“Do you think he needs to go to the vet?” Erica asked. “Those were some hard kicks.”
“We’ll see how he does on the way back to the truck.”
They strolled together, slowly, both watching King. The big dog walked, then trotted along, tail curled high over his back, ears alert. He was moving and breathing fine, and Trey’s tense shoulders relaxed.
He’d make a report, of course, and Cochran wouldn’t end up looking good. There was a witness, Erica.
But Trey could already hear what his chief would say: she wasn’t objective, because she was Trey’s friend.
If Cochran pursued his claim, emphasizing the fact that King had turned on him, King’s career as a police dog could well be over.
In a way, it was because of Trey’s rash action.
But what else could he have done?
CHAPTER NINE
“CALM DOWN, ZIGGY.” Erica pulled the leash tighter as she and the excited goldendoodle walked up the sidewalk to Trey’s cottage.
With the hand that wasn’t holding the leash, she fluffed her hair and checked the corners of her mouth for excess lipstick.
Should she have even worn lipstick? They were just going to the town’s May festival, a small, weekend-long event where local residents celebrated the start of their own special season: the weather was nice, and the tourists weren’t here yet. Lots of people considered May the best time of the year around here.
She cupped a hand over her mouth to check her breath, rolled her eyes at her own foolishness and then rang the doorbell. She hitched up her ankle-length jeans. They had been snug in a good way last year, but now they didn’t seem to want to stay up. Maybe she should have worn her usual ancient faded ones she’d appropriated from Hannah.
King barked inside Trey’s place, and then she heard heavy footsteps. Butterflies fluttered inside her chest.
She’d always felt a little fluttery around Trey, but last night had marked a new level in their relationship. Her face heated as she thought about the way she’d flung her arms around him. That had been forward, but he hadn’t seemed to mind. Not at all. He had gently tugged her closer and they had fit together like long-lost puzzle pieces.
But it was more than that. Remembering how he had run to King’s defense, admiration washed over her anew. He was a protector to the core. He hadn’t been able to stand by and let an animal be hurt, even when revealing his presence would potentially cause him professional problems.
Joining with him to help King made her feel like they were part of a team together, a feeling that had started when they had begun working more smoothly together with the kids at school, but had been cemented last night.
In class today, it had felt perfectly natural to go out into the hall with him to talk about how King was doing and whether he had heard anything from the other officer. When he had said, “So far, so good,” she had spontaneously high-fived him and they had shared a quick little hug.
It felt so easy to be close to him. Was that normal? She didn’t have enough experience to know.
He opened the door, and her heart did a double thump. His hair was damp, as if he’d just gotten out of the shower. His button-down shirt was open, revealing a very muscular chest. He wore low-slung jeans and his feet were bare, and he was so handsome she was blown away.
And he was looking at her as if she were a delicious pastry in the bakery case.
He was looking at her like he wanted her.
Heat rose up her neck to her face. She knelt down beside Ziggy, who was actually being pretty calm, and rubbed his sides until he got excited and started jumping around.
Anything for the distraction from how excessively warm Trey was making her feel.
He cleared his throat and held open the door. “Come on in,” he said. “I’m just about ready. Would have been ready, but I’ve been giving King some extra attention. I hate to leave him.” He rubbed a hand over the German shepherd’s back.
“Why don’t you bring him along?”
Trey shook his head and, thankfully—at least, Erica thought she was thankful—started buttoning his shirt. “We had agreed this would be a good time to train Ziggy. I don’t want to detract from that, or take attention away from him. He needs our focus.”
“It won’t detract.” Erica reached out toward King, and the big dog pushed his nose into her hand, seeming to recognize her as a friend. Contact with the animal steadied her, brought her mind back from Trey’s good looks to where it should be. “King will be a good example,” she said. “Our goal is to have Ziggy be calm around other dogs and people, and he can start slow, walking to the festival with King.”
“Well...” Trey hesitated, then smiled. “I should probably argue with you about that, but the truth is, I’d love to bring him.”
While she waited for him to grab his things, she looked around the cottage, curious since she’d never been inside it before. It was neat, but not obsessively so; there was an opened paperback book facedown on an ottoman, and a stack of unopened mail in the middle of the table.
Pretty much the same level of messiness as her own place. Yet another way they were compatible.
And she did not need to be thinking about that.
Ten minutes later, they were strolling through increasingly crowded streets toward the sound of music and the flash of colorful lights at the town park where the festival was being held. They weren’t walking any closer together than usual, weren’t touching each other, and yet there was a heat and a sense of promise that was hard to ignore.
You have an ax over your head. You can’t have kids. You have scars, and may have more eventually. But even as she recited to herself the reasons why she needed to keep a distance from Trey, her chest tightened with yearning. She’d never felt like this before. And she hadn’t realized how heady it would be to, well, start to fall in love with a guy.
Committing herself to a life of celibacy had been a lot easier before she had met Trey. Before she’d felt the strength of his arms around her.
She blew out a breath and tried to focus on something nonromantic. “Have you heard anything more about King? Any word from that awful Cochran guy?”
