Chapter 9-2
1160 Words
“A dog show!” Both kids had screamed aloud the instant they saw the sign. Bill had spotted the poster, but they hadn’t and he’d kept his mouth shut. Perrin was so brilliant it was hard to fathom.
What finally clued in the kids was a sign running vertically down a street-corner light post. Only when he approached it did he see it had been knit in English Setter white and brown with six-inch tall letters that you wanted to pet they look so fuzzy and friendly.
“Yarn bombing,” Tammy informed him when he asked.
“It’s cool,” he acknowledged.
“Wicked, Dad. According to Jasp, that’s the right word today. Get with the program.” Tammy smiled and took his hand so that he didn’t feel too fuddy-duddy-daddy, one of her phrases.
Once through the door the kids raced off to see everything at once.
Bill tried to keep up, but Perrin grabbed his hand to slow him down.
“You’re not going to find a place safer than this for them to get off the leash a bit. So to speak.”
He guessed that was true, but it didn’t make him any happier. At least they had their cell phones with them if they found any trouble. The Exhibition Center was a tall space. Not enough to feel like outdoors, especially not with all of the steel and concrete structure and numerous pipes running across the ceiling, but enough to give an airy feel to the event.
The vast floor space was clogged with people and dogs. Teacup poodles checked out German Shepherds. Dachshunds greeted anyone who’d listen, and terriers tried to watch everything at once. The animals, all muzzled, were surprisingly well behaved. But it was hard to move without getting wrapped up in a leash or seven.
Off to the right was a vendors’ area for everything from vets to dog hair-care products and specialty foods. Most of the booths had a dog sleeping at the owner’s feet.
To the left were big courses for agility, speed, and whatever other kinds of competitions happened at a dog show, barricaded off with thigh-high fencing. An Australian shepherd was running the course at the moment. A large ring was also fenced off for the show dogs, presently a collection of wrinkle-skinned Shar-peis in every shade of brown, black, and tan. Toward the back, a surprising distance away, there appeared to be long rows of kennels and grooming stations for the participants.
An indoor dog show in Seattle, who knew.
Perrin had.
“You’re an absolute life saver.”
“I saw the rain, did a quick Internet search, and this was the best I came up with. I hope it’s okay?”
“Okay? It’s b****y perfect. Though I’m not taking home a puppy. Not even if all three of you g**g up on me. No how. No way.”
“Yes sir, Mr. Bill Cullen, sir.” She saluted him.
He couldn’t help himself. He leaned in and kissed her.
She let him for a long moment, then pushed him gently away. She started them moving forward again, moseying forward though he was oblivious to what was around them. All he could think about was the woman beside him.
“God that felt good.”
“It really did, didn’t it?” Perrin agreed with him.
“I want to do it again.”
“Don’t. Tamara’s expecting it. But Jaspar won’t be. Let it be enough that we’re holding hands.”
Bill glanced down in surprise. They were. He traced it back in his mind. They had been ever since the entry when she’d stopped him from rushing after the kids. It had felt so natural that he’d thought nothing of it.
“This going slow plan sucks.”
She bumped shoulders with him. “This is so not slow. We really need to figure out what’s going on between us soon. If there’s even a chance for us, or if I’m going to hurt your kids horribly, even unintentionally. I’d rather walk out the door now than hurt them, though it might kill me to do so.”
“Well, you’re the woman three steps ahead of everyone. Any brilliant ideas?”
Perrin went silent at that. They managed two whole aisles of the vendors’ area without any ideas between them. Two aisles of things they would never need in their lives. Hand-tooled leather collars fit for a mastiff. A small bookstore with everything from a photobook of the Queen’s corgis to how to train your dog for sheep herding.
“They still do that?”
“Apparently.”
Buffalo meat dog food. Emu meat dog food. Vegetarian dog food as if the master’s predilection made any sense for the pet.
They circulated out by the agility ring so that the kids could spot them more easily. Now it was Golden retrievers racing the course at a dead run, guided by whistles and hand gestures of their trainers. At impossible speeds they were ducking through knee-high pipes, leaping over barriers, and winding through upright stanchions so close together that the dogs looked like eels while passing through.
“Could you get free Tuesday evening? Not the night, but at least the evening?”
“Why? What do you have in mind?”
Perrin shook her head, “Yay or nay, Mr. Cullen. You either can or can’t.”
“I’ll find a way. Actually Lucy, my sister, has been wanting the kids for an overnight. Would a night as well be okay?”
They were so close together that it felt as if their bodies were about to meld, though their only actual point of contact was their clasped hands.
“The night would be wonderful.” Perrin almost looked teary, though he’d never seen her cry.
“What is it?”
She shook her head part way, then hesitated, somehow knowing she’d told him too little and it was on the verge of bothering him.
“I just can’t get over that you want to be with me. That’s all.”
“That’s all?”
She nodded.
“Woman, you are going to make me totally insane yet.”
“Really? Cool!” Her voice had flashed mercurially to bright, chipper, funny.
He scanned the crowd, but didn’t see the kids. Eyeing her carefully, he could see the edge of the tease and tried to figure it out, but couldn’t.
“Okay, what am I missing?”
“You actually like me enough for me to make you totally insane. That’s cool.”
“Wicked!” he corrected her. And yep! She had him pegged for sure.
* * * *
Jaspar spotted them. Dad and Ms. Williams sat at a small table with four chairs at one end of the dog obstacle course.
Ms. Williams who Tam kept calling Perrin like they were best friends. Fine, if they didn’t want him around, that was just fine.
Though Tam had been cool as they’d gone to visit the dogs. And she’d said she was sorry that the boy in Captains Courageous hadn’t at least been captured by pirates rather than fishermen, so maybe she was still okay.
But now Dad sat holding hands with the costume lady. That didn’t feel right.
“Hey Tam?”
“What?” She was all involved in the dogs racing around the track.
He tipped his head toward the distant table and the grownups. Then he pretended he was more interested in the collie dogs that were coming into the ring so that it wouldn’t be like they were both spying if they got caught.
“Bet they’ve kissed.”
His sister was quiet so long that he turned away for a second to look at her. Her shrug said enough for a clear yes.
“Is she trying to marry Dad?”
Again the shrug, different meaning this time. This time Tam didn’t know. He turned his attention back to the dogs.
Stuff was changing again and he didn’t like this change one bit.
- Writer
