"It's grown-up candy for the scary teacher," Sammy reported.
"Chocolate covered espresso beans. It's the only sweet Noreen likes," Lara said.
"You love her," Rico said while Rob wondered if Julian knew who they were talking about. Off his confused look, Rico told him, "Don't believe me? Ask little red. She knows all and tells all."
Lara wasn't allowing that. "Nope," she said and covered Gloria's mouth so she couldn't say anything incriminating.
With all this back and forth, Julian was at a loss, and Rob kind of enjoyed that look on him. Cool and in charge looked good on him too. Everything did.
"Candy is not all we got," Rico said. "We came across this new Italian deli and Wyatt went nuts. Bought everything in sight."
"We discovered it after we already had lunch. I might have overdone it a little so we're having a sandwich party. You guys want to join us, help us eat some stuff and meet the dogs?" Wyatt asked.
"Dogs?" Julian said and looked down at Danny like he wasn't sure how he would feel about that.
At the mention of dogs, Danny looked at him as well. "Doggies. Can we, Julian?" the little guy asked.
"You scared of dogs?" Rico taunted Julian.
"No. I was worried about Danny," Julian told him. He then turned to Rob. "What did you want to do?"
"I'm up for it," Rob said. He had decided to stop wondering if and when Julian wanted him to join in. It was better to take every opportunity to encourage Julian to socialize. That way once Rob was gone, Julian would have people to hang out with. The thought made him kind of sad, but he would just focus on helping out Danny and Julian and not feeling sorry for himself.
"It's officially a sandwich party. Just follow us to our place," Wyatt said as Sam came out of the store with Mitch carrying a crate with cider.
"We have some stuff to drop off so we'll be stopping at home then we'll meet you," Rico said and he waved to them as he left with Mitch and Sammy.
Everyone was climbing back into their cars, but Julian still looked unsure. "Are we really going?"
"They have doggies," Danny said as Julian buckled him into his car seat.
"Doggies and sandwiches. It's going to be some party," Rob said as he got in the back seat with Danny.
"We're going to a party," Danny said, looking excited.
"It seems like we are," Julian told him. He didn't seem as excited, but that only confirmed to Rob that he needed to do this.
Following the two cars that were going straight to the Hayes's, they drove a little ways out of town then stopped at the end of a curving driveway. They had arrived in front of a good size, single story house behind a green fence. There was a garden to one side that was mostly turning yellow, but someone was obviously taking good care of it.
Everyone else went in ahead of them while Julian was still unbuckling Danny. When the three of them reached the front door, it was already open and two dogs were greeting the other kids. Noticing the newcomers, the dogs came over to greet them too. Worried about Danny's reaction to the dogs, Julian stepped forward protectively.
"They're nice dogs," Sam assured him but he still reached down to hold on to a little, fuzzy, white dog.
Danny didn't show any fear though. If anything he looked eager to be released so he could meet them.
While Sam held on and petted the white dog, DJ held on to the little brown dog so Julian and Danny could get close and get acquainted.
Riley was standing by to do the introductions. "That's Barney and that's Brownie," he said, and of course, Brownie was the brown dog.
Then Gloria threw her own two cents in. "They are nice to hug," she said and then she demonstrated.
"You want to hug them?" Riley asked Danny.
While Julian looked apprehensive, Danny nodded.
"Maybe start with petting them," Rob suggested more to put Julian's mind at ease than for Danny's sake.
Rob showed him and saw for himself that these were sweet dogs. With Julian still holding his hand, Danny came over and stroked Barney's back then Brownie's. As he did it, he laughed.
