The Conundrum of Collies (Love & Pets #6) - A.G. Henley Page 0,7
a little experiment.” She picks up the disc and holds it front of Bean’s face, then moves it back and forth. Bean’s nose follows it. “What do you think, Bean, do you want to chase it?”
Emmy digs another treat out of her shorts. As she does, I catch Logan glancing down at her legs. Again, can’t blame him. She’s lovely. She puts the treat in the upside-down disc and shows it to Bean, who stares at it, wagging her tail.
“Go get it, girl!” Emmy skims the frisbee a few feet along the ground. Bean runs after it and gobbles up the treat. Then she licks the disc and nudges it forward a couple of times, as if that might make another treat magically appear.
We laugh, and Emmy rewards Bean with another treat from her pocket. “I think she’ll pick this up quickly. Since she seems food motivated, be sure to have lots of treats on hand, or at least handfuls of kibble.”
“I will.” I pick up the disc, toss it up a foot, and catch it. Bean barks, and Logan nudges me.
“I think she wants you to throw it again.”
My dog stands, her head tilted to the side, eyes on the disc. I sling it. I can’t say it’s a great throw, but sure enough, Bean tears after it.
“Wow,” Emmy says. “She’s a smart girl.”
I beam with pride. “I’ve always thought so.”
Bean sniffs all around the disc when it lands, even using her nose to flip it over onto the other side, but she doesn’t bring it back. Not that I expected her to the first time.
Emmy watches her. “You might be able to shorten the introduction stuff. I’d feed her in the disc for a few days and maybe play around in the backyard or whatever with a treat in the disc. Ask her to pick it up when you throw it and be sure to reward her if she does.”
Bean barks at the disc, obviously wanting it to fly again. Logan walks over to retrieve it.
“I’m going to go work with Meadow for a while. You guys are welcome to join us and keep throwing for Bean.” Emmy winks. “You never know, she might be catching it before the end of the hour.”
“Thanks for the tips,” I say. “I’ll work with her this week.”
“We’re here every Wednesday at seven, and a lot of times we head over to Station 26 for beers afterward. The dogs come with us. We aren’t going this week, but we probably will next Wednesday.”
“Great, sounds fun,” I say. Emmy walks away as Logan returns. He watches her go.
“Nice woman,” I say.
“Yeah,” Logan’s eyes flick to me.
“Pretty, too.” I quirk a brow.
He elbows me. “Think so? Are you going to ask her out?”
I roll my eyes. “No, but maybe you should. You two would make a hot couple.”
He pauses for a second to look at me, then shakes his head and walks on.
What did I say? I was teasing him. Sometimes I wonder if I know Logan as well as I think I do.
That thought rolls around like a marble in the back of my head while we watch the others, and for a while after, too.
Chapter Four
Logan
That night, I shower, eat a sandwich, and sit down to play a round of Redemption with my buddy, Noah. We’re going after a pair of alien marauders bent on human destruction. The aliens look like humans, so there’s always a risk of shooting perfectly normal humans and getting life points taken away ourselves, but Noah and I have been watching these two for a while.
I’m about to outline my plan of attack with Noah through my headset, when Stevie wanders into the living room flossing her teeth. Bean looks up at her from the couch beside me, and I stop mid-sentence.
“Be right back,” I say to Noah.
I can hear him grouse, but I flip the headset to mute. “You’re flossing.”
Stevie nods absently. “Good dental hygiene is very important.”
I eye her. She’s wearing a pair of my old sweatpants and a cropped tank top with no bra. She’s never worn a bra in the house, so long as other people weren’t around. I know she doesn’t think anything of it, because she thinks of me like a brother. But it drives this brother nuts.
I have to make a heroic effort to keep my eyes off her perfectly formed chest. I would never want to make her as uncomfortable as she unintentionally makes me.
I drag my eyes back