Puppy Love (16 page)

He nodded sagely. “So maybe you're letting Muckle down by staying with Adam. Maybe what you really need is to find a different trainer. Preferably one who's old and fat and has hair growing out of his ears.” He smirked. “Or better yet, her ears.”

I didn't answer as he started the car. Could he have a point? Was my crush on Adam the reason Muckle wasn't doing better? The thought made me uneasy.

“So if you might ditch class anyway, can we stop for ice cream?” Robert asked as he pulled out of the parking lot. “I'm craving a chocolate infusion.”

I hesitated, thinking about Adam and Muckle and then back to Adam again. Specifically, the way he'd looked at me while
waiting for his money. Not to mention the way I'd looked at him. Could he possibly have guessed what I was thinking? Ugh. If so, I'd never be able to show my face in PetzBiz again.

“I guess,” I mumbled at last.

We were still working on our cones when we got to my house. “Hang on,” Robert said, licking his fingers as we walked toward the front door. “Let me finish out here so your mom doesn't freak out about drips on her rugs.”

“Good plan.” I crunched the edge of my cone, but I barely tasted it or the peppermint swirl ice cream inside. Was I doing the right thing by skipping puppy class? I tried to tell myself it was no big deal. I could always go back on Saturday. I just needed a little time to figure things out, that was all. . . .

“Lauren!” My mother's sharp voice broke me out of my thoughts. “Why are you standing out in the yard? Get in here and deal with your dog—he just chewed up another pair of my sunglasses!”

Uh-oh. “Sorry, Mom.” I tossed the last bit of my cone into the bushes and hurried inside, wiping my hands on my jeans.

Muckle looked completely unrepentant. He danced around, obviously thrilled to see me, as always.

Mom had followed me in, though Robert was still outside. “He also messed on the laundry room floor this morning,” Mom informed me. “I suppose I should be glad it wasn't the rug again, but still. This has got to stop, Lauren. Or else we—”

“It will,” I interrupted hastily, not wanting to give her the
chance to finish that sentence. “I swear. The dog trainer says he's making progress.” Grabbing Muckle, I hurried toward the door. “And we have another class today, remember? Which reminds me, we'd better go. Later, Mom!”

Robert looked surprised when I emerged and shoved him toward the Volvo. “What?” he mumbled through a half-chewed mouthful of cone.

“Hurry. We're going to be late as it is.” I tossed Muckle into the passenger seat, then climbed in myself.

Robert opened the driver's-side door and peered in. “Hold on. I thought we weren't doing puppy class today.”

“I changed my mind.” I yanked down my seat belt and snapped it on. “There's no time to look for a different trainer. It's Adam or nothing.”

A shiver ran through me as I said it, and I realized I'd been lying to myself. I didn't want to drop that class. And not just because my family was on my case about Muckle. Okay, maybe that was a big part of it. But it wasn't the only part. I knew I couldn't run away from this. I'd been fixated on Adam from the moment I first saw him. I had to figure out what that meant, and what I was supposed to do about it.

When Muckle and I reached the training ring, class had already started. Jamal spotted me coming and waved.

“There she is,” he said.

Adam turned and saw me too. “Lauren!” he exclaimed with a smile. “We were wondering what happened to you.”

“Sorry I'm late,” I said as Muckle leaped toward Adam in his usual boisterous greeting. I felt breathless, and not only because we'd sprinted in from the parking lot. Adam's smile always dazzled me, especially when it was aimed in my direction. Had he really missed me when I hadn't showed up? Was he starting to realize I could be more than just another student? I wasn't sure, but the possibility was tantalizing, and suddenly I was very glad I'd changed my mind about ditching.

“No worries, you haven't missed much yet—we just got going.” Adam patted Muckle, then gestured for us to take a spot with the group. “We were about to start with a review of what we did last time. Let's just—”

He cut himself off as the Chihuahua suddenly barked and flung itself on top of the pug, who flopped over and lay there, rolling its bulging eyes helplessly. “Ack!” the pug's owner cried. “Get it off!”

“What should I do?” the Chihuahua's owner exclaimed.

Adam hurried over to break up the fight and talk down the owners. While he was busy doing that, I stepped over to join Jamal and Rachel, who were standing together on the other side of the ring.

“Glad you made it, Lauren,” Jamal said. “We thought you'd gotten tired of us.”

His smile wasn't as dazzling as Adam's, but it was so friendly that I couldn't help returning it. “Nope, just running late today,” I said. “So how are you guys? Do anything fun over the weekend?”

“Not me,” Rachel said. “I had this big history paper due
yesterday, so I mostly—Gizi! Quit that!”

The vizsla puppy had just noticed that the brown-and-white mixed breed's owner, a geeky-looking fourteen-year-old guy, had a loose shoelace. She pounced on it, and Rachel stepped over to help the guy detach himself, while the mixed-breed pup jumped around, barking and getting in the way.

I was watching the action when Jamal leaned closer, nudging me with his shoulder. “So I caught a movie over the weekend,” he said. “The theater had a poster up for that new zombie flick. You heard about it?”

“Sure!” My eyes lit up. “It looks excellent.”

“Yeah.” He grinned. “So it opens this coming weekend, and I was thinking—hey!” Jamal yelped in surprise as Muckle suddenly noticed what was going on with Gizi and the other dog and raced over to join in. Unfortunately, the most direct route involved him darting right between Jamal's legs.

“Muckle!” I cried as he yanked me forward. It was amazing the amount of g-force a small puppy could exert. I felt the leash slip out of my hand, but not before I also felt my body collide with Jamal's.

“Whoa!” he exclaimed, catching me by the shoulders. “You okay?”

I looked up at him. His face was very close as he looked back, his expression serious for once.

“Um, I'm fine,” I said, backing away.

