by Deb Kastner
“How am I overstating?” Avery challenged. “I don’t know his timeline, but it can’t be that long before he leaves. That’s his job, going from place to place to lay the groundwork in building new resorts. Once he’s done, then he has no reason to stay. We discussed spending a couple of weeks training Sissy for Lottie’s epilepsy, and the town council isn’t for another three weeks yet, but then? He’s out of here.”
“That’s three more weeks to see where this relationship might go,” suggested Felicity. “And I disagree with you. I think he does have a good reason to stay.”
“Let me be absolutely clear on one thing,” Avery said firmly. “This relationship between Jake and me is going nowhere, and we both know it. I don’t know what happened out there tonight, but this is where it stops. We both agreed on that.”
“Right,” said Ruby, giving her a grin and a nod that suggested she didn’t believe a word Avery said.
She didn’t have to believe it. Avery would make sure it didn’t happen. She wasn’t exactly sure how, especially since they had to work closely together to make Sissy and Lottie a team. Every second was going to be more painful than she even wanted to think about. But she knew enough now to put an extra guard around her heart. Jake was obviously doing the same. It was what they had to do.
She went up to her bedroom, changed into her pajamas, slipped into bed and pulled the covers up to her ears, wishing for a moment she could just make the whole world disappear.
But that would mean she’d never met Jake and his family at all, and she just couldn’t wish that away, no matter how painful it turned out for her.
Maybe the best thing for her to do would be to drop the fight against Marston altogether. That would be one less thing she’d have to worry about.
It wasn’t the first time she’d considered the idea. Yes, it was her dream cabin. It would be hard to let go of it and look for something else. But it wasn’t as if she stood even the slightest chance of winning, so eventually she’d be looking for a different cabin, anyway.
And yet she’d heard so many opinions from her friends and neighbors about the issue. She had yet to find one single person who was genuinely enthused about the idea of having a big resort move into the Whispering Pines area. She’d done her research and had her list of endangered plants and animals that had the potential to be affected by Marston’s plans.
It wasn’t much, but it was something. And she had to do it for the others, if not for herself.
It wasn’t just about her, now. She couldn’t quit this fight, even if she wanted to.
And for Lottie’s sake, she couldn’t simply avoid Jake, even if she wanted to.
With tears of frustration welling in her eyes, she rolled over, curling her pillow around her head, and cried herself to sleep.
* * *
Jake leaned his hip on the small kitchen table he was currently using as his desk and waited for his portable printer to finish copying flyers for the day’s work. He had talked to most of the men and women who led the town council, but he knew that wouldn’t be enough. Far from it. From everything Avery had told him, it would be the area’s business owners he’d really have to win over if he was going to make this thing work.
It shouldn’t be that hard. He’d done it before. He’d put together a one-page presentation of how a Marston resort would help the small businesses in the area expand and prosper and how it would be a big boost for the economy to be stamped with the Marston name. Now he intended to speak to everyone face-to-face and hopefully to put a friendly face with a name.
He never used to doubt his innate charm. He’d made a very good living off it. But charm wasn’t enough where Avery Winslow was concerned, and that threw him off his game. It made him question everything he thought he knew about himself.
He hadn’t imagined he’d ever be attracted to another woman after Amber, yet he couldn’t find it in his heart to regret kissing Avery. For that one moment, he’d been able to let everything go—his guilt, his pain. She’d offered him something he realized he desperately needed—she genuinely cared for him. For his family.
And now he had to walk away. He’d had to be the strong one that night, the one to pull away, or he might never have pulled away from her. That woman deserved the very best in life, a man who could give her everything.
That man wasn’t him. He’d lost too much to be able to give her only what was left of his heart. She needed a whole man, not a broken one.
So, he would tuck away the beautiful memory of their kiss and move on with his life. He’d talk to the business owners in town. He would spend the necessary hours with Lottie in training with Sissy. And then he’d leave Whispering Pines and never return.
The printer finished copying his flyers, and he gathered them up and checked his appearance in the mirror. He’d switched back to wearing his suit, and he straightened his tie and adjusted his cowboy hat, knowing how important it was to appear professional.
His first stop was Johnson’s Sporting Goods. He’d met Fred Johnson the other day when he’d bought his skates, so he thought that would be a good place to start. He intended to go over the talking points with Fred and then ask if he could put the flyer in the front window of the store.
The bell over the door rang when Jake entered, and the scent of leather unique to sporting-goods stores hit him. Though he often visited the gym to keep in shape, he’d never been very athletic or played any sports other than baseball, so he didn’t feel especially at home in the store. He must have appeared quite lost when he was shopping for his skates, since he’d known nothing about what to look for.
But today, he reminded himself, he was entirely in his element—sales. It was what he did and did well.
He didn’t immediately see Fred, and no one came to greet him, so he decided to explore the store and see if he could find Fred or another employee who might know where the owner was.
He finally found Fred behind a counter at the back. Bows and arrows with targets lined the back walls, which caught his interest at first. But suddenly he realized he wasn’t alone, which was probably why he hadn’t greeted Jake near the front.
