Chapter One #2
“You will?” he rasped with a heavy dose of sarcasm, as if she had not in fact just offered up herself as the solution to his woes. “How do you know I have dogs?”
“I’ve been sitting right here,” she told him with a slight head tilt toward her booth. “And I heard you. Is it a secret? Are you part of the dog mafia?”
His beautiful lips didn’t so much as quirk, but Uninteresting Guy laughed, bless him. Even though she’d forgotten about him until that second, she flashed him a grateful smile.
“I’m not sure I even want to know what the dog mafia is,” Sexy Voice muttered and then jerked his chin toward the table. “Join us so I don’t have to shout.”
Didn’t have to ask her twice. She scrambled from the booth and slid into his, on Uninteresting Guy’s side, because duh. This seat had the better view.
“You won’t be sorry,” she promised him. “Now about the room and board—”
“I haven’t hired you yet.” His gravelly timbre skated along her skin, tempered not at all by his mulish expression. “Aren’t you even a little curious about the job?”
Oh, well, sure, to a degree. But honestly, she hadn’t thought that far ahead. “If it’s training dogs, what more do I need to know? They all start out at a baseline and end up trained.”
At that, his mouth did quirk. “What if I’m asking you to train them to balance a ball on their nose while wearing a tutu? And then jump over an elephant on command?”
It was such a specific scenario, she stared at him for a moment, trying to read him, which was no chore. And didn’t work. The man’s face resembled an iron vault, much like the rest of his body, which she’d have to be blind not to notice.
What was with the sudden urge to see if she could melt him, just a little?
“Are you asking me to train dogs to do that?” she asked, suddenly fascinated with the idea he might own a circus. “Because I can, if you are.”
Probably. The key here was to communicate confidence, not uncertainty.
“Really?” His gaze unhitched from its piercing fixation on her face and did a slow perusal of the rest of her in a way that made her feel thoroughly examined and shivery at the same time. “How many dogs have you trained to jump over an elephant?”
“Oh, none.” She laughed that off and prayed he wouldn’t ask her how many dogs she’d trained to do anything, the answer to which was none.
Now might be the opportune time to switch gears before he sniffed out her lack of experience.
“So let’s be clear. What are you asking for this dog trainer to do? ”
He spread his hands, and yes, he used them often to do things the men she knew did not, judging by the rough calluses and general capableness that radiated from him. “I have four dogs. They’re a menace. I need them civilized and working on my cattle ranch. It’s that simple.”
“My specialty,” she lied with an affirming nod. “My dad is Doc Kersey. All those dog trainers at the facilities you called? Learned how to do what they do from him. He’s a legend in the field. Google it. I’ll wait.”
Sexy Voice’s eyes did a thing she couldn’t interpret, but his friend laughed. “Zero doesn’t have a phone. He hates them.”
She slid Uninteresting Guy a glance, who wasn’t all that bad to look at, especially in his battered cowboy hat some women would swoon over.
He just wasn’t the other guy, which she had a feeling wasn’t an unknown between them.
And he was okay with it. Pure speculation, but she’d spent a decade studying paintings of people and interpreting their moods, feelings, experiences, and she’d like to think she had some skill.
Uninteresting Guy wore everything on his sleeve. The other guy, no. That only amplified his utter appeal, a thing she never would have said she’d find attractive, but here they were.
And he didn’t own a cell phone. Fascinating. But the first part of Uninteresting Guy’s sentence intrigued her more. She jerked her head toward the other side of the table. “Did you just call him Zero?”
“That’s what everyone calls him,” Uninteresting Guy announced. “Zero Renshaw. Don’t worry, you’ll get why soon enough. I’m Tag, by the way. Tag Ryland.”
The man with the unlikely name of Zero rolled his beautiful, opaque eyes. “It’s not a mystery. It’s a gift from basic training.”
Everything about him came together in a snap. “You’re in the military.”
Of course that’s why he had that hard, watchful look about him, not to mention the way he lived in his skin with such comfort. He knew himself and his body inside and out, and it was a huge turn-on.
“Was,” he supplied instantly. “Not anymore. Now I own a ranch and four horrible dogs. If you can train them, you’re hired.”
“I accept,” she said blithely and stuck out her hand to shake his.
But he didn’t reach out to seal the deal. Instead, he swept her with one of those enigmatic glances that made her want to spend hours unpacking it. And him.
“I said if,” he stressed. “Since I’m not hiring your father, I’m more interested in what you can do.”
She lowered her hand to the Formica tabletop.
Okay, so obviously he wasn’t born yesterday.
But she needed this job almost as much as she needed to breathe.
There was no way she’d let it slip from her fingers at this point, and she could fake it for two weeks, no problem.
“I’ve been learning from my dad since I could walk.
Training dogs isn’t difficult. The key is to give them a job to do, which sounds like what you want. Dogs who do stuff around your ranch.”
“It is what I want.” Those eyes bored through her, and she wouldn’t be at all shocked if he could read things in her mind, things she never meant for him to know. “Come to the Flying Pig tomorrow and show me.”
“Show you?” She almost choked on it. “Like an audition?”
“Exactly like. Ask around for directions. Everyone knows where the Flying Pig is. You want the job; I’m giving you a chance to earn it.”
Sweat broke out along her neck. He knew.
Somehow, he knew she’d never trained a dog in her life.
All the things she’d learned had never been put to use, not while her father hovered over her, telling her how she was doing it incorrectly and what a disappointment she was since she wasn’t doing it his way.
That’s why she’d started burying herself in art.
That’s why she had an inexplicable urge to prove her father wrong with Sexy Voice’s dogs.
She lifted her chin. “Is there any reason I can’t start right now?”