At least that was what I meant to do. Except that by now, Ozzy was dashing back and forth, trying to join in the play session going on nearby, and I tripped over him.

“Oof!” I grunted as I plowed into Jamal's chest. Again.

He laughed softly as he staggered backward, almost crashing into the barrier around the ring. “We have to stop meeting this way,” he quipped.

I noticed that this time we'd somehow ended up with one of his arms wrapped around my waist. And he didn't seem to be in a hurry to release me.

“I'm really sorry,” I mumbled, my face flaming.

His arm squeezed gently. I suddenly became aware that his other hand was resting on my upper arm. For one giddy moment, it felt as if we were slow dancing.

Then Adam hurried toward us. “Everything okay over here?” he asked, his blue eyes flicking from the tangle of puppies over by Rachel to the tangle of, well, me and Jamal. Was it my imagination, or did he look startled—and maybe a little perturbed?

“No. I mean yes.” I shoved back from Jamal, who immediately let go of me and stepped back as well. “I mean, we're fine. The puppies—the leashes—we just—”

“Lauren tripped and fell on me,” Jamal told the instructor with a smile. “But I think I'll survive.”

Adam nodded and stepped over to help disentangle the puppies. He grabbed Muckle's leash and led him over to me.

“Here you go, Lauren,” he said without quite meeting my eye. “And listen—do you have a moment after class? I want to talk to you about something.”

“S-sure,” I stammered, suddenly going so numb I could barely
hang on to the leash. “No problem.”

“Good.” He nodded, then stepped into the center of the ring to resume class.

I barely heard a word he said for the rest of the hour. Muckle really must have been learning something, because somehow we managed to get through the class without embarrassing ourselves again, even though I wasn't particularly effective as a handler. I was vaguely aware of Jamal and Rachel speaking to me now and then, but I couldn't do much more than nod in response.

Finally class was over. Every thought in my mind had coalesced into one giant question, pulsing like a neon sign—what did Adam want to talk to me about?

You know those movies where someone has an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other, telling him opposite things? Well, I had that. Only it wasn't an angel and a devil talking to me. It was happy, optimistic Muckle on one shoulder, yapping that Adam had come to his senses and realized I was the girl of his dreams, and that after class he was planning to ask me to run away to Ireland with him to live happily ever after.

On the other shoulder was my sister Britt, who'd always been a pessimist. Or a realist, as she called it. She kept sniping that I'd been an idiot on Sunday, that Adam had figured out what I was up to and wanted to tell me I was such a blithering moron that he wasn't going to let me take his class anymore.

The girl with the hound buttonholed Adam on her way out of the ring, babbling at him about whatever problems she and her
puppy were having. After that, the pug girl hurried over to thank him for saving her pup from the scary Chihuahua.

As I was waiting, Jamal and Rachel came over. “Walk you out?” Jamal asked in his affable way.

I shot a look at Adam. “Um, Adam wanted to talk to me,” I reminded him. Hadn't he heard? He'd been standing right there. “I'd better see what he wants. You guys don't have to wait.”

“Oh. Okay.” Jamal hesitated, but finally tossed me one more smile and then headed out after Rachel.

It seemed to take forever for the other students to finish yapping at Adam. But finally the last of them disappeared, and we were alone.

He walked over to me. “Thanks for waiting,” he said to Muckle. Well, okay, he was probably talking to me. But his gaze was trained on Muckle, who was lying stretched out on the cool tile floor at my feet.

“Sure,” I said, trying for an easy, casual tone and probably failing miserably. “What's up?”

He wet his lips, then glanced at the ceiling. “It's no big deal,” he mumbled, sounding uncharacteristically uncertain. “It's just, the training session on Sunday was fun, but I—that is, when I saw your friend Robert yesterday—I mean, I guess I just . . .”

I stared at him. What in the world was he talking about? When and where had he seen Robert—and why in the world hadn't Robert told me?

Adam's next words made me forget all that. “So I was wondering
if you'd like to, you know, go out sometime?” His eyes finally flicked down to meet mine. “Like, on a date?”

“Really?” I blurted out. Yeah, I know—not exactly the coolest of responses. But I couldn't help it.

He nodded. “There's this big agility competition over in East Carrelton on Saturday afternoon—I was going to head over there right after class with my dogs,” he said, his words coming out so fast I could hardly take them in. “I was thinking maybe you'd want to come cheer us on? You know—since you're interested in agility anyway. I mean, it would be cool to have someone there. It can be tough to juggle both dogs sometimes, and well, I could use—anyway, then maybe we could grab something to eat afterward or something.”

His gaze had wandered ceilingward again while he was talking, but now he shot me an uncertain look. I couldn't believe it. Was he actually nervous about asking me out? That was so unexpected—and so sweet—that I almost laughed out loud.

“Yeah,” I said instead. “I mean sure, that sounds like fun. I'd love to.”

“Great, great.” He looked relieved. “Okay, then. I guess I'll see you Saturday?”

I shivered. “I'll see you Saturday.”

Chapter
Fifteen

R
obert was examining a package
of goldfish flakes in the aquarium aisle when I almost bowled him over with a big, surprise hug. “You'll never believe what just happened!” I cried as Muckle leaped around our legs, barking happily.

Yanking his right arm free of my grip, Robert tossed the fish food back on the shelf. “You won the lottery? Cool. Then you can pay me back for these puppy classes.”

“Very funny.” I let go of him and stepped back. “Actually, this is way better than the lottery. Adam just asked me out!”

I grinned, waiting for him to freak out. Actually, I was sort of wishing I'd made him go outside before telling him. What if Adam heard his whoops of triumph?

But no—this news couldn't wait. Anyway, Robert wasn't
whooping. He wasn't making any noise at all, actually. A frown crept across his face as he stared at me.