“Still nothing.” Trey reached down and scratched King’s ears, and the big dog looked up at him, mouth open, tongue hanging out. “I’m thinking no news is good news. Cochran ought to be ashamed to show his face, let alone report what happened. Although eventually we’ll have to talk to our departments about why King is with me and not with him.”
“I guess there are some politics involved in it,” Erica said. “All I know is, King looks happy.”
“Let’s hope he can stay that way. I’m hoping that jerk will decide to lie low.”
They had reached the edge of the festival now, and the smell of kettle corn and saltwater taffy swept toward them on a cool bay breeze. Crowds of people walked past the booths or stood in line at concession stands. Mary and Julie were there, at a booth stacked high with books and a big cardboard sign depicting the Lighthouse bookstore. From his heart-shaped bed beside Mary, Baby yipped at King and Ziggy, making sure the larger dogs knew who was boss.
Principal O’Neil sat at a booth advertising the benefits of private schools. He was occupied talking to a couple of adults and grade-school-age kids. Good. Without discussing it, Erica and Trey went in the other direction.
Some of the teenagers had on shorts and flip-flops, but as darkness fell, the air cooled and Erica was glad she had worn something a little warmer. They strolled through the festival, dogs at their sides. When Ziggy got overexcited, Trey showed her how to give him an alternative command, making him sit or lie down or give paw until he forgot about whatever had distracted him. As the crowd thinned and Ziggy got more tired, he seemed content to just trot along beside her.
“You’re doing a good job with him,” Trey said finally. “He does best when he’s ri
ght at your side. Most dogs do.”
“I think he learned a lot from a couple of lessons you’ve given him about heeling,” she said. She reached down to scratch Ziggy’s ears.
But they were near the hot dog stand, and suddenly a little kid dropped a hot dog. Ziggy spotted the food on the ground and ran for it, taking Erica by surprise, yanking the leash out of her hands.
“Ziggy!” Erica rushed after him, but he quickly snatched the hot dog and scarfed it down. Just as she reached him, he glanced back, saw her and took off again, grabbing a little girl’s cotton candy out of her hand and holding it high as he pranced and trotted through the crowd. He kept glancing back at Erica. Obviously, he thought this was the best game of chase ever.
“Ziggy! I’m sorry,” she called to the mother of the girl whose cotton candy had been swiped.
“He stole my fluffy snack!” the little girl wailed.
As Ziggy dashed past another group of children, several of them started to cry, as well.
“Catch that dog,” the cotton candy mother yelled, picking up her child.
“I’m sorry. I’m trying,” Erica panted out, still chasing Ziggy. “He’s not dangerous,” she called to the crowd generally.
Now a couple of men were trying to help her, dodging in front of Ziggy, but he was an old hand at that game and danced away from them.
“Ziggy. Halt.” Trey’s deeper voice rang out behind Erica, and Ziggy did glance back, but obviously he was having too much fun to listen to his new trainer.
Finally, Shane from the academy held out his hot dog to Ziggy and managed to lead him into a fenced corner, and Erica grabbed his leash as he wolfed down the food. She gripped it tightly and gave Shane a quick side hug. “Thank you so much. You’re a lifesaver.”
“No problem.” Shane ducked his head, blushing, but he couldn’t hold back his big smile. He glanced at the couple of girls from the mainstream school who were standing nearby.
“You’re a hero, dude,” one of them said, and he blushed harder.
“Good job,” Trey said as he reached them, barely breathing hard, King at his side. “I gave some money to the lady whose daughter’s cotton candy got swiped,” he said to Erica. “But you might want to talk to her because she’s still mad her kid got upset. I’ll hold Ziggy.”
“Thanks.” Erica jogged toward the angry-looking woman and, after multiple apologies, talked her into bringing her daughter to where she could see Ziggy. Soon, the little girl was begging to pet him, and even the mom was reluctantly converted after her daughter touched Ziggy’s soft fur and smiled hugely.
After it was all over, Erica and Trey took the dogs a little apart from the crowd and sat on a bench to regroup, but it wasn’t to be. Principal O’Neil came marching toward them.
“That was quite a spectacle,” he said. “Not the image we want our teachers to portray.”
Trey opened his mouth, obviously intending to defend her, but she nudged him with her foot. “You’re right. It was a mistake to bring my dog here when he’s not well trained. I won’t let something like that happen again.”
Trey’s eyebrow quirked up, but he didn’t speak, and Erica was glad. She had learned that arguing against her boss was less effective than giving in to him, letting him have his sense of power. Besides, he was right. Ziggy had been awful, and it was her fault for bringing him into the situation.
“Could you step aside with me a minute, Erica?” O’Neil asked.
Her heart sank. “Okay.” She held out Ziggy’s leash to Trey and he took it before she could ask him to hold the dog for her.
As soon as they were out of earshot of Trey and the other fairgoers, O’Neil turned to face her. “Are you aware that our rules regarding a relationship with a coworker also apply to volunteers?” he asked.
Her stomach went tight. “No, I guess... I hadn’t thought about those kind of rules.”
O’Neil’s eyebrows came together, his mouth twisting to one side. “I knew allowing this program to continue was trouble.”
