Chapter Two #2
Fantastic. The dogs had been banished from the house, but that never seemed to stop them from sniffing out a method to come inside anyway. Inside had far more pickings in the meal department, a lot more to destroy, and many more ways to grate on Zero’s nerves.
But honestly, what better introduction to the job could there be?
“Delilah Kersey, meet your audition,” Zero said with a hand wave toward the dogs in question. “The German Shepard is Will Turner, and the Labrador is Elizabeth Swann. My nephew named them after characters from Pirates of the Caribbean.”
Delilah made a sound halfway between a coo and a happy sigh Zero felt in his gut. There was literally no reason he should have a reaction to her at all, let alone one that put such a hum in places that should never hum.
That ship seemed to have sailed, though. He couldn’t will away the feeling he got when he looked at her that there was more to Delilah than met the eye. And he wanted to investigate that in the worst way.
“These are the dogs you need trained?” Delilah asked Zero with a smile as she knelt in front of the menagerie still rolling all over each other, her hands by her side. “Their names are Will and Elizabeth?”
“No.” He briefly returned her smile, painfully aware his smiles came across as both strange and kind of chilly. “Not unless you want to get on Hunter’s bad side. Their names are Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann. You have to say the whole thing.”
“Oh, of course. My apologies.” Delilah inclined her head, her expression serious, which Zero grudgingly appreciated.
The dogs figured out they had an audience other than Zero and stopped wrestling each other, Elizabeth Swann charging at Delilah to stick her nose in places it didn’t belong. The trainer didn’t seem to mind, though, and no doubt she’d been the subject of overenthusiastic dog greetings before.
Delilah extended a hand to Will Turner, who was eyeing her as if he couldn’t decide whether to eat her or pee on her. This should be interesting.
The dog trainer had correctly guessed the German Shepherd’s approval mattered the most, but she stopped short of trying to pet him, which would have been a rookie mistake. The dog hated it when anyone did something that wasn’t his idea.
“Will you introduce me to him?” she asked Zero. “That will help him understand I’m on the approved list of people he can trust.”
“I thought I just did,” he said drily. “Is there a more formal dog introduction protocol I’m not aware of?”
She laughed, and he made a mental note to never tell jokes in her presence again. Except he wanted to hear that sound again, maybe in a completely different scenario where there were no dogs present and he didn’t have to make Delilah hate him.
“You touch him on the head. Exactly,” she encouraged as Zero laid a palm flat on the dog’s head. “Just like that. Now tell him, ‘Good boy.’ He likes to know that he’s pleased you.”
This was the most ridiculous thing he’d ever done, and that included a slew of hazing rituals during boot camp, back when he’d been a dumb kid who still had a glorified idea of what it meant to be a soldier.
Will Turner couldn’t care less if Zero approved of Delilah.
Nor would the dog get any kind of special communication through the tips of his fingertips, as if he could somehow push the idea this woman was okay into the dog’s head via direct contact. Dog telepathy. Did that even exist?
Delilah raised her brows at him, then did it again higher, eyes wide, with a tiny head jerk toward the dog.
Geez. Okay, fine. “Good boy.”
Miraculously, Will Turner sat back on his haunches, his tongue lolling out. Elizabeth Swann hadn’t moved from her graceless sprawl on the floor, but her tail thumped once, which seemed like a seal of approval.
Zero rolled his eyes. “I guess he got the message.”
Delilah just grinned up at him from her crouch on the floor, clearly enjoying being right, and then stretched her fingers farther into Will Turner’s space, still not touching him, but getting close enough that he could have taken her hand off with one bite if he’d chosen to.
This could go south fast. Zero braced for it, in case he had to snatch her out of harm’s way.
The dog eyed her with a lot less ferocity than he did most people. And then, he stuck his nose into her hand, sniffing her with unspoken acceptance.
Zero blinked. Next, wine would start pouring from the kitchen faucet. Of all things. If he hadn’t seen that for himself, he’d never have believed it.
Delilah let the dog sniff for as long as he wanted, then when he stopped, she patted him on the head. Will Turner plopped to the floor next to Elizabeth Swann, rolling over to give her access to his belly.
“How did you do that?” Zero asked in spite of himself.
Because it was a great trick. The dogs were both still and not tearing up anything. Huge win. As long as you didn’t count the water all over the floor that was even now seeping into the threadbare floral carpet. At least wet dog stench would improve the smell of the rug.
She glanced up at him from her crouch on the floor as she indulged Will Turner in a good scratch.
“Which part? Each is its own technique, totally dependent on the temperament of the dog. Will Turner has the typical wariness of new situations that is bred into German Shepherds. They’re very intelligent and watchful dogs, which is why they are so often employed by police forces and used as guard dogs.
So I built on all of that to help him understand I’m not a threat.
Eventually, he may come to like me, but that will take time. ”
So maybe she hadn’t guessed Will Turner’s approval mattered most. She seemed to know exactly what she was doing.
As interviews went, this one had taken a twist. But most of his adult life had been spent making snap decisions under duress, usually with many dozen lives at stake. Hiring a dog trainer didn’t seem to be following any different of a pattern.
“The job is yours,” he told her. “If you want it.”
Delilah smiled and backed away from Will Turner with a healthy amount of distance, which the dog probably understood and respected. “Of course I want it. Why wouldn’t I?”
“Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann aren’t the only dogs around here,” he told her bluntly. “This was just the opening shot. Captain Jack Sparrow and Captain Barbossa round out the crew, and they’re ten times worse.”
“Are you trying to talk me into the job or out of it?” she asked with another one of those laughs he shouldn’t enjoy so much but couldn’t remember why.
Maybe he should be trying to talk her out of it. If he hired her, he’d be her boss. Sheridan had been very clear with him that she had no mental energy to do much of anything, so that left Zero holding this particular bag. Not that he had any problem with taking it on. This was his family, too.
But he’d never been the boss of a civilian woman before.
That didn’t seem like a great idea. For many reasons.
The last thing he needed was a complication like being attracted to an employee in the first place, let alone one who should be solely focusing on fixing these dogs while he worked on fixing the ranch, along with the mess of his family.
Feeling the weight of everything all at once, he broke one of his cardinal rules and sank into the uncomfortable chair at a right angle to the couch while the dogs trotted out of the room as if they moved at such a glacial pace all the time, when in fact they did not.
“Tell me straight. Can you train these dogs to herd cows and maybe watch for predators? They’re not too far gone? ”
Delilah finally climbed off the floor and followed him to perch on the edge of the overstuffed couch, her curious expression trained on him. “They’re definitely not the worst-case scenario if that’s what you mean. They’re sweet dogs at heart, and that’s all you need to start with.”
“You didn’t answer the question.”
She didn’t flinch at his tone, which earned her more of his grudging respect.
And something else he didn’t want to name, but he couldn’t deny how freeing it was to know he could act as grumpy as he felt like around Delilah and it wouldn’t faze her.
After tiptoeing around Sheridan for weeks and weeks, he needed that in his life more than he would have said.
Especially since she’d tripped his internal sensors. He couldn’t let her pull something over on him, which meant he’d have to be extra hard on her. Looked like it would be more difficult than he’d thought to make her hate him.
“If that’s all you need done, yeah. I can.”
“What does that mean? Are you accusing me of having a secret agenda?”