Love by the Yard (11 page)

Much too soon, she moved back, breaking the sweet contact, and he immediately felt the loss.

“Good night,” she whispered. “I guess I'll see you tomorrow.”

He let his hands drop. “Yeah. Tomorrow.”

With Shanna watching him from the second stair, he turned and let himself out.

❧

Shanna hit the
Save
key. Satisfied that she'd completed another task, she allowed herself to stop working and watch what was happening in her backyard.

Again, the playscape was different than it had been the day before. Today's addition was a small deck extending out from the now two-story fort.

She had no idea why Brendan was never satisfied, but with every change, his mother faithfully painted the new section and touched up the existing structure as needed. Shanna couldn't complain. She liked Kathy, and they were becoming good friends. Kathy also never asked her how she felt about Brendan, which made Shanna extremely grateful. She didn't have an answer.

Shanna stared at the playscape, again complete, at least for the moment. Every time he allegedly finished it, it was always better than the previous version.

Besides his constant work on the playscape, Brendan now had half the fence rebuilt. He wasn't there every day, but on the days he was, he changed one or two complete sections, including new fence posts; so that by the time he left, the fence was again whole, a mix of old and new, but solid enough so the yard was again fully enclosed and Boffo couldn't escape.

She watched Boffo, who was currently running around the yard with Brendan's leather tool belt in his mouth. With aspirations higher than her ability, Ashley ran behind him, chasing the dog, never able to recover the treasure of the moment. Boffo could have run faster if he wanted to, but it seemed he purposely ran just a little faster than Ashley to keep her chasing him. For now, Brendan ignored both Boffo and Ashley while he held the level up to make sure the newest fence post was perfect.

For all his running around while Brendan was present, Boffo never once tried to make a dash through whatever section of the fence was open, even when Brendan had to leave the yard for a few minutes to get something out of his truck. Somehow, Brendan had him trained to stay in the yard, fenced or not.

Because of Brendan, Boffo was again the talk of the neighborhood, not in the same way as before, as a problem. Now everyone thought he was the smartest dog they'd ever seen.

Even though dog school was now finished and Boffo had passed all his tests, Brendan continued to work with Boffo. Instead of normal, sensible dog tricks, Brendan had moved on to teaching Boffo stupid dog tricks. Boffo would howl on command, dance, or balance a biscuit on his nose until given permission to eat it.

Boffo's favorite activity involved catapulting a tennis ball from a small mechanism Brendan had constructed. With the ball in place, Boffo pressed a button with his paw, causing the ball to shoot out for him to chase. It didn't seem to bother the dog that a person wasn't throwing the ball for him. He was quite happy to play ball by himself. Shanna thought this quite odd, but at the same time, very practical, as he was never bored.

In addition to fetching the ball, Boffo now also fetched Brendan's tools on command instead of burying them. The amazing thing was that Boffo knew the difference when Brendan called his tools by name. Boffo never failed to bring exactly what Brendan needed at that particular moment. It wouldn't have surprised Shanna if Brendan trained Boffo to hammer in nails. She couldn't believe his patience with the dog. He was even better with her children. They were going to miss him dearly when he was finished.

Shanna suddenly didn't want Brendan to finish the fence. She was going to miss him, too. Probably even more than the children would—which she didn't understand. She couldn't deny that she liked him—from a distance. But still, no matter how many self-help books she read, she couldn't control the nervousness she felt with him, even though he'd never done anything threatening or violent to her.

He'd never been anything but a perfect gentleman. He was the type of man who could have had women melting at his feet. Shanna had almost melted at his feet a couple of times. Those were the times he'd kissed her and she hadn't been nervous—she had known exactly what he was going to do, because the moment had been gentle and romantic. Probably one of the reasons he was so easy to like was because his face was an open book. One look at him told her exactly what he was thinking and what kind of mood he was in. So far, all his moods had been relatively good. In all the time she'd known him, she'd seen him annoyed but never angry—unless he really had been angry with Ray but bottled it up inside so she couldn't tell. If that were the case, it made him even more dangerous than Roger, because she would never know in advance when he was going to explode with rage. Knowing his potential, she couldn't be sure of what he would do when that moment came. All she knew was that she didn't want to be near him when it happened.

No matter how hard Shanna tried or how much she wanted to, she was too afraid to trust Brendan. It wasn't fair to him, and she'd prayed about it more times than she could count, but she couldn't make it happen.

Shanna returned her attention to her screen, since she was supposed to be working. She hadn't transferred much information when the ring of Brendan's laughter stopped her.

