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“Ah, she’s just being dramatic. Try buttering her up.”
Keaton approached the dog, the floppy sun hat dangling from one hand. Molly eyed it with extreme suspicion. She didn’t love wearing hats but tolerated one of those cone-shaped party hats with the glittery pom-poms each year for her birthday because it made Leah happy. For Keaton and August, however, she was not so tolerant.
“No no no no no.”The dog’s noises really did sound like a toddler throwing a temper tantrum.
“Oh come on, Molly. You’ll look so pretty.” Keaton crouched in front of her and tried to pat her head, but the dog tossed his hand off and glared at him.
You were just buttering me up earlier. Betrayal!
August clamped a hand over her mouth to stifle a giggle, because she didn’t want Keaton to lose heart. But this was not going to be an easy exercise. Leah would have been able to get Molly to do whatever she wanted—despite Keaton thinking that the dog had his sister wrapped around her paw, it was quite the opposite. MollyadoredLeah and always wanted to make her happy.
“Pretty please with gross doggy treats on top?” Keaton pleaded.
Molly snorted.No, thank you, sir.
“Come on, do it for Leah? You love Leah, don’t you?”
At the sound of her owner’s name, the dog’s ears pricked up and Keaton caught on.
“That’s right, these photos are for Leah. It will make her so happy to see you enjoying yourself at the beach.” He held the hat up and the dog eyed it with wariness, but she didn’t protest this time. “Good girl. Now, I’m going to place this hat on your head and I want you to smile for the camera, okay?”
He gingerly placed the floppy hat down on the dog’s head. It slipped forward over Molly’s eyes and Keaton carefully readjusted it so you could see her face. But smile, she did not. In fact, Molly’s resting bitch face had never been more prominent than it was now. August reached forward to place the bucket and spade at Molly’s feet, stepping out of the shot so Keaton could snap a few photos with his phone.
Later, they would have to pick their five best shots and send them to the coordinator, who would project them all onto a wall in the main hall, along with their submitted captions, so the judges could pick their favorite and eliminate a few more contestants.
“Smile, Molly,” he tried again, but the dog continued to glare.
Nothing worked. Not waving a treat in front of her face, not trying to get her to shake or high-five. Not doing a funny little dance. Her tail stayed stock-still as if it were made of concrete and her eyes bored into Keaton with unmatched disdain as he snapped some photos from a few different angles.
“I think I’m going to call this oneMolly hates the beach,” he said, snorting as he swiped through the photos with August.
“Oh dear, she looks...”
“Like she wants to commit homicide?” he suggested.
“Yeah, kinda.”
“And you all thought I was being dramatic when I said I felt like she was going to kill me in my sleep,” he said smugly.
A bell sounded near the front of the room. The first five minutes was up and they needed to move to the next station. As if sensing this was her cue to be free from the beach hat of doom, Molly tossed it off and gave her whole body a shake. Taking a moment to give Keaton a stare down, she trotted off toward the next booth.
“Did you see that look?” Keaton said as they walked over. “Premeditation.”
August chuckled. “Shedoeshave a vindictive streak. One time Leah wouldn’t give her any treats, so she found the bag and ripped it open, then proceeded to sprinkle the treats all over the kitchen floor. She didn’t even eat them! She just wanted to prove she could get to them.”
Keaton shook his head. “This is why I don’t want kids. I couldn’t handle the mess and the constant boundary testing.”
August blinked. “I didn’t know that you don’t want kids.”
“Nah, never have. Maybe it’s because I felt like Leah and I were such a burden to Mom when she was going through her tough times. There were days where I had to be the parent and make sure we had dinner on the table because Mom struggled to get out of bed and...so I feel like I already lived that experience.” He shrugged. “Most people think I don’t want kids because Ellery died, but it was set a long time before that.”
August nodded. “Right.”
“Isn’t this the part where you say, ‘Oh but you’d be such a good dad’?” he said in a high-pitched voice, rolling his eyes.
“Hell, no, I hate it when people say that.” She wrinkled her nose. “Not being a parent is a perfectly legitimate life choice.”
Keaton looked surprised by her answer, but they didn’t have time to expand on the conversation because the whistle blew for the next five-minute photo shoot. This time they were at the bubble bath station. The background was blue with bubbles on it, and there were all sorts of bubble-making implements, including the traditional ring wand, and some automatic bubble blowers. There were also clear balloons with confetti in them and other cute props, like shower caps and rubber duckies.
