Chapter Ten #2
It was time to start moving past basic training and onto the hard stuff. Following basic commands had been easy thus far. Now she needed the dogs to start learning to deny themselves things they wanted to do, like swim, in favor of maintaining their last instructed position.
She’d only just unleashed both Captains when she felt the laser-sharp presence of the man she’d been actively pushing out of her mind.
“Taking a field trip?” Zero called from behind her.
His voice slid across her skin with that sexiness factor she’d spent a lot of time trying to ignore. And acclimate to, since he talked to her all the time. But pretending he didn’t affect her didn’t seem to be working, so she gave up and turned to face him.
Dang, that T-shirt clung to his chest with a slight dampness that followed every line of his torso, the one she still saw in her mind from the bathroom incident.
Since he was clothed this time, social protocol didn’t dictate she avert her eyes, so she didn’t, instead soaking in the visual treat of a man who’d just done a great deal of physical labor.
“I guess that’s a good name for it,” she told him, thrilled her throat hadn’t seized up with the additional stimuli. “Did you show that tractor who’s boss?”
Instead of teasing a smile from him, which probably wouldn’t have done her knees any favors, he quirked a brow, drawing attention to the scar that gave him such dangerous appeal. “We’re still arguing over that particular title.”
A joke. Sort of. His dry humor wasn’t what she was used to, but she liked it.
“I’m sure you won. The tractor is just taking its time coming around to the fact,” she told him, one eye on each Captain as she tried to gauge whether she should releash them or let them show off some skills to their audience.
They made the decision easy, plunking down their haunches and keeping their eyes on her instead of jumping right into the water, which she’d half thought would happen the second the leashes came off.
Zero shot the dogs a look, a slight frown on his face. “I’m not interrupting, am I?”
“No?” Mystified why the man signing her paychecks would even question such a thing, she nodded toward the Captains. “They’ll sit until I tell them to do something different.”
A tiny lie. Possibly.
She’d worked with them enough she’d never assume either would do a blessed thing they hadn’t already decided to do.
Whether that aligned with her commands remained to be seen.
But what was she supposed to do, tell her boss the Captains needed to be running around with a boy in a field for two hours?
“I’m not sure what to make out of that,” he said, his expression still maddeningly unreadable. “After the incident this morning.”
Oh, man. Sheridan had told him about SugarGate.
Was he angry? Looking for an explanation?
She split the difference since she had no clue how to play this not-so-casual meetup of boss and employee.
“I’m sorry about that. I don’t know what got into them.
But it was pretty easily remedied. They went right back outside with no trouble. ”
“I know. I heard.” He crossed his arms, peering down at her in a way that made her feel both short and a little breathless at the same time. “That’s a first. Usually they just dash into another area of the house and create even more havoc. So it seems like we have a bit of progress.”
“A bit?” she repeated, stung by his stingy praise. “The dogs follow my commands. Hunter pets them willingly. What more are you looking for?”
“What we agreed on. Trained dogs who can perform ranch tasks. When can we expect to see that?”
She crossed her arms in kind. “When we have livestock to train with.”
“Good. You get your wish tomorrow. Can we have a demonstration later in the day?”
Agape, she stared at him. “You want results in one day? As in, the cows show up, I snap my fingers, and voila, the Captains are herding them? That’s impossible.”
For more reasons than one. Mainly because she didn’t know how to train them to herd cows and had no interest in witnesses as she fumbled through it.
The stubborn set of his jaw didn’t ease. “How long will it take?”
“How long is a piece of string?” she countered hotly, wholly unable to stop the panic that had started coursing through her gut.
“These dogs have never been around cattle before. They might freak out over how big they are. I can’t predict how quickly the dogs will get used to the idea that they’re in charge. ”
Not to mention the slight issue with Elizabeth Swann and Will Turner, namely neither dog would be too keen on the plan in the first place; they’d turned themselves into lap dogs who liked long naps and equally long belly scratches.
At best, the Captains would be the ones to do the job, but she hadn’t quite figured out how to explain Zero might have half the dog staff he’d envisioned.
Zero’s expression finally wavered. A little. “I guess I can see that.”
“Did I just win the argument?”
“I, um…didn’t realize this was an argument.”
For whatever reason, that pulled a grin from her as the tension eased back into the manageable realm. “You have this way of coming across that makes me feel like I should be snapping to attention and making sure my bed is made.”
Running a hand through his hair, he nodded. “Job hazard. Former job. I’m told I have that effect on people.”
“I get it.” The conversation from last night chose that moment to rear its ugly head. “You’re trying to take care of everyone, and you can’t do that if I don’t do what you hired me to do.”