For Keeps

by Rachel Lacey

  Noah nodded, his eyes bright. “I think she’ll need lots.”

  “As many as you like.” T.J. would promise his nephew the world if he’d just keep talking.

  Noah was spending the rest of the day with him while Amy worked. He’d arranged for a colleague of his to handle emergency calls for him on camp mornings, and he didn’t have any regularly scheduled appointments today.

  That wouldn’t be the norm though. Summers were busy. Lots of overheated animals, births, injuries. He’d be busy all right, especially cramming all his appointments into the afternoons.

  T.J. opened the fridge and took out the pitcher of lemonade. He poured a tall glass for himself, and one for Noah, and they sat at the kitchen table together. Amber curled up at the boy’s feet.

  “Did you have a good time at camp this morning?” T.J. gulped from his glass, parched.

  “It will be more fun tomorrow with the dogs,” Noah said softly.

  “I bet it will be. Busier too.”

  T.J. kept talking, but he’d lost Noah. The boy’s eyes had turned glassy and unfocused, as they often did. He sat with his knees drawn up, picking at the sleeves of his T-shirt. A string came loose, and he tugged, full concentration on the task.

  T.J. itched to reach over and still his hands, stop him from the never-ending unraveling of his shirts.

  Was it foolish to hope for a conversation over lemonade by the end of camp?

  * * *

  Merry took a deep breath and glanced over her shoulder at the three dogs piled into her backseat. Yesterday had been brutal. She’d powered through a twelve-hour shift on four hours of sleep, thanks to her late night rendezvous with T.J. And then Baby Jayden had suffered another seizure. She wanted so badly to make his suffering stop.

  To make him just another normal, healthy two-week-old, snoozing away in his momma’s arms. She punched a fist against the steering wheel.

  From the backseat, three faces gazed at her in curious confusion.

  “Right, okay, let’s do this.” She gathered her courage and stepped out of the car, stupidly relieved not to see T.J., still mortified over the way she’d left here Sunday night. Not only did she need to make it through today with her dignity intact, she needed her first day of camp to be great.

  She needed T.J. to be glad he’d brought her in, to think of her as an asset to his camp, not something he’d settled for.

  Olivia’s Prius turned into the driveway. Right on time, thank goodness.

  Merry turned to the backseat to unload her dogs. Ralph hopped out first, followed by a tangle of puppies as Chip and Salsa hit the earth. Immediately, they tried to yank Merry’s right arm out of its socket as they explored their new surroundings.

  Olivia walked over with Bosley, and they let the four dogs greet.

  “Aw, how adorable, you accessorized her,” Olivia said, eyeing Salsa’s hot pink baby doll T-shirt.

  “It’s to keep her off her stitches,” Merry told her. “But she looks so cute in it, I may have to keep dressing her up for camp.”

  “Totally. So what are we supposed to do?”

  “Uhh…” Merry glanced at the house.

  As if summoned by her look, T.J. opened the front door and stepped out. He placed his cowboy hat on his head as he walked their way.

  God, he looked sexy.

  Merry chewed her lip and averted her eyes, focusing instead on the dogs still tugging her this way and that. Salsa charged toward T.J., her nub a blur of excitement, yanking Merry several steps in his direction before she’d recovered her balance.

  Except she might not ever really recover her balance around him. Not after she’d been stupid enough to kiss him.

  “Merry,” he said, his voice low and annoyingly formal. He nodded toward her, then turned to her friend. “Olivia. You ladies need anything to get ready?”

  Merry sucked up her pride and met his eyes. “Just show us where you want us.”

  “I’ve got fans going in the barn if you want to work in there, out of the sun.”

  “That sounds great.” Merry led her crew toward the barn, grateful she wouldn’t have to stand outside in the burning sun all morning. T.J. had hung a blue banner over the barn’s front entrance that said Camp Blue Sky.

  Olivia followed with Bosley. “This guy’s pretty sweet. I kept him last night so that I wouldn’t have to go to Carla’s before camp this morning. If you’d started me off with a dog like this, I might have kept fostering for you.”

  “Really? Want to keep him during camp?” Then she could get that senior male placed with Carla before he wound up at the shelter.