Outside, Boffo was wearing Ashley's pink hair bow behind one ear, enjoying the attention while Ashley hugged him. Matthew was pointing at the dog and his sister, making the sourest face Shanna had ever seen. Brendan was watching Matthew, laughing so hard he was holding his sides. The laughter made Matthew's expression turn even more sour. Matthew's disdain caused Ashley to hug Boffo even more. Boffo sat, his tongue lolling, without a care in the world, despite how pathetic and ridiculous he looked wearing Ashley's hair accessory.

The sight almost brought tears to her eyes. If Brendan was
an accountant, she easily could have fallen in love with him.

Brendan tamped down his laughter to unclip his cell phone from his belt and flip it open to take a call. The mood had been broken, so Shanna returned to her work. She hadn't completed more than a few more entries into her data file when Brendan walked into the room with Boffo, who was still wearing the pink bow. When Brendan halted, Boffo stopped and sat, as he'd been trained.

Shanna smiled. “I can't believe the difference in him since dog school. I don't know how I can thank you. He does everything we tell him, and he even behaves off the leash in the baseball field.”

Brendan squatted to pat Boffo, which put him below Shanna's eye level.

“Speaking of that, my friend who runs the dog school
just phoned. Every year he has a competition, and he
invites the top participants from each session throughout the year to enter. The cable channel sends a crew there, and they'll air it a few days after the taping as an interest segment. After the competition, there's a banquet and prizes, and any profits are donated to the local animal shelter. That's why the cable channel is there every year. Jeff says Boffo's done really well, and he thinks Boffo could win a prize. Even if he doesn't, it's always fun. Do you want to go?”

“Are you saying that people will have their dogs at a banquet?”

He grinned. “Well, it is a dog school thing. Everyone there will have a dog at home that probably sits in the kitchen while they eat. It's just like home, except on a larger scale, and there won't be any kids.”

Shanna froze. “No kids?”

“It's a competition and an adult function. I think it's best to leave them at home. I can ask my mother if she can babysit.”

Shanna stared into his face, actually able to look down because Brendan was still positioned low, with Boffo. Since she'd met him, she'd acknowledged his blue eyes, but she'd never been so close to him in bright daylight. His eyes were gorgeous—a bright, slate blue that could have been the eyes of a movie-star idol. Except that Brendan wasn't a movie star. He was her landscaper and, more important, the person who was saving her from her devious brother-in-law and all his plans to take away everything she valued.

Today he was asking her to go out for dinner with him, without the children, and he was even offering to arrange for babysitting.

Dog or not, it sounded like a date. She didn't want to date him, but he'd done so much work with the dog for her, she couldn't say no.

“When is this banquet happening?”

“Tomorrow.”

“I'll go under one condition.”

One eyebrow quirked. “Name it.”

“Don't wear green.”

Ten

Brendan couldn't have been prouder if Boffo had been his own dog. Boffo had been the best trained in the room, and Shanna had a new, large-sized bag of top-brand dog food to prove it. He leaned toward Shanna, who was absently scratching Boffo behind one ear.

“In the fall, when it starts up again, what do you think of signing Boffo up for agility trials?”

“What kind of trials?”

“That's the thing where the dogs jump over hurdles, go over seesaws, run through tunnels, that kind of stuff.”

Her face lit up. “I've seen those on television. That looks like such fun.”

“I could easily build any of those things. I figure we could pick out what would be the most fun; then we could set up a small practice track in the yard.”

“We?”

He bent and patted Boffo as he spoke, purposely not looking at Shanna. “Training can be pretty intense, because the handler has to run beside the dog the whole time. It's too exhausting for one person. I figure it would take both of us to keep up with him.”

He waited for her to say that she didn't want his participation, mentally arming himself with an argument for when she did.

The longer he waited, the more he felt a dark cloud of impending doom growing over his head. When he completed his work in her yard, he would have no reason to see her again except for bimonthly visits to bring his invoicing and expense receipts. He also still worried about Ray barging in on her when there was no one to defend her. For the one day, he'd sent Ray running, but the issue hadn't concluded. He knew Ray would be back; he just didn't know when. While it was a critical concern, his reason for not wanting to stop seeing Shanna wasn't entirely to simply protect her. He needed a way to keep seeing Shanna, just for the pleasure of being with her. He didn't want to stop seeing her kids, either, or her goofy dog.

“I've been meaning to talk to you about your plans, actually.”

Brendan's day just got brighter. “Really?”

“You're finished with the playscape, right? And the fence is almost done, isn't it?”

His day dimmed. “Why are you asking?”

