“When? Just this week?”
“No. When she was a puppy.”
“So all I need to say is ‘off’?”
“It helps if you make this gesture.” He shoved both palms forward.
“I didn’t know that,” Cherry said. “What other secret words did you teach her?”
Tom smiled, just with his eyes. Tom’s eyes were always lighter thanCherry remembered, even when she had just seen him. She used to hope that their kids would get Tom’s pale blue eyes, but her hazel probably would have canceled them out. “They’re notsecrets,” he said. “They’re basic dog commands that I found in a book.”
“Tell me more.”
“Um...” He made a fist.“Sit.”
Stevie sat.
“Okay,” Cherry said. “I mostly knew that one...”
Tom pointed at the floor.“Lie down.”
Stevie lay down.
“Right,” Cherry said. “That makes sense.”
He twirled his hand.“Roll over.”
Stevie rolled over.
Cherry gasped. “I didn’t know she could roll over!”
“She’s very smart,” he said. “I was going to teach her to pull a cart.”
“Why, do you need to haul something?”
“Nah.” Stevie had hopped back to her feet. Tom scratched between her ears. “I just wanted to give her something to do.” He looked a little sad. “I think she’d be happier with something to do...”
Cherry knew just what he meant. “I think about that all the time. The way she follows me around the kitchen, looking up at me like she wants to help... the way she jumps to attention when I walk into the room...”
Tom nodded. “Breed instincts. She wants to work.”
Cherry hummed sympathetically and patted Stevie’s flank. “Poor Stevie. She’s like a housewife whose husband won’t let her get a job. Stuck at home all day, bored—”
Tom scratched under Stevie’s collar. “Taking Xanax and having an affair with the pool boy.”
Cherry laughed.
Tom was smiling at her. “You could take her to daycare.”
“I do sometimes. It’s expensive.”
He shrugged.
They were standing at the bottom of the stairs still, both of them petting different ends of the dog.
“I should head out,” Tom said.
“Yeah,” Cherry agreed. “You better get out of here before I start reading all your passive-aggressive Post-it notes.”