  Olivia shrugged. “For the camp, I guess. But that’s it.”

  “Deal.” Merry grinned. Then she remembered the way Olivia had chastised her on Friday night. “And thank you, really.”

  “You’re welcome. So what’s the plan?”

  Merry glanced around the barn. “I’ve got a dog for each kid, plus Ralph. I’m thinking I’ll demonstrate with Ralph, then we’ll go between the kids to help them practice with their dogs.”

  Olivia nodded. “Sounds good.”

  T.J. appeared in the doorway of the barn with Amber.

  “Hey!” Merry grinned at the dog, who wagged her tail. She looked at T.J. “Can I use your hose to fill their water bowls?”

  T.J. glanced down at the two large bowls she’d set out and nodded. He walked outside and returned a moment later with the hose, filling the bowls for her.

  “Thanks.”

  “Welcome.” He gave her a nonchalant smile that held not even the tiniest trace of the desperate hunger he’d shown her the other night, when he’d pushed her up against the wall in his foyer and kissed the daylights out of her.

  Well, she could play that game too. She gave him her coolest, most polite smile. “I guess the first thing we’ll do when the kids get here is assign everyone a dog. Any initial thoughts on that?”

  “We’ve got a girl with cerebral palsy who sits in a wheelchair. She might be better off with Bosley, since he seems calmer than the puppies. Wouldn’t want her to get yanked out of her chair.”

  Merry nodded. “Agreed.”

  He frowned at Salsa. “Why’s that puppy wearing clothes?”

  “It’s covering her stitches.”

  He eyed the shirt with distaste. “Well, Jules, the girl with Down syndrome, would probably like a dog dressed in pink.”

  “Okay.”

  “That leaves Parker, the boy with sensory processing disorder.”

  “He’ll work with Chip. There, that was easy.” She held the dogs in front of her, between her and T.J. A necessary buffer until she’d cooled off around him.

  “Great. They should start arriving soon. I’m sure they’ll be excited to work with the dogs, so we’ll start with you guys, and I’ll pull them out two at a time for their riding lessons.”

  A man strolled into the barn, dressed like T.J. in Wranglers, boots, and a cowboy hat. His belly strained the seams of his plaid shirt and lines creased his face. He might have been T.J.’s father, except she’d met Trace Jameson at the hospital, and this was not him.

  “Pat O’Day,” he said with a warm smile, extending a hand. “I give the kids their riding lessons.”

  She returned his smile as she shook his hand. “Merry Atwater. I’ll be working with the dogs. This is my assistant, Olivia Bennett.”

  Two college-aged girls walked in with matching brown ponytails and big smiles.

  Pat placed a hand on each of their shoulders. “These are my girls, Savannah and Madison. They’re helping me with the equine therapy. They’ve been working at my camps for years.”

  They made introductions, then Pat went down the hall to start grooming Peaches and Twilight.

  “We’d love to help out some with the dogs too, if you need an extra hand,” Savannah said. She dropped to her knees to play with the puppies.

  “That would be great,” Merry told her.

  “They’re adorable.” Madison rubbed Bosley, then went
down the hall to help her dad get the horses ready.

  Fifteen minutes later, the barn was full of children and dogs.

  Jules clapped her hands with delight when Merry introduced her to Salsa. “So pretty! My dog is the prettiest. I love pink.”

  Bosley panted happily next to Lucy in her wheelchair. The sweet dog had been extra gentle with her, careful not to throw off her balance as she held his leash.

  Noah and Amber sat together in the corner, away from the noise and chaos. Noah whispered in her ear, and Amber’s tail thumped steadily against the dirt floor. Merry’s heart squeezed. Oh, how she hoped they would be out here with the rest of the kids, interacting, before the end of camp.

  Parker and Chip were the only match not made in heaven. Chip was his usual exuberant self, leaping and lunging, yanking on the poor boy’s arms.

  “Help!” he yelled. “He’s too strong. Ahh!”

  “Whoa.” Merry passed Ralph’s leash to Olivia and rushed to take Chip from Parker. “It’s okay.”

  Parker crossed his arms over his chest. “I don’t like him. He’s not a nice dog.”

