I patted Jolly’s head. “Best friends who can’t even be in the same yard.”
“Romeo and Juliet. If Romeo was a Belgian Malinois and Juliet was a first grader.”
I snorted. “Did you just make a Shakespeare reference?”
“Hey, I went to high school. Barely.” The faintest movement appeared at the corner of his mouth again. “I also want to thank you again for dinner the other night. That chicken and rice might have saved my life.”
“It was chicken and rice, not a defibrillator.”
“You haven’t seen what I’ve been eating. A gas-station burrito almost took me out last week.”
“A gas-station burrito. Ben.No.” I clutched my chest in mock horror.
“It was late. I was desperate. Mistakes were made.”
I laughed—a real one, surprised out of me before I could catch it. He watched my reaction with that quiet attention, and I caught something tender behind his eyes, there and gone.
“Well, again, if you ever need rescuing from gas-station food again, I usually cook more than William and I can eat.”
Was that flirting? That sounded like flirting. I hadn’t flirted with anyone in so long, I wasn’t sure I’d recognize it coming out of my own mouth.
“And the tea was a thank-you. For the dinner. Not a bribe.”
“I didn’t think it was a bribe.”
“Good. Because I don’t know what I’d be bribing you for.”
“Continued fence-destruction privileges. Obviously.”
Something flickered at the corner of his mouth. If this was flirting, neither of us was going to win any awards for it.
My phone buzzed in my pocket. Trish again.
No luck. Called every presenter on the list. Nobody available. 200 kids + broken promises = mutiny. I’m open to literally any idea.
I sighed.
“Everything okay?” Ben asked.
“School drama. William’s elementary school had an assembly scheduled for tomorrow. We had arranged for the reptile guy from the zoo to come. Live snakes, the whole thing. Kids have been counting down for weeks. He just canceled. Sick. That was my friend Trish on the PTA. She’s been calling every backup option she can find with no luck.”
“Tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow. Two hundred kids expecting a boa constrictor and bearded dragons, about to get a movie in the gym instead.”
Ben was quiet for a moment. He looked down at Jolly, who had shifted from sitting to lying flat, chin on his paws, eyes tracking between us.
“Jolly and I have done school events before. K9 demonstrations—obedience, commands, some of the detection work. The kid-friendly version.” He paused. “It’s no bearded dragon, by any means. But if it would help, we could step in.”
I opened my mouth. Closed it. Opened it again.
“You’d do that?”
“It’s not a big deal. Jolly’s good with kids.”
“Ben, you would besavingtwo hundred children from the crushing disappointment of a canceled snake show. That is, by definition, a big deal.”
One shoulder lifted. Minimal effort, maximum understatement. “We’re free. Jolly likes an audience.”
