Aaron depended on her. She was, in a sense, his commanding officer. He needed her guidance if he was ever going to be successful with Oscar—and if she was ever going to nab the military contract that was so important to her own future.
Those were reasons enough for her to stop her wayward thoughts and feelings before they got her into real trouble.
If that weren’t enough, she’d seen what combat had done to her father and Daniel. Both had come home different men and had never recovered. True, her father had never asked for or received any help for his problems, and Daniel had only found his way in prison. Aaron was getting help through A New Leash on Love, granted that he had started under duress. She felt he had now accepted what she was offering and was willing to make the necessary changes to make his team with Oscar work.
Ruby sprang to her feet, one palm pressed against her raging heart. Felix had fallen asleep sitting up, the teacup still in his hands, and Lottie was cuddled up on Aaron’s shoulder, near napping herself.
“You stay here where you are and enjoy the kiddos,” she said, scrambling for an excuse to leave. “I’ll take care of the kitchen.”
Anything to get away from this situation until she had time to think it through. Her muddled mind was a disaster.
“That won’t be necessary,” he insisted. “Don’t worry about it, Ruby. I made the mess. I ought to be the one to clean it up. I’ll get to it later.”
“Are you kidding? I had the privilege of eating one of those cupcakes. And I may just steal another one on my way out. Cleaning the kitchen is the least I can do.”
Their gazes met again. She could tell Aaron wasn’t buying her overly cheerful attitude, but with sleeping kids weighing him down, it wasn’t as if he could do anything about it.
She had a way out for now—for which Ruby was eternally grateful.
* * *
Though he’d been trying all through the weekend to work it out in his mind, Aaron couldn’t understand for the life of him what had happened that had set Ruby off. One second, he and Ruby had been smiling and laughing and sharing time with her sister’s kids, and the next she had skittered off as if her life had depended on it.
He didn’t know what had happened.
He appreciated what Jake had done for him, forcing him to face his fears and hold baby Felix. He’d come to realize it wasn’t about the experience of holding a baby for the first time so much as getting over the mental hurdle that his life post–marine corps would amount to nothing. Holding the baby gave him a glimpse of what might be.
Working with Oscar had taken him a long way as he’d learned to compensate for his injuries. And now, for the first time, he understood that he might indeed have a future—one that included a wife and family. Because he hadn’t thought it possible, it wasn’t something he’d ever considered, so the realization had hit him over the head like a two-by-four. After he’d enlisted, his only family had been his brothers in arms. It hadn’t even occurred to him there might be more to life than living in the past.
He wanted to share that excitement with Ruby. She’d been there for him since the beginning. She’d known him before. She’d patiently guided him through the process of learning how to work with Oscar and had shown him there was more to life—that he had a life at all. She’d encouraged him to reach forward and consider what his future might look like.
So, what had spooked her?
Because something certainly had. She’d cleaned up the kitchen—despite him telling her not to—and then she’d dashed off without so much as saying goodbye, which wasn’t like Ruby at all.
He was determined to discover the truth as he pulled up to the dog-training facility Monday morning.
“Come on, Oscar. Let’s go play.” That’s what working with Oscar felt like to him now. Not so much of a burden as it was just fun, even with a poodle. Oscar did have his good points, Aaron had to admit, and though he wasn’t ready to concede it aloud, he’d really become quite fond of the dog.
Ruby was already outside, working Dandy the black Lab through the agility course, running along with him as he went from obstacle to obstacle. Her cheeks were red from exertion, and several long strands of her hair—which she’d pulled back into a loose bun—had escaped and curled around her face. In his mind, she was more stunningly beautiful when dusty and working than when she was dressed up for church, although she was certainly pretty all the time, no matter what she was doing. But the sparkle in her eyes when she was working with her dogs was second to none.
Aaron let himself and Oscar into the agility arena and watched as Ruby continued to jog from obstacle to obstacle, calling and gesturing for Dandy to correctly perform his tasks. The Lab was young and feisty and didn’t always do what Ruby wanted the first time around, but she was patient and simply gestured for him to do the obstacle again and again until he got it right.
This was kind of how she worked with Aaron, he realized. He’d pressed her buttons enough times during the last two weeks to drive anyone crazy, but she’d patiently guided him through every difficulty. Each time he went off course, she’d set him straight, taking him back to the beginning and walking him through the obstacle again. There weren’t too many people in the world who could do that.
Major respect.
When Ruby realized Aaron was in the arena watching her, she stopped what she was doing and approached him.
“Sorry, I didn’t see you there,” she apologized, out of breath, her lungs heaving. “How long have you been watching?”