“But it’s nothing to do with the program. And I don’t have a relationship with...” She trailed off. It was true, she and Trey didn’t have a relationship that you could name, but their feelings for each other were becoming hard to hide.
“There are reasons for this type of regulation. It can lead to all kinds of problems in the workplace,” O’Neil lectured on. “What if the relationship ends? Are you still going to be able to work with the man?” He shook his head. “I don’t like this.”
“We aren’t dating,” she said. She had to keep the academy going, had to keep this job. For the sake of all the kids who depended on it, of course. But also for Amber and Hannah, who were loving their life at the shore.
No other work around here—crab picker, waitress, retail worker—could provide anywhere close to her teacher income. If she lost her job, they would have to move away, and Erica had promised herself she would make this dream come true for her sister. “There’s nothing to worry about,” she said firmly. “Trey and I are not seeing each other.”
“Uh-huh,” O’Neil said, obviously not believing her. “There’s something else. I noticed more and more mingling between the support program kids and the mainstream kids. I don’t like it.”
“You mean here at the fair?” Erica’s voice rose to a squeak and she swallowed and took a breath. “We can’t control what the kids do during their free time.”
O’Neil frowned and was opening his mouth to reply when Erica heard Ziggy bark. She looked to see that Officer Greene had come over to Trey and was talking to him intently. The discussion didn’t look like it was going well.
O’Neil noticed, too. “We’ll talk more about this,” he said, and marched back over toward Trey and Officer Greene.
“You’ll need to get in touch with your chief right away,” Greene was saying to Trey.
“What’s going on?” Principal O’Neil asked.
“Police business,” Greene said with a smile and a wave of the hand as he turned away.
Erica could guess what that police business was from the troubled expression on Trey’s face and the protective hand he put on King’s back. The other officer must have reported what had happened last night with King.
After Officer Greene walked away, O’Neil frowned at both of them and then at the two dogs. “Having a cop connected with the school was supposed to help enrollment, not hurt it, but this kind of episode...” He shook his head. “And we can’t have a teacher in a relationship with a volunteer.”
Trey raised an eyebrow and glanced at Erica, obviously wondering what to say.
“I’m very concerned,” O’Neil said. He opened his mouth as if to say more, but a woman with a baby—must be his wife and child—came to the fence beside them. The woman held up the baby and gestured to him. “This isn’t over,” he said, and headed toward the pair.
Erica was concerned, too. Concerned about King, about Trey and about her own job.
* * *
THE FIRST SUNDAY in May was always the church’s outdoor picnic, and Julie looked forward to it every year. Melvin had come to church with her most weeks, but he’d usually begged off the picnic, so it wasn’t like she missed him. She’d brought her usual fabulous deviled eggs, and she’d even managed not to sample more than a few of them.
Her intermittent fasting was just that, intermittent. Okay, she actually hadn’t started yet, but she’d read through the diet book and she had cut way down on the Ben & Jerry’s. She’d lost three pounds so far.
So it was okay to fill her plate now, right?
She put an arm around Sophia as they found a seat at one of the long tables. “Thanks for coming to church with me, honey. I was surprised you wanted to, but I’m glad for the company.”
“It’s fun, Grandma,” Sophia said.
That wasn’t what Julie would call a church service, but teen
agers were different; they gauged everything in terms of fun. She sat down across from Sophia and took a moment to just look around and enjoy. To her right, she could see the bay, off beyond the pretty little bluff where the church sat. To her left, the church itself, small white clapboard against a clear blue sky. Beyond that was Ria’s motel and her house, which was what made it easy for Ria and all of them to go to church.
Sophia barely picked at her food. Instead, she focused on her phone. Julie sighed, shoving down the annoyance she felt. She’d led Sophia to the empty end of a table so they could talk to each other rather than just to Julie’s church friends.
Apparently, that wasn’t happening. After a couple of leading questions brought just a half answer from Sophia, Julie leaned forward. “Why did you come, if you just want to be on your phone? You didn’t have to.”
Sophia looked up and smiled a little too wide. “I wanted to spend time with you, Grandma!”
The words didn’t ring true, and suddenly Julie remembered the text she’d seen on Kaitlyn’s phone that time she’d taken the girls to the beach. “Wait a minute,” she said. “Did you pull Grandma duty today?”
“No!” But a telltale blush reddened Sophia’s face.
Julie shook her head and patted Sophia’s arm. “Honey, your mom means well, but you truly don’t have to babysit me.”
“We’re not...” Sophia broke off and looked directly into Julie’s eyes for the first time all day. “I guess we kinda are babysitting you.”
“I have to find my own way, honey. When you three coddle me, it just makes me feel worse. Who are you texting with?”
“Abby and Katie. They’re at the coffee shop.”
Julie fumbled in her purse and pulled out a twenty. “Go get coffee with your friends.” She handed over the money.
Sophia’s eyes lit up. “Thanks, Grandma!” She started to stand up and then sat back down. “You’re sure?”
“I’m sure. Go.”
Sophia came around to her side of the table and gave her a quick hug. “Thanks, Grandma. You’re cool.” And she hurried off.
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