  Merry crouched down and hooked an arm around the puppy’s shoulders. “He’s very nice, I promise. He’s just excited and forgot his manners.”

  “Bad dog. I want to go home.” Parker ran out of the barn.

  T.J. glared at Merry and turned to follow the boy. She shook her head. “Let me.”

  The look T.J. gave her told her how little he liked that idea, but he stayed in the barn as she jogged into the sunshine with Chip at her side. Behind her, she heard Olivia explaining the proper way to pet a dog to the remaining kids.

  Bless her.

  Parker stood in the driveway, kicking his sneaker against the gravel. “When will my mom be here? I want to go home.”

  “I could call her for you, if you want. But hear me out first.”

  “I don’t like that dog.” Parker eyed Chip much the way T.J. had looked at Amber the first time they met.

  “I see that you’re upset. There was a lot going on in the barn, a lot of noise and commotion. It’s easy to get frustrated in a situation like that.”

  Parker stabbed the toe of his sneaker into the gravel. “I guess.”

  “Well, believe it or not, that’s how Chip’s feeling too. He’s just a puppy. He doesn’t know his manners yet. He got overwhelmed in there, and it made him act out.”

  Parker looked down at the puppy again. “Yeah, I feel like that a lot. That’s why I have to go to therapy and do this stupid camp.”

  “Aw, it’s not stupid.” Merry gave him a wry smile. “You have an important job to do. You guys are going to help me train these dogs so that they can be adopted. We can’t adopt out Chip while he’s such a misbehaving little beast, can we?”

  “Well,” Parker kicked the gravel again, “I guess not. He really does need to learn his manners. He was not being nice to me in there.”

  “No,” Merry agreed. “He wasn’t.”

  The puppy sat and stared at them, head cocked.

  “Bad dog,” Parker told him again, his tone firm.

  “He looks sorry, don’t you think?” she asked.

  “I guess.”

  “He’s a lot calmer out here where it’s quiet. I feel calmer too. How about you?” She had a basic knowledge of sensory processing disorder from work. It affected the kids’ ability to interpret sensory input. External stimuli like noise, textures, and tastes could be overwhelming and cause the child to become agitated and upset.

  “Yeah, it was kind of crazy in there,” Parker agreed.

  “So here’s what I’m thinking. Let’s give Chip a time-out for being naughty, and I’ll take him through the first lesson. I’m going to let you work with Ralph. He’s my dog, and he’s pretty special. What do you think?”

  “I guess.” He scuffed harder in the gravel.

  “Then when you feel ready, let me know, and you can try again with Chip. I really do need you to help me train him.”

  “Maybe.”

  Maybe wasn’t good enough. For her own pride, not to mention the rest of her donation, Merry needed to make T.J. glad he’d hired her. She crossed her fingers behind her back, hoping like hell she could pull this off and redeem herself before the end of the morning.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  This was exactly what T.J. had been afraid of. Not thirty minutes into the morning and already Parker had run out. By now, he would have asked Merry to call his mom. Yesterday, they’d made it until lunch, just an hour shy of the end of camp, before Parker had lost it and gone home. His mother had warned them it might happen, but it shouldn’t happen every day.

  And now Merry had gone after him, leaving the camp kids under the dubious direction of Olivia the waitress. Great. Just friggin’ fantastic.

  It was unbelievably important for the kids to have a good first experience with the dogs, for this to be rewarding and fun for them. For their parents to be impressed and satisfied with his camp. Merry and her gang were not off to a good start.

  He walked over and stood near his nephew, watching Noah and Amber as they hid in the corner. Noah whispered something to the dog, and she rolled belly-up for him to stroke her tummy, tail swooshing through the dirt.

  Olivia stood in front of the kids holding Ralph. “So who wants to impress Merry when she comes back and show her how to tell your dog to sit?”

  Lucy held up her hand. “I do.”

  “Me too, me too.” Jules bounced on her heels. Salsa hopped beside her in her ridiculous pink shirt.

  Olivia looked at Noah. “You too, Noah?”

  The boy nodded eagerly.

  “Okay then. Let’s get started.” She came around and gave each child a handful of treats, showing them how to keep their palm closed and hand up to keep the eager dogs from stealing an early reward.

