“She’s got basic training, but not all of it.We’ll start with ‘stay’ then move to ‘heel.’But I don’t want to confuse her with too many new commands at once.I want to see how long it takes her to master one before we get complicated.”
“You’re the expert, but?—”
“And that’s it.I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“And maybe tomorrow, you might let me finish a damned sentence,” I snapped.
He was making a move to leave, but my snap brought him back to me.
“You wanna waste the time and effort to write me a check, be my guest,” he stated.“I’ll just rip it up.”
I threw an arm toward the front yard.“This isn’t only your time.It’s your expertise.You should be compensated for it.”
“Yeah, it’smytime,myexpertise, and I should be able to say how I spend it.”
This was, regrettably, true.
“Fine,” I bit off, and stomped to the kitchen island to grab a loaf of bread I’d already wrapped tightly in cling film.I walked back and offered it to him.“So here, make me feel better.That’s my payment.”
He stared down at the bread like I wasn’t offering him a scrumptious loaf of homemade sourdough, but instead, I’d baked a pile of Tonks’s offerings to nature and wrapped them in Saran Wrap.
“I don’t eat white bread,” he said.
I was shocked.
“You don’t eat white bread?”
He looked from the bread to me.“You speak English, do you understand it?”
Do not ever forget, Mabel, he’s a big, old jerk!
“Never?”I pressed.“You never eat white bread?”
“I eat clean.”
“What’s clean?”
“Lean meats, lots of vegetables, some fruits, and when I get my carbs, they’re whole grains, beans or starchy vegetables.”
“You never cheat?”
“If I cheat, it’ll be on a beer, bourbon or a good whiskey.”
Okay, his body said this was the gods’ honest truth.
But…
Whoa.
“I, well…”—I hugged the loaf to my chest—“I’m impressed.”
Something came over him, maybe surprise, maybe skepticism, before he asked, “You’re impressed?”
I shrugged.“I like food.Food is yummy.I like cooking it, baking it and eating it.But I still can be impressed someone makes the lifestyle choice, and sticks to it, to be that healthy.”
He studied me closely, muttering, “Right.”
Tonks lost her mind barking and howling.