He grinned. “Long enough. It looks to me as if Dandy needs a little more time and work on the confidence course.”
She brushed her hair out of her eyes with the back of her hand. “Yeah, he does. He’s still young and spirited, and he doesn’t always pay attention when he’s going through the—what did you call it?”
“Confidence course. That’s what they call the obstacle course in the marines. A lot of these obstacles look similar, except we have a forty-foot-drop tower from which every marine has to rappel.”
She scrunched her nose and made a face. “Ugh.”
He lifted a brow. “Not a fan of heights?”
“Not so much.”
He was relieved that they were on speaking terms and she mostly appeared to have gotten over her freak-out moment from Saturday. She’d pretty much ignored him on Sunday at church, so he hadn’t been at all certain how today would go. The atmosphere still felt a little stiff between them, tho
ugh, and he couldn’t figure out why. He knew it must have been something he’d said or done, but he hadn’t a clue what made this woman’s mind work, and most of the time, he wasn’t certain he even wanted to know.
“I’ve got a plastic bin full of two dozen cupcakes for you on the seat,” he said, gesturing toward his truck. “Or rather, for the Winslow’s Woodlands gift shop. I wasn’t sure where you wanted them. Do you want me to drive them down there before we start training today?”
“Wow. Thank you for doing the extra baking this past weekend. Just leave them here for now. Felicity made a spot directly on the front counter of the gift shop to display them, so I’ll take them down later. Hopefully, we can keep the boys away from them so our customers will have the opportunity to indulge.”
He assumed by the boys, she meant her brothers, Sharpe and Frost, both of whom were large men and not boys at all.
“We’re keeping this anonymous, right?” he clarified. “Because I really don’t want this to get around.”
She laughed. “No names will be used. Promise.” She crossed her heart with her index finger. “Although in full disclosure, my siblings all know about it. I couldn’t keep it a secret from them.”
“Good enough. So, what are we doing today?” he asked, changing the subject. “Oscar is quite interested in what you were doing out there with Dandy and is hoping we’ve come far enough in our training to work the agility course ourselves.”
“‘Oscar’ hopes?” she said, chuckling. “Well, you can tell Oscar that running the agility course today is exactly what I have planned for the two of you.”
Aaron balked. “Running agility?” He couldn’t do that if he tried, and he didn’t want to make a fool of himself hobbling along, trying to keep up with his dog. He’d watched Ruby and knew he couldn’t do what she’d done, but he wanted to push himself.
“Don’t worry. He’ll do all the running,” Ruby assured him.
“I was watching you with Dandy. It seemed to me you were doing at least as much running as he was.” He frowned. “How am I supposed to do this?”
Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. He hated—hated—his wounds, both the ones people could see and those they couldn’t. He’d just been thinking about how trustworthy Ruby was, but at the first sign of a problem, he was ready to bolt back to his truck and take off to anywhere but here, just as he had wanted to do at first.
If he could bolt, which he couldn’t.
She propped her hands on her hips. “You’re right about that. You won’t be able to run the course in the exact same way you just watched me do with Dandy. But—”
He opened his mouth to interrupt her, but she held up a finger to stop him.
“But we can make some minor adjustments, and I think both you and Oscar will do fine. It’s like with everything else in your life, Aaron. You find another way to do what you want to do.”
He hardened his jaw. “Yes, ma’am.”
She narrowed her gaze on him. He knew it unsettled her when he called her that. It might have been funny were it not so serious.
She scoffed and shook her head. “Marines. Honestly.”
She bent down and scratched Oscar behind the ears. The poodle had been heeling at Aaron’s feet since the moment he’d jumped from the cab of the truck. Aaron realized just how far they’d come past the mere basics in two short weeks. He didn’t even have to give Oscar commands anymore. The poodle already knew exactly what to do.
“Do you remember how to work an obstacle?” she asked, picking up a clipboard from a small table nearby.
“I think so. I’ve been studying the course from the notebook you gave me.”
“Super. That’s good to hear. Let’s start with the A-frame again the same way you did before. Up and down, and make sure his paws touch the yellow paint on both sides.”
“Okay.” He remembered exactly how Oscar had gotten too excited and jumped before hitting the yellow paint the first time they’d tried the obstacle. His heart beat double time as he led Oscar to the A-frame structure and called, “Hup!”
Oscar went up and over, his paws touching the yellow paint on the bottom of each side of the obstacle, and then he immediately turned to him, waiting for his next command as to where to go.
“Perfect,” Ruby called, marking something on the clipboard. “Let’s move over to the slalom.”
