Feliz Naughty Dog - Roxanne St. Claire Page 0,17

those two!”

The people around them fussed, but Tor stayed riveted. Pru looked up and caught Lucas’s eye as he fanned out the dollar bills in one hand and the roll of stickers in the other.

“Here I go,” he said. “Take pictures so we get credit.”

She fished out her phone, putting the leash under her sneaker so Tor wouldn’t get away.

Then Lucas stepped toward a little girl about six years old and said to her mom, “I’m with a local high school doing Random Acts of Christmas Kindness. Can I give a sticker and a dollar to your daughter? She can use it to buy a treat for the dogs in the mall.”

“Of course!” The woman beamed at him, clearly not immune to the charms of a bad boy with good looks.

As he offered them to the child, Pru took a picture. Lots of pictures. Couldn’t have enough pictures of Lucas Darling, she decided, turning to follow him to the next child with the camera, keeping her foot on Tor’s leash.

This time, she tapped the video icon and got the exchange with him explaining what they were doing.

Dang. He was good at this. He was adorable with the kids and charming with the moms, and every time he looked over at Pru and gave her a thumbs-up or a smile, her heart just…

Oh crap. She was crushing on the guy so hard. That was not supposed to happen.

Control the crush, Pru. Control the—

Tor suddenly stood, snapping her attention back to her first job—which was not to stare lovingly at Lucas Darling and admit she had a crush. Tor had zeroed in on the cashier now, who had pulled out a huge tray of dog treats for the kids to buy.

“Easy, boy.” She bent over to get the leash, taking her foot off it for one nanosecond, but that was all it took for Tor to launch in the direction of the treats. “No!”

But nothing had prepared her for how fast that dog was. He leaped toward the counter, both paws up, scattering the kids, some of whom screamed.

“Tor!” Lucas and Pru both vaulted toward him, but her foot caught the metal gate on the puppy pen, knocking it over as she tumbled straight to the ground. She broke her fall with her backpack, looking up as Tor’s big front paws managed to slam the tray of treats and flip the whole thing, sending them flying like a volcanic eruption of organic peanut butter dog bones all over the store and all over the now un-penned puppies.

Kids shrieked. Dogs barked. And the