Shanna's posture stiffened, which Brendan didn't think was a good sign. “You've done so much more than our original agreement. I'll never be able to pay you back.”

“I don't want you to pay me back. You're still working on catching up my accounting stuff, aren't you?”

“Well. . .yes. . .”

“Then we're not even. I told you it would be a big job.”

“But you're working on my yard more than I'm working on your stuff. I have other clients' work to do, too, so yours is just one more in the pile.”

“I'm working on other projects at the same time, too. Lately, I've only been at your place in the afternoons, and not every day, and only for a few hours. Just consider it something I want to do. It's been fun building something like that with no restrictions. Think of it as when Matthew builds things out of those little plastic bricks. The fun isn't in the finished project. It's in the construction.”

“That may be so, but your construction project is a lot larger and a lot more expensive than his.”

Brendan shrugged his shoulders. “Maybe, maybe not. My mother still has my bin from when I was a kid. Whenever she wants something, she reminds me of the estimated cost of what it took to get that bin so full. That stuff isn't cheap.”

“I'm not going to win this argument, am I?”

“Nope.”

The announcement came over the intercom that the Freestyle Dog Tricks category was about to begin, thankfully allowing him to change the subject. “Wait until you see what I'm going to do.”

Shanna looked down at Boffo, who was now lying on his side on the floor, sprawled out and not caring what was going on around him. “When exactly did you have time to teach him something new? You've been busy working every day, and like you said, not always at my house.”

“I'm just going to use what he already knows. You'll see. We're going to get the trophy, plus we're going to be featured on the cable channel.” He couldn't contain his grin. “I also have ulterior motives. If Boffo wins, then they'll give me a short interview, and I can plug both our businesses: my landscaping services and your bookkeeping. Boffo will also earn a year's worth of dog food, which, for him, is a lot of kibble.”

Without waiting for her response, Brendan told Boffo to stay, not that the dog looked like he had any intention of moving, then left to get his box of supplies out of his truck. When his name was called, he put the box on one side of the stage, took out a few boards, and moved to the other side of the stage from the box.

“Boffo, come!” he called.

Shanna released Boffo from the leash. Boffo scrambled to his feet and bounded across the room to go sit at Brendan's feet.

Brendan sat on the floor with his small pile of boards. “I need your help, dog. Have you seen my hammer?”

Boffo ran to the box, picked out the hammer, and brought it to him.

Brendan pretended to search his pockets. “Oops. I forgot the nails.”

Boffo returned to the box, retrieved a cloth bag, and brought it to him. Brendan pretended to act surprised. A few people in the audience snickered.

One item at a time, Brendan had Boffo retrieve everything from the box he asked for, about a dozen different tools, to show everyone what Boffo was capable of. He talked to the dog as if the dog could understand, and soon the entire room echoed with laughter while Brendan continued to pretend he was more clueless than the dog.

Once or twice, Brendan snuck a few glances at Shanna, who wasn't laughing. Every time she saw him looking at her, she rolled her eyes and shook her head, having seen it all before. However, when she'd seen him do the same thing in her backyard, it hadn't been a game. In her yard, when he was trying to work, it was a matter of self-preservation.

After making a big production out of the project of building a foot-high mini-fence, when he had a few boards nailed together, Brendan stood and looked down at it. “I don't think it's level.”

Brendan held his breath. This was the one thing he hadn't had time to practice to perfection with Boffo. He'd concentrated his efforts on teaching Boffo to bring his tools, instead of running away with them, in order to get his work done. The audience didn't know it, but this last thing was the only part of the routine he'd really taught Boffo as a trick.

Boffo retrieved the level, the last item from the box. Carefully Boffo balanced it on the lengthwise piece of wood and shuffled back.

Brendan looked down and rubbed his chin, pretending to study the bubble. “I don't think it's right. What do you think?” He knew the audience wouldn't know what he was doing, but he waved one arm in the air, making it look like he was frustrated and simply talking with his hands. However, he'd worked those motions out as a hand signal for Boffo, knowing that his words weren't specific enough for Boffo to take them as a command.

Right on cue, Boffo trotted back to the level. Brendan touched his nose, so Boffo nudged the level with his nose. Brendan put one hand on the side of his head, which made Boffo turn his head as if examining the bubble. For the last signal, Brendan waved his arm to give Boffo the “bark” signal. Obediently, Boffo barked once, looked up at Brendan, and sat. Half the audience roared with laughter; the other half clapped.

“Good boy!” Brendan quickly pulled a dog biscuit out of his pocket and gave it to Boffo without making him balance it on his nose first.

