Page 15 of Ruff and Tumble

His smile dimmed. “You don’t make things easy on a man, do you?” He sat up, his elbows propped on his knees and an earnest expression on his face. “No, don’t apologize. I’m the one who should be sorry, bursting in on you two times in as many days. The truth is, I need a favor.”

“Fromme?”

“Of course. You’re the person in charge of the Puppy Cup.”

“Well…” As much as she would have liked to claim credit for the entire production, honesty compelled her to shake her head. “Not really. My job seems fancier than it is. There’s a lot to do now that we’re getting ready for filming, but the rest of the year, I mostly just run errands and answer phones.”

“But you pick the teams, right? Train them and coach them and all that?”

“There’s not a whole lot of training you can do for puppies of that age, but yes. I’m also the one who finds them homes afterward.”

“Finds them homes?”

She waved a hand. Here, at least, she knew herself to be on solid ground. Puppies were something she could talk about. With the exception of football, they wereallshe could talk about. “It’s why the project was started in the first place. It’s an adoption ploy. This time of year is always tough for animals, so we take unwanted puppies from shelters in the area and make them football famous. People can’t take them home fast enough after that.”

He eyed her askance. “Why do you say ‘football famous’ like it’s one step above emptying portable toilets?”

A giggle escaped before she could stop it. “I mean, it’s not like you’re out saving the world. You’re playing a game.”

He cast a slow and very obvious look around the living room. There was no mistaking his meaning—that this was not the residence of someone who would call footballa game. In here, it was a passion, a way of life. In a lot of ways, that was how Hailey saw it…but not for the reasons Cole thought. Sitting in front of that television, surrounded by the familiar faces of the Lumberjacks and their fans, was the closest thing to family she had.

“Can I ask where this is going?” she said by way of changing the subject. “I’m assuming it has to do with all that stuff you said to Jasmine yesterday?”

He hitched his jeans and leaned forward. “It does. I’d like to know your secret.”

“My secret?” she echoed. Instinct urged her to sit up, but she forced herself to remain seated. To move in that direction would only bring her closer to Cole, and that was the one thing she was determined to avoid. “My secret to what?”

“Winning.”

Hailey had to pause a moment to digest this remark. She might be a painfully obsessive watcher of football, but she was just that—a watcher. For as long as she could remember, her sports skills ranked right up there with her social skills. Which was to say very,verylow. In fact, the only time she did anything remotely athletic was when she ran after puppies to try to keep them on camera.

“Wait… Are you talking about the show?” she asked. “Myshow? Football-playing puppies?”

He nodded.

It was happening again—that sensation of feeling as though there were cameras parked at every angle, that the world was just waiting for an opportunity to jump out at her and yellgotcha. This time, however, she didn’t let it win.

Instead, she laughed.

Hailey had spent so many years working behind the television scenes that she forgot people believed whatever they saw. The story the producers liked to tell the public about the Puppy Cup was just that—a story. They pretended to separate the animals into two teams and spent weeks taping them “in training” as preparation for the big game. It took hours of footage and tons of poop cleanup to get what they needed, but it worked. Viewers bought into the idea that the two teams were in fierce competition, and only one could come out victorious.

“You know it’s not real, right?” she asked. “They’re dogs. They don’t know how to play football.”

“Yes, thank you. Even my slow athlete’s intellect is able to figure that much out.”

She blushed. She hadn’t meant to make it sound so condescending, but how was she supposed to know if he understood the magic of television? “I’m sorry. It’s just that I don’t know what you’re asking for. I don’t actually win the Puppy Cup. No one does.”

“Sure you do. Your team wins every year. You’re six and oh. I watched the behind-the-scenes footage.”

“There’s behind-the-scenes footage?”

He chuckled. “Tons. I’m surprised you don’t go through it. Coach Taylor makes us go through every second of every game so many times, I see them in my sleep. It might improve your performance.”

“But you just said I’m six and oh. What is there to improve?”

Cole’s eyes acknowledged a hit. “There she is. I knew she couldn’t be gone for long.” With a grin to show he meant no harm, he added, “I didn’t watchallof the footage, but I’ve seen enough. From what I can gather, you usually take half the puppies, and some other poor PA grunt takes the other half. And then you and your puppies proceed to demolish them.”

She ignored the part where he belittled her job as a “poor PA grunt” and stared at him. That tingly sensation in her spine was sending her yet another warning, but this one came with a pleasant aftershock.