Tackling Love - Kathleen Kelly Page 0,34

hallway.

“Guess I’ve been ignoring you, too?” Beau cocks his head to one side and woofs at me. “Do you want to come, too? But no pizza for you, it upsets your stomach, and I am not cleaning up after that. Okay?” Beau stands, wags his tail, and barks louder. “The answer is still no for pizza, but you can come and meet Blaise.”

With Beau on a leash and a pizza in hand, I walk up to Blaise’s front door and knock. Derek opens the door and walks out, closing it behind him. Beau, being the friendly giant he is, sticks his nose in Derek’s crotch which causes him to double over.

Laughing, I pull back on his leash. “Beau! Sorry, man, he’s a friendly beast.”

Derek straightens and ruffles Beau’s ears causing him to bark, then the door flies open, and Blaise comes running out.

“You brought a dog,” shrieks Blaise as he drops to his knees, and Beau licks him all over.

Again, I pull back on the leash and say, “Beau, sit!”

Uncharacteristically for Beau, he does as he’s told and looks up at me, tongue hanging out of his mouth.

“Blaise, this is Beau.” At the mention of his name, Beau stands and wags his tail, whipping my leg with every wag.

“Can I pet him?”

Sensing Derek wants to talk to me, I say, “What if you take him inside with the pizza, but do not, no matter how sad he looks, give him any. Okay?”

Blaise stands and eagerly takes the leash from me. I hand over the pizza, and they both go inside.

“You know he’s going to give him pizza, don’t you?” says Derek.

“I hope not.” I look him in the eye. “What can I do for you, Derek?”

The man shuffles from foot to foot and drops his gaze to his feet. “I want to say thank you for what you did… for me.”

“Don’t mention it.”

Derek’s head snaps up, and he looks me in the eye. “No, there’s more. I… I did you and Skye a disservice. There’s no excuse for what I did, but I did send Principle Wilson an email about you both.” Derek looks remorseful and slightly embarrassed as I nod my head.

“Yeah, we know. Skye was suspended and will probably lose her job.”

Derek’s face creases with a frown. “Jesus, what have I done?”

“Maybe you could reach out to the school, explain things?” I ask, hopeful.

“Yeah, see the problem is I know Tony. Principle Wilson has a thing for Skye, so I’m not sure…” Derek’s voice trails off, and now I understand why they’ve come down so hard on Skye.

“Damn,” I mutter, more to myself than him.

“I’m so sorry, Colt. You’ve been nothing but nice to me, and because of you, I got my old job back, and Maria said she’d think about giving us another go. I’ll try and fix this, I promise.”

Looking into his eyes, I can see his remorse. It does nothing to fix the situation, but making him feel bad about my situation isn’t going to achieve anything.

“How about we not worry about this tonight? Tonight we can eat pizza and watch Beau drool and whine because he can’t have any.”

Derek grins, and I see a weight has been lifted off his shoulders. He nods, and we go into the house. Beau is licking his lips and barking at Blaise as he eats a slice in front of him. Maria is laughing at them both.

“Tell me you didn’t feed him?” I ask.

“I gave him the crust…” admits Blaise with a cheeky grin.

I look down at the pizza, and three slices are missing already. I scoop one up and sit. Maria smiles and hands over a napkin. Beau headbutts my leg in protest to not being given a slice.

“No, Beau. Sit.”

Doing as he’s told, Beau sits and whines every time I take a bite, so in the end, I also give him my crust, which he swallows in one gulp, then barks for more. This causes Blaise to laugh loudly, and his family joins in at his obvious delight.

I quirk up an eyebrow and look at Beau. “No more.” Then I ask Blaise, “How’s school?”

“Good! Miss Hadley recommended Gray’s mom, Mrs. Moore, to make costumes. She’s terrific. My costume is cool,” replies Blaise with enthusiasm.

“Gray’s mom is working at the school?” I ask.

“Yeah, she’s real nice.

I have been so wrapped up in my own drama, I didn’t realize Minerva had gotten the job. Guilt washes over me as I think of everyone I’m letting down.

“That’s good, bud.”

“How’s