  Salsa, Bosley, and Amber sniffed and wagged excitedly at the promised bounty.

  “Here’s what you’re going to do,” Olivia said. “Take one cookie in your right hand, like this.” She held up a cookie between her thumb and forefinger. Ralph’s butt hit the dirt. Olivia laughed. “You’re too good, Ralph. Stand up until I tell you.”

  She stepped back, and the dog stood to follow her. “Hold the cookie up and over your dog’s head while you say ‘sit.’ When they look up at the cookie, they sit automatically. Like this.”

  She held a cookie over Ralph’s nose while giving the command, and he sat. “Good boy!”

  The kids clapped.

  Olivia gave a little bow, grinning from ear to ear. “Thank you. Now your turn. One cookie, hold it up while saying ‘sit’ in a firm voice, and reward them with words and the cookie as soon as they sit, okay?”

  Three heads nodded. T.J. rubbed a hand over his jaw. He knew for a fact Amber didn’t know how to sit because he’d given her the command himself several times, with no luck. He didn’t want Noah to be disappointed on his first day.

  Lucy held a treat up and looked at Bosley. “Sit.”

  Bosley sat, and everyone clapped again.

  “What a good boy! You are such a good boy.” The girl stroked his neck, beaming with pride. As soon as Bosley stood, she repeated the trick.

  In the corner, Noah stood. He looked down at Amber and held a treat. “Sit,” he said in his tiny voice.

  He moved the treat over her head exactly as Olivia had done, but Amber dodged backward to claim the cookie. Noah shook his head. “No, Amber.”

  She hung her head.

  T.J. stepped closer, unsure whether to intervene.

  “Uh oh,” Jules said loudly. “Uh oh!”

  He looked over to see Salsa with her front paws on the girl’s leg, stealing the last of the cookies from her hand. Those puppies were a problem. He never should have agreed to them.

  “Why don’t we trade for a minute and let you practice with Ralph?” Olivia suggested.

  Jules nodded. “Okay.”

  Olivia passed Ralph’s leash and a fresh handful of cookies to the girl,
and she had Ralph sitting within seconds.

  Jules beamed with pride. “I did it. I did it!”

  Everyone clapped for her. Jules clapped for herself, overjoyed.

  T.J. smiled in spite of himself. That was pretty damn terrific.

  “Me too,” came a quiet voice from the corner.

  Everyone turned to look at Noah. He faced Amber and said, in a clear, strong voice, “Sit.”

  He lifted the cookie over her head, and Amber sat.

  Well, I’ll be damned. T.J.’s throat tightened. “Wow, Noah. That was amazing.”

  Again the barn filled with applause.

  Noah beamed. Amber’s tail wagged. T.J. fought the urge to wrap the boy in a bear hug.

  “Awesome!” Olivia came over and slapped a high five with Noah. “Way to go.”

  Parker stomped into the barn and stood staring. Merry came in behind him, leading Chip. She looked at T.J. and gave him a thumbs up.

  Had she actually convinced the boy to stay?

  “Okay, kids, are we ready to show Merry and Parker our new trick?” Olivia asked in her singsong voice.

  “What trick?” Merry looked at her friend, brow wrinkled.

  “Jules, why don’t you go first,” Olivia said.

  “Goodie, I’m first.” Jules held up a cookie. “Sit.”

  Ralph’s butt hit the floor, along with Merry’s jaw. T.J. swallowed a laugh.

  “Yay!” Jules clapped as she fed Ralph the rest of her cookies.

  “Okay, Lucy, your turn,” Olivia said.

  Lucy easily got Bosley to sit, producing another round of applause.

  “Ready, Noah?” Olivia asked.

  Merry’s eyes widened. She shook her head at her friend, slashing her hand back and forth across her throat in the universal signal to stop.

  Olivia winked and smiled.

  Noah walked to the center of the barn with Amber at his side. He held up a cookie, lifting it over Amber’s head. “Sit.”

  Amber took a step backward, and Merry bit her bottom lip.

  “Sit,” Noah repeated, unfazed. He again brought the cookie over Amber’s head, and she sat.

  “Holy—” Merry slapped a hand over her mouth.