The applause was thunderous. As if he knew he'd done well, Boffo rubbed against Brendan's leg, asking for approval. Brendan couldn't control his joy; Boffo had done everything perfectly. He gave Boffo a big hug and ruffled his ears.

When the applause died down, he released Boffo and they returned to the table.

Shanna leaned toward him. “You're going to be a tough act to follow. You two are a great team.”

“It's not me. You've got yourself a good dog here, Shanna.”

They quieted while the other teams did their tricks, but Brendan's attention was focused mainly on the woman beside him. Since she'd mentioned it, he couldn't stop thinking of what he was going to do when he'd finished her fence and done all his imagination could allow with her playscape—or anything else in her yard. When he'd first started working for her, he had wanted the job to be finished as soon as he could get everything looking presentable. Now that he was almost done, he was stalling, making changes on things that didn't matter, just to make it last longer. It wasn't her yard or anything in her yard that was important.

Trying not to be obvious about it, while everyone else watched the dog and his master on the stage, Brendan watched Shanna. He didn't want to be limited to seeing her only for business purposes. He wanted to see her often. Every day. He wanted Shanna in his life permanently, and it had nothing to do with work. It was all personal. Very personal.

He squeezed his eyes shut. This wasn't what he'd planned. He wanted to fall in love with a woman who would openly love him back; then together they would raise a family of two kids in a house with a white picket fence. It was happening, but not in the right order. It wasn't white or a picket fence, but he was working on a fence that surrounded a house already filled with two kids and their mother—a wonderful, warmhearted Christian woman who was keeping him at the end of a long stick. Brendan didn't want to be reminded that he was almost finished with her fence and that there was nothing more he could do to the playscape without making it into a miniature house. He didn't want his time with her to be over.

He opened his eyes and stared at Shanna, who was watching a couple of Jack Russell terriers jumping through hoops. It wasn't his plan, but apparently it was God's plan, and Brendan was going to have to jump through a few hoops himself. He wanted to marry Shanna. He wanted to adopt her kids, and he wanted to have more kids after that. A whole herd of kids. Except he didn't know if she wanted more kids. He really didn't know if she wanted to get married again. Her first marriage hadn't exactly been a relationship made in heaven, and her life was still in a constant state of disruption because of it. He didn't know what to do, and time was running out.

While watching her, he prayed for God to tell him something, but the only thing that came to him was to show her that he loved her. Before he could think of anything practical, the last act ended.

She turned to him and smiled, completely destroying all his thought processes. “They were all so good! But I still think you and Boffo were the best.”

“We'll see,” he muttered.

The people from the next table called to them, and they shared thoughts on all the acts until the judging panel returned from their deliberation. A silence hung over the room for a few seconds, which was as long as could be expected considering the number of dogs in the room. The emcee held up a small, bone-shaped trophy for everyone to see, then announced that Boffo was the winner.

“You did it!” Shanna sang out.

“No, we did it. You were just as much a part of this.”

Show her that you love her
.
The words chorused through his head.

He turned, leaned down, and kissed her cheek, knowing everyone in the room was watching them. Before she could respond, he stood, grabbed her hand, and pulled her to her feet. “Now let's go get that trophy. Smile for the camera.”

Taking advantage of the fact that she was still flustered, he held on to her hand and led her to the front, knowing that to everyone present, they looked very much like a happy couple with their faithful dog beside them. He felt like puffing his chest out like a proud rooster.

Once at the front, while everyone watched, he stepped aside for Shanna to accept the trophy. After all, she really was Boffo's owner.

She smiled graciously and held it up to the camera
as he leaned down and kissed her cheek again, knowing she couldn't do anything with the camera on them; then he whispered in her ear, “Keep smiling. It's time for everyone else to leave and for us to go get interviewed.”

❧

Shanna tried to contain her excitement as she hung up the phone.

Brendan had been right. She wouldn't have thought the local cable channel had a large following, but Brendan's friend had posted advertising in every pet food store and community advertising board in the area, generating much local interest.

In front of the camera, Shanna had been too nervous to say much, but nervousness wasn't a fault of Brendan's. Not only did he tell the camera about how much his friend's dog school had helped Boffo, but when the interviewer asked about what he did when he wasn't training Boffo, he gave a short prepared presentation on both his landscaping business and Shanna's bookkeeping services.

Already, the next day, two people representing moderate-sized businesses had phoned to inquire about what she could do for them.

Just as she hung up from her call, the rumble of Brendan's truck echoed in front of her house.

She could hardly wait to tell him the good news. She stood, but instead of hearing the engine shut off, she heard it rev and the truck drive away.