Jake immediately recognized the woman dressed in jeans and a mint-green sweater, her blond hair pulled back in a ponytail and looped through an orange-and-blue baseball cap—the Denver Broncos, of course.
Avery.
What was she doing here?
As Jake moved closer, he could see there was a flyer laid out on the counter between Avery and Fred, and she was pointing at something on it and speaking in a low voice.
Fred looked up and acknowledged Jake’s presence, holding up a finger to let him know he’d be with him in a moment, but Avery didn’t so much as glance over her shoulder. She was too busy presenting whatever it was on her flyer that had her so extremely animated.
He moved behind her and glanced over her shoulder so he could see the paper. It was all about the town meeting, which for some reason made Jake hide his own flyers behind him and out of sight.
He didn’t know why he did that. It was silly. But it was an impulse he couldn’t control.
Avery finished telling Fred about how he should attend the meeting and why—something about saving their town from the big, bad Marston Enterprises, as well as their responsibility to this and that plant and flower and a surprising assortment of wildlife.
And here he stood, listening in on their private conversation.
The big, bad wolf himself.
Marston Enterprises in polished black cowboy boots.
“May I put this flyer in your front window, Fred?” Avery asked.
Her voice alone sent a frisson of awareness down Jake’s spine. And he was going to work with her for two weeks so Lottie could get a service dog? How was that going to work out for him when he was so completely mindful of her whenever she was near?
“Sure thing,” Fred said.
“Please feel free. Do you need tape?”
“I’ve got some tape you can use,” said Jake, stepping forward and offering his roll of tape from his inside jacket pocket.
Avery must have jumped a foot in the air, which gave Jake some sense of satisfaction that he could affect her the same way she affected him.
“Do you always sneak up on people that way?” she demanded, putting her free hand over her heart.
Okay, so maybe it was more that he’d startled her than that she was reacting to his presence in the store. But he’d take his points where he could get them. “I’ve been standing here for quite some time waiting for my turn,” he explained with a grin.
“You...have?” she asked, her face coloring a pretty pink that made Jake’s stomach flutter. “How—how much did you hear?”
“Enough.” Enough to know she had her own agenda. But then again, he’d known that fact since the first day they’d met. It wasn’t as if she ever tried to hide it.
Only now, it was personal.
“Well, I’ll be on my way,” she squeaked, her voice suddenly high-pitched. “You should have said something about waiting for me to finish here. I don’t want to get in the way of one of Fred’s paying customers.” She looked him straight in the eye. “That’ll happen soon enough, now, won’t it?”
Ouch.
He wanted to snap back at her, but where would that get him? Instead, he clamped his jaw closed to keep from saying something he knew he would later regret. Seeing as she had her own roll of tape, he withdrew his hand with the double-sided tape and shoved it back into his inner jacket pocket. He then watched as she straightened her shoulders and marched—that was the right word, marched—to the front and posted her flyer at eye level in the window right next to the front door.
She hadn’t brought double-sided tape, so she taped around the outside of the flyer instead. Then she stood back and admired her handiwork.
She didn’t even glance back when she left.
He sighed deeply. So, this was how it was going to be between them.
Had he made an enemy the night they’d kissed? Was that the absolute very worst thing he could have done? Or was she just feeling the same hurt he was and was processing and displaying it a different way?
Jake turned back to Fred to explain what he was doing in the shop, although coming in right after Avery, he doubted he was going to get very much traction before Fred politely shut him down and showed him the door.
Surprisingly, Fred allowed him to make his pitch and even agreed to allowing him to put his flyer in the window, but he could tell it was under duress, because Fred was just too nice to say no outright. But Fred’s expression and the way he continuously clenched his jaw as if he was chewing gum told Jake all he needed to know about how well his presentation was being taken.
Jake experienced more than one awkward moment when Fred asked the hard questions about why Marston thought they had the right to come into Whispering Pines and build the resort and yet again when he hung his flyer next to Avery’s. It felt incredibly awkward, but then, he expected that was exactly what Avery was aiming for.
When he exited Johnson’s Sporting Goods, he took a deep breath of the crisp mountain air and glanced up and down the street, wondering where to go next.
The real question was where Avery had gone, because the last thing he wanted to do was follow in her footsteps all day. She already had the advantage of having grown up in this town and knowing nearly everyone here. She was a face they recognized. So now, with every business she got to before him, he would be coming in at a major disadvantage.
He had to hustle or Avery was going to beat him at every punch. His adrenaline was surging through his veins, but oddly enough, he didn’t feel animosity toward Avery. It was frustrating, certainly, but she was doing what she thought best.
That’s what they both had to do.
She wouldn’t win her fight, but he had to admire the lengths she was going to—to try her best.
Chapter Eleven
Avery swept up the floor of the dog-training facility and then mopped it with a strong disinfectant, something she and her sisters did morning and evening every day for the sake of both the dogs and the clients who came to meet them.
