What? Chomp his leg off? Go for his throat?
His imagination was getting the best of him, and it certainly wasn’t helping him with this situation. He had to get over his nerves.
Like yesterday.
“Can I touch him?” Eli asked tentatively.
“Absolutely. He’s yours, you know.”
Eli reached forward, allowing Bullet to sniff at his fingers before he scratched the dog behind the ears.
“Good boy,” he said to the dog, and then paused abruptly as Mary’s words penetrated his muddled brain. “Wait. What do you mean, he’s mine?” He straightened, mental alarms pealing in his ears. “He belongs to the police department, right?”
Mary’s gaze widened, and her lips pursed, accentuating her cheekbones. She must have realized he was staring at her, because she immediately dropped her gaze. Her heart-shaped face turned a pretty shade of rose.
“The department paid for him, yes,” she answered after a tentative pause.
“Good, then.” Relief washed through him. For a moment he’d had the unnerving picture of having to take the dog home to live with him. Thankfully that wasn’t the case. “So now what?”
“Now we train.” Mary straightened, resuming the professional demeanor with which she’d met him at the door. “Since it’s Friday afternoon, I suggest we break for the weekend and pick this up first thing Monday morning.”
“Train? I was given the impression that the dog already was trained,” he said, cautiously running a palm down Bullet’s neck. Eli jerked his hand back when Bullet raised his head. “Isn’t he a certified K-9?”
“Oh, Bullet’s trained,” Mary replied, her chuckle softened by the kindness mingling with the amusement in her gaze. “I was talking about you.”
* * *
Mary paced the front room, glancing out the window every few minutes, waiting for Eli to arrive for his first official training session with Bullet. It seemed as if the weekend had dragged on for a lifetime, but Monday morning had finally come, and Eli was due soon. They’d agreed on eight o’clock to start, and it was only half past seven, so it wasn’t as if he was late. She was just anxious to see him again—to get started on the real training process. It was an exciting moment for her and for her newly established Rapport Kennel.
If nerves over her business weren’t enough to make her antsy, she couldn’t seem to be able to get Eli out of her mind. It bothered her more than she cared to admit—because if she were being honest, this wasn’t all about work. It was about the man she was working with.
Eli. The man who for years had filled her dreams, as hopeless as they were. Mooning over a man who hardly knew she even walked the planet. But that was long ago, when she was an awkward teen. She’d been over him for years.
He was her past. Except now, he wasn’t.
He was very, very present.
If she could have framed the expression on his face when she’d teased him about training him and not the dog, she would have hung it over her fireplace, where she could appreciate his handsome mug every time she walked by. Of course that might be a little problematic to explain to visitors, since it was none other than her very own sister who had jilted him for another man only a week before their wedding.
Not exactly the kind of picture a woman ought to place on the mantel, even in her mind and even in jest.
She was still angry at Natalie. At the moment, they weren’t on speaking terms. It grated on her, knowing that in Natalie’s tinted reality, Eli had been nothing more than the last in a long string of broken hearts. Her sister had always been a bit of a narcissist, but her selfishness had hit an all-time high with this one. Without a word of explanation to anyone, she’d left the state with a wealthy fellow the family had never even met. It was cruel, even for her.
How could Natalie have done such a thing? And to Eli, of all men? He deserved so much better than that.
He was a decent guy through and through. He didn’t purposefully snub anyone, not even in high school, when he was the handsome and sought-after star running back on the football team. He went out of his way to make folks feel welcome—even going so far as to take pity on an awkward ninth-grade girl standing alone in a shadowed corner of her first Sweetheart Social.
He wouldn’t remember that particular incident, of course.
But she did.
She’d never forgotten any of the kind things he’d done for her over the years. To be honest, if only with herself, she’d have to admit that her feelings for Eli had shaded every romantic relationship she’d had over the years. No other man could compare to him, or at least to the man she’d built Eli up to be in her mind. It wasn’t fair to the men she’d dated, and it definitely wasn’t going to make working with the man Eli was now any easier.
He could hardly live up to perfection, and that was pretty much what she’d made him out to be.
Past tense. That part of her life was over long ago. She was over this. She was over him. She had to be. Now more than ever. How else would she be able to endure working with him every day?
And she was going to work with him. It might have come as a complete shock to her when Captain James had arranged for the two of them to work together in the new K-9 unit, but she wasn’t about to turn down the opportunity she’d been praying for. If she presented a competent K-9 unit to the Serendipity Police Department, she’d be able to use that reference to get other clients in surrounding small-town areas, places that might otherwise not be able to afford to train such units. It was her dream to run a full-time training kennel, and she found she couldn’t give it up, not even to spare Eli the discomfort of having to work with his ex-fiancée’s sister.
She sank into the plush forest-green easy chair in the corner of her living room and folded her legs, wrapping her arms around her ankles. Resting her forehead on her knees, she closed her eyes and offered her heart to God in prayer.
She didn’t realize how much time had passed, but at eight o’clock precisely, Eli knocked rhythmically on the door, shave and a haircut, two bits.
She was ready, and she hoped he was equally prepared for his first real lesson with Bullet. He’d seemed a little aloof about the dog on Friday.
She opened the door and smiled in greeting, and he simply marched past her.
“Let’s do this,” he said over his shoulder, already halfway to the den.
No Hello.
No Good morning.
No How was your weekend?
Just a curt Let’s do this, in a voice that, while not what she would term callous, was nevertheless, in Mary’s opinion, a little rough around the edges. Or maybe she was being oversensitive, and he was ready to get down to business.
“Okay, then,” she answered blithely, tamping down her own emotions. Eli was probably nervous. She decided to cut him a break—this one time. She passed him, heading through the den toward the backyard without glancing around to see if he followed.
She didn’t have to. She felt his gaze drilling into her back and knew he was scowling. What was up with that? Had he fallen off the wrong side of the bed? Eaten soggy cereal for breakfast?
As she stepped outdoors, she paused a moment, enjoying the sight of Bullet playfully barking and chasing Periwinkle and Sebastian around the yard. The dogs always made her feel better.
Eli was still staring at her, waiting for—something. For his training to begin, she supposed.
“Bullet, volg,” she called crisply, bringing the dog to heel.
“Do