AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Roll.”
Molly got back to her feet.
“Play dead.”
Molly howled at the sky.
Lord help him with this dog. The entire minute ticked by with excruciating slowness, while the husky performed an impressive array of tricks...though sadly not ever at the time they were requested. She jumped when he asked her to sit. She played dead when he asked her to smile. And she walked backward in a circle when he asked her to shake.
But by the end of the minute, all four judges were howling with laughter and clapping their hands.
“Oh my God,” Isla said, wiping a tear from her eye. “I have never seen anything so funny. Who was expecting a comedy act today?”
“Not me.” Scout shook her head, her eyes crinkled with amusement. She wore a fitted top that showed off her pregnant belly, which she cradled with one hand. “I have no idea how you taught her to do all those things but then do the opposite of the command you were giving her...but that wasgenius!”
“You have our attention,” the Hollywood trainer said, nodding. “Thoroughly impressed.”
Alvin whipped out a brightly colored silk pocket square from the pocket of his purple blazer and dabbed at his eye, still laughing. “That’s a big thumbs-up from me. Hilarious!”
High praise that was absolutelynotdeserved. So much for getting laughed off the stage and heading home. He looked down at the husky and would have sworn that she winked at him.
Get a grip. Dogs do not wink.
“Looks like we might be staying here a while,” he muttered to her as they walked offstage. “For better or worse.”
Sure enough, when the bottom-scoring contestants were called to attend an additional session—where they would have a second chance to impress the judges before some were eliminated—Keaton and Molly were not on the list.
August realized that if several people were eliminated from the competition on the first day, there should be more rooms available! She hadn’t even thought of that last night, but of course the knockout competition style would mean fewer people at the resort with each passing day. Shecouldmove into someone else’s room now and do so without having to inconvenience any other contestants or the Paws in the City team.
Only...
Whydid she have to get into a verbal sparring match with Keaton about the room thing? Because now, even though she had the perfect solution available, it would seem like she was the one backing down. Chickening out. Proving that she couldn’t handle sharing a room and a bed with him.
In the worst-case scenario, it might make her look like she was attracted to him!
Over my dead body will Ieveradmit that.
What to do? What to do? An idea sparked as she was making herself a coffee in the main hall, while Keaton headed back to the room with Molly so he could squeeze in some work before he was required again for the competition. What if she madehimwant to get his own room? Perhaps that would require nothing more than her being a little obnoxious, and then he would have to be the one to back down.
She stifled a laugh. It would serve Keaton right, since he was always so happy to get her worked up with his teasing barbs. Maybe the man deserved a little of his own medicine. Buoyed, she enjoyed her coffee and a cookie from the snack table before heading back to the room. She wanted him to be deep in the zone when she started annoying him.
Walking slowly through the retreat’s grounds, August sucked in the clean air and the fresh scent of earth and green leaves. A woman was kicking a ball around with a large shepherd dog of some kind, and another woman was lounging on the grass reading a book while her dog curled up by her side. Distant laughter carried on the breeze, but otherwise it was quiet. Peaceful. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d gotten out of the city and enjoyed the lack of honking and flashing lights and the ever-present smell of street pretzels, car fumes and garbage.
“You need to do this more often,” she said to herself, tipping her face up to the sun and letting it warm her skin.
But the life of a solo businesswoman didn’t exactly make a lot of time for vacations. Part of that was her own fault, because August packed her schedule to the brim, working as hard as she could and squirreling the money away into her savings account so she could be independent.
Independent...but not alone.
Because years of aching loneliness inside her own family made her want to find a place to belong. To be welcomed and appreciated. To feel that she was enough.
And her best chance of success in finding someone like that waswithoutrelying on messy, unpredictable things like passion and chemistry and emotion.
A practical partnership,that’swhat she wanted.
That tingly, stomach-fluttery, make-your-cheeks-go-hot feeling she got from Keaton?
Absolutelynoton her wish list.