After that, she laid down a few interlocking rubber mats for training purposes. Avery had been working with Sissy since the day she’d met Jake and Lottie at the pizza parlor and had witnessed exactly what Sissy was able to do for the little girl. Though Sissy appeared to already have the ability to instinctively track seizures, she worked with the dog to consistently alert and respond.
First, she’d lain down on the mat and acted as if she were having an epileptic seizure. It wasn’t quite the same because nothing internal was happening that Sissy would be able to sense and pick up on—theoretically that a seizure had some form of scent attached to it—but she managed to get Sissy’s interest just by quivering on the floor. Then she encouraged the dog to perform what already came naturally to her—putting pressure on her chest to keep her safe and licking her face to keep her as focused as possible and to let her know that Sissy was there watching over her.
At first, the dog was rewarded with a clicker for immediate reinforcement, followed by a treat because she was very food-motivated, but now Sissy didn’t need a physical reward to do what she did best—the work itself was enough of a reward for her.
Wanting to practice one more time before the Cutters arrived for the start of their official training, she set Sissy in place and lay down on the mat. Then she took a deep breath and started her best imitation of a seizure. Sissy immediately alerted and then took her place, offering gentle pressure on Avery’s chest and licking her chin.
“Avery?” Jake’s concerned Texas drawl cut through Sissy’s kisses. “Avery, honey, are you okay?”
He raced to her side and knelt beside her, brushing her hair off her forehead, an alarmed frown lingering on his lips.
Avery’s gaze widened when their eyes met. Jake looked so anxious he appeared as if he was about to jump right out of his skin.
She rolled to her hands and knees and chuckled. “No worries, Jake. I was just training with Sissy on what to do for Lottie’s seizures.”
Jake blew out a breath as he sat back on his haunches, bracing himself with his palms on his thighs. “Don’t scare me like that, woman.”
“Sorry.” She realized in hindsight what it must have looked like to him when he entered. He had to deal with his daughter’s very real grand mal seizures on a regular basis. Of course walking in and seeing Avery on the ground looking as if she was seizing would have thrown him off-balance.
“That’s how you do it?” Elaine asked in amazement, joining their little group. “Teach Sissy to respond to seizures by mimicking them yourself?”
“Yes,” Avery explained. “I start with treats because Sissy likes to get a treat when she does something right. By working with me, she learns more or less what a seizure looks like and what the correct alert and response should be. Now, when we start working with her and Lottie together, Sissy will learn even more. And she’ll be ready to go when the real thing occurs.
“As we saw at Sally’s Pizza, Sissy instinctively responded to Lottie’s seizure. She appeared to know it was going to happen even before Lottie did. There’s a theory that it has something to do with a scent, since dogs’ noses pick up so much more than ours. In any case, when Lottie’s seizures happen, Sissy will continue to learn to always be aware of the possibility, she’ll hone her senses specifically for Lottie, and she’ll always be there to keep her eye on her. So—are you ready to start your training?”
At first Avery had the adults sit in folding chairs in a circle with Lottie and Sissy playing together in the middle while she discussed what it meant to own and care for a service dog in general and Sissy in particular. Being a golden retriever, she was a medium-size dog and would
need to have regular exercise.
“Lottie and I take a long walk every day,” Elaine assured her. “It’s part of our regular routine. It will be lovely to take Sissy along with us. Or Jake can take her with him when he runs. I’m sure having Sissy around is something we’ll all enjoy.”
Lottie squealed when Sissy sniffed her and tickled her under the chin with her cold nose.
“I honestly never thought we’d have a pet,” Jake admitted. “Seeing as we travel around so much. Even though Lottie kept begging for a dog, it never seemed like the right time. But I assure you we’ll make this work no matter what it takes. Sissy will be part of the family, not just a service dog.”
“That’s wonderful to hear,” Avery admitted. “Not every service dog ends up in a family such as yours. Sissy was born to do a job, but she’s still a dog who deserves to live with a loving family. That’s super important to us when we place a dog here at our training program. Sissy will be a constant companion for Lottie. She’ll enjoy hanging out on the couch with Lottie while she watches cartoons on TV and will cuddle up with her on the bed when she sleeps at night, giving her extra comfort and safety. Obviously, it’s really important that Sissy accompanies Lottie everywhere—to school, to church, out shopping. Everywhere.”
“I am so impressed by all of this,” Elaine exclaimed, clapping her hands under her chin. “You have no idea how much good you do in the world.”
“I do,” said Jake, his voice gruff with emotion.
Avery glanced at him, stunned by his words.
“I mean, you haven’t said a word to pat yourself on the back for all you’ve done,” he said, running his hand across his jaw, “but I know you’ve gone to a ton of effort to get Sissy ready for Lottie on such short notice. I—we—appreciate that more than we can express.”
“Of course. No question. I’m happy to do it.”
Their gazes met again, and she wondered if he could tell where her mind had gone—to the perfect little cabin that would make such a good bed-and-breakfast for clients just like them, people who needed the services A New Leash on Love provided.