Princess Jet trotted between the two with her nose in the air and CC turned to sniff at the wet Lab, who’d come to check things out.
Crisis averted.
“How did y’all know that?”
“Time and experience, Shaw.” Lily grinned. “When you have a defensive player about to lose their temper, what do you do?”
“I get in front of him, tell him to take a walk. Cool off.” Jet had done what would have been my job on the football field.
Lily sent me a cocky smirk. “I’m going to give you a couple of books on canine body language.” Taking a step forward, she let out an ear-splitting whistle. Jet’s head turned, and all the dogs followed as the Aussie returned to the group of people.
This woman.
She couldn’t be more than five foot two. But I had no doubt that Lily led this pack. If Jet ran the defense, Lily was her coach.
And damn if that didn’t turn me right the fuck on.
Chapter Nine
Brody
After CC’s class, we wandered into the retail portion of the training center to kill time. Lily’s class would end soon, and then we could talk about the mill progress. After I bought a bag of CC’s favorite treats, I let her make the rounds in the large building.
She used to avoid strangers. One by one, the people at the Unruly Dog had won her over with treats and affection. She was more confident now, her ears perked up instead of laid back against her head. She’d also started seeking out strangers to say hello.
We wandered to the indoor dog fountain next to the shop and she slurped up a decent amount. After I wiped her jowls with a golf towel—something that went everywhere with us now—we walked around the training center. A puppy class was going on in one area, everyone trying to get their dogs to sit on a mat, and the sound of clickers punctuated their success. Another had a tricks class where a dog was balanced on her owner’s upstretched feet. In a third area, a white-faced dachshund wormed her way through straw bales. “Rat!” the woman yelled, raising her hand. The instructor pulled a transparent, ventilated tube out of the straw where the dog had been sniffing. In another area, two teams of dogs from Chihuahua sized up to husky sized competed against each other, jumping a series of hurdles to retrieve a ball from a machine. As soon as they hit the platform and the ball launched into their mouths, they dashed back so the next dog could go.
Outside the agility ring, I watched Lily teach as CC found a cool spot on the concrete at my feet and started snoring. The space was big, probably fifty yards by thirty yards, with obstacles all around. Lily was sitting on the floor at one end of a tunnel with her legs crossed. “Snorts, you’re up!”
Snorts’s owner stepped up to the opposite end of the tunnel with the bulldog. “Snorts, tunnel!” she yelled, but the dog hesitated.
Lily peeked through the far end and called him. “Let’s go, buddy! C’mon!” The dog reared up like a bull, throwing his butt to one side before dashing through the tunnel only to crash into Lily’s lap. “Yay! Good boy!” She scratched his ears as the dog snorted and licked at her chin. Once his mom clipped his leash on, they headed for the back of the line of students.
“Murphy.”
His owner unhooked his leash, but this pup didn’t hesitate—he dashed through, got his treat, turned around and ran back into the tunnel, only to fly out of the entrance.
“Murphy is a tunnel sucker.”
Lily’s laugh hit me low in the gut.
Dusting off her pants, she adjusted the height on two jumps—one before and one after the tunnel. “Okay, let’s put it together.
“Your dog is going to go jump, tunnel, jump. Then, you’re going to bring the dog around the side of the jump, back into the tunnel, ending with the first jump. Got it?” Class nodded, though I could see their nerves. “Khloe, first. Then, Snorts, Phineas, Nelson, Murphy, and Bandit.”
Each dog took their turn, some better than others, but all of them were having fun while Lily called out adjustments to the owners. “Call Murphy’s name as he’s taking the jump, so his attention is on you when he lands. Keep your feet moving when you reach the tunnel, too. Or you’re communicating to him it’s okay to stop.”
When it was Snorts’s turn, Lily kneeled at the end of the tunnel to make sure he got a treat for going through. “Okay, gang, that’s all today. Next week, we’re going to start learning the dog walk.” She pointed to a long, narrow bridge painted yellow on each end.
That was when Snorts’s mom made her way over to Lily while glancing up at me.
As they came my way, I couldn’t help but admire the sway in Lily’s hips. “Good class?”
“Hey, Brody, come meet your namesake! His mama was hoping you’d sign his jersey.” Lily’s grin was something to see. So was the bulldog’s smile.
“He has a jersey?”
“Yes, in my car! If you wouldn’t mind, I mean.” Snorts’s mom had a shy smile.
“Don’t mind at all. Snorts is the kind of dude I could use on the line.”
His mom chuckled, handing Lily the leash before taking off for her car.
I bent to scratch the dog and couldn’t help grabbing his snout in a playful shake. “Hey bud, you wanna job on the defense? You look like a tackle if I’ve ever seen one.” The bulldog danced around, making happy snorts while he chased my hand. “My namesake?” I turned to Lily.
“Snorts is a conformation dog. He has a registered name and a call name. Prepare yourself for some selfie-love. I think Snorts’s mom has the hots for you.” She grinned, pushed her hair back, gathering it into a ponytail that exposed the creamy skin of her neck. Damn, I wanted to put my lips there.
“Too bad all I can think about is you.” It slipped out, but it was for damn sure the truth. Lily was on my mind more than I’d like to admit.
At least for a second, she looked caught off guard. Then she stepped it up. “Pfft. Yeah, right. I saw the photos in Dallas Life & Style.”
“What photos?”
“You, leaving a bar with a blonde under each arm. They had a picture of the three of you getting out of a car in front of your apartment, Shaw. Like I said before, you’ve got a line of women waiting to hop in your bed that get off on that whole football thing. You don’t need me to be one of them.”
I didn’t know anything about photos, but Lil sounded bitter. “When was this?”
She picked at her nails. “This month’s issue.”
That would have been Staci and Erica.
I scrubbed a hand along my scruff. Much to my dismay, I did care what Lily thought of me. That hadn’t happened since Andra.