“Of course, that’s totally fine,” Cora backpedaled. “It was just a thought. No problem.”
The three of them stood on the balcony in silence, unsure of how to proceed.
“I’m sorry,” Beth Ann said softly, once again back to the sad girl persona. “This is really uncool of me.” She rubbed her face with the back of her hand and smiled through her tears. “I’m okay. Seriously, I’m okay. Let’s get to work.”
“Are you sure? Do you want to just watch me do some training this week, and we can pick up next week?” Cora wondered if Chanel would be her first ever student to complete her program without learning a single thing.
“Nope, I’m all set.” Her crying faded to a few hiccups, as if a switch had flipped.
Cora realized she had yet another challenge to overcome. “Great. I brought a few toys we can try out to see if Chanel is play-motivated, since you don’t want to use treats...”
“Oh, we can totally use treats. I was just feeling fat last time. I was projecting.”
Cora dug her nails into her palms. The Beth Ann roller coaster was unlike anything she’d ever experienced. She desperately wanted to help Chanel but she didn’t feel equipped to handle the human side of the relationship.
“Excellent, that’s great. So let’s go back to what we tried during the first lesson. Chanel, are you ready to have fun?” The little dog wagged her tail but stayed under the chair. Chanel threw a glance at Beth Ann and backed up.
“I think my dog doesn’t like me,” Beth Ann said ruefully. It was the first time she had accurately read her dog’s body language.
“Aw, she likes you! She’s just ... concerned. She could tell you were sad. Dogs really pick up on people’s energy.” Cora’s lies were becoming more and more convincing. Chanel was definitely a sensitive little soul who could read Beth Ann’s distress, but it made her stay far away from her troubled owner.
“Thanks for sticking with me, Cora. I know I’m tough.”
“It’s going to be fine, we’ll get through some good stuff today,” Cora replied, focusing on dog training and avoiding the real issue.
She watched Beth Ann shuffle into the dark apartment with her shoulders slumped in defeat. For the first time since she had met the pair, Cora felt just as bad for Beth Ann as she did for Chanel.
TWENTY-NINE
Oliver came charging at Cora with a single-minded determination that made her worry about her knees. She’d been painfully slammed by other overexuberant dogs many times, and while Oliver was just a gangly boxer baby, a direct hit would still be painful. The sky was getting dark and they were nearing the end of their lesson, but she knew that she had to channel his youthful energy level into a more controlled approach during his recalls.
“I’m going to show you how to teach an automatic sit at the end of the recall. It’s super easy, and it’ll keep him from bouncing off of you every time you call him,” Cora shouted to Charlie across the yard. So far the lesson had been completely professional, even though she kept hoping he’d find a reason to touch her.
“Yeah, I’m worried about the family jewels every time I do a recall!” He gestured vaguely below his waistline, and Cora couldn’t help but think about his package.So much for professional,she chided herself.
Cora ignored the comment. She called, “Here!” and Oliver raced toward her. She showed Charlie how to do the luring movement, and Oliver skidded into a sloppy sit almost on top of her.
“Not bad—he’ll get better every time. You try it.”
Charlie tried it and nailed the move. He grinned at Cora.
“Perfect—love it,” she shouted to him before she could keep the L-word from escaping her lips yet again.
“So awesome,” Charlie crowed as Oliver performed a show dog–worthy sit in front of him.
Charlie reached down to pet his dog as they walked to Cora. “Hey, I have a weird training question for you before you pack up. Not on your basic curriculum.”
“I think I’ve heard it all, so you can’t surprise me.”
“Okay. I like having Oliver sleep in bed with me, and I know you said it’s fine as long as he doesn’t guard the bed or anything, which he doesn’t. The problem is that he thinks that he can’t get up on the bed on his own, and I know he’s totally capable of jumping up! I bring him up initially, and it’s great for a few hours but then he gets off and goes to his own bed because he’s hot, then a few hours later he wants to come back up and he whines and scratches the edge of the bed and wakes me up. How do I teach him that he can make it up on his own?”
Cora knew what Charlie needed help with as soon as he said the wordbed. Of course he wanted a warm body near his while Madison was gone. Images of a shirtless Charlie in bed flashed through her head. “Oh, that’s pretty easy. So the first thing you do is to get Oliver used to—”
“Could you come up to my room and show me? Do you mind?”
“Ha!” Cora choked out a nervous laugh, unsure how to answer without sounding like she was more than happy to go to his bedroom. “No, no, I don’t mind! Sure, let’s do it. Let’s try it, I mean.”
“Excellent, follow me.” Charlie and Oliver led the way through the house, up the narrow staircase to a room at the far end of the second floor. Cora tried to peer into the other rooms they passed to suss out what might happen inside of them.