The slalom, which was a row of evenly spaced poles, was the next obvious obstacle coming off the A-frame, so it didn’t take much for Aaron to walk over to it, even without Oscar’s assistance. This obstacle, however, looked complicated, although Oscar probably already knew what he was doing even if Aaron didn’t. “What do I do?”
“Same as the A-frame. The goal is for Oscar not to miss any of the tight turns. He’ll weave right through it.”
“Oscar, hup,” he called, wishing he felt as confident as Ruby sounded.
He shouldn’t have been concerned about his dog. He was such a smart pup. Lickety-split, the poodle zipped through the poles, weaving in and out like the expert he was.
“How did you teach him to do that?” he asked in amazement.
“I just put a treat next to his nose and had him follow it as I weaved my hand through the poles. As he became more proficient at it, I lengthened the time between treats until he had the whole obstacle down pat.”
Having a fully trained dog made all the difference in the world where the agility course was concerned, although he thought it might be fun to train a dog how to do the training course. They worked obstacle after obstacle one at a time—a full tunnel and a collapsed tunnel, three different standard jumps that looked similar to something used in horse jumping and one hooped jump, the A-frame, the slaloms and a teeter-totter.
Oscar was the master of them all, and Aaron suddenly found himself oddly proud of his dog, and then even more shocked that he’d so easily segued into that thought—
His dog.
Who knew?
Ruby certainly had. From the very beginning, she’d known. She’d insisted on her choice of Oscar even when he’d balked and squawked about needing a manlier dog by his side. But Oscar was perfect for him. The dog seemed to know exactly what he needed before he even knew he needed it, everything from getting the lights or a bottle of water from the refrigerator to balancing him when he needed a hand—or Oscar’s back—to get him to his feet when his wobbly body wasn’t cooperating.
Oscar was also a good companion in the evenings and over the weekends. They had even gone on a few hikes now, which was a freeing feeling, especially when he was accompanied by Ruby.
If Oscar had become a friend of sorts, Ruby was doubly so. The best part of his week was the time spent under her tutelage and taking breaks and meals together. He’d never been much of a talker, but Ruby drew him out.
His evenings suddenly felt lonely. Part of it, he supposed, was that he’d spent the majority of his adult life with other marines. There wasn’t a lot of privacy during boot camp or on his tours to Afghanistan. Now he was all alone in the evenings, accompanied only by Oscar.
But it was more than that—far more. He was experiencing something brand-new in his life—a real depth of feeling for another human being.
No, not just a human.
A woman, with all the craziness that entailed.
He pushed his thoughts and emotions aside, determined not to show weakness even to himself. Maybe that wasn’t what it was, but anything out of his control felt like a vulnerability to him, and his feelings for Ruby definitely fell into that category.
“I would like the opportunity to watch you train a new dog or even help you with the process,” he said instead of blabbing all the fluffy stuff he was feeling, knowing even as he said the words, he wouldn’t be around for any such thing. “I imagine it’s quite a challenge, but it also seems like it would be a lot of fun and very fulfilling.”
&
nbsp; “It’s the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do with my life,” she said, sounding thoughtful. “A New Leash on Love started with me, you know. When I was in high school, I rescued a husky from a high-kill shelter in Denver and started training him on a whim. The next thing I knew, my sisters were doing the same thing. One of them fostered a mama shepherd mix and her puppies. Before we knew it, we had a dozen canines and were getting weekly calls from across the state to help rescue dogs. All six of us siblings got together and pitched in to build the facility we have now with the building, the dog run and eventually the agility course.”
“What about the service-dog program?” he asked, his curiosity piqued.
“Again, me. I started working with the dogs we brought in to make them easier to adopt out, give them basic training and make them AKC Good Citizen certified. Then I realized I could do additional activities with some of the more gifted pups. We’ve placed dogs in many situations since then. You’ve met Lottie’s golden retriever, Sissy, who helps her with her epilepsy. My sister Molly’s stepson has autism, and we paired him up with a Great Dane named Rufus.”
“And now you’re helping this poor, pathetic marine.”
She narrowed her gaze on him. “Don’t talk about yourself that way. I don’t ever want to hear you speak down to yourself again.”
“I was just kidding,” he assured her, even though that was only half-true. But she’d come out hot, and he didn’t want to worry her. Yes, he still felt he was poor and pathetic due to his career-ending injuries, but he found he was dwelling upon that less now ever since coming to A New Leash on Love.
“Anyway, this isn’t really about you,” she continued.
“Gee, thanks.”
She sniffed. “You know what I mean. Your success with Oscar will bring great things to our program. I’m anxious to expand our services with this military contract and help as many veterans as I can.”
“Because of your father and Daniel?” He didn’t know why he hadn’t really put it completely together before now. He was just now truly grasping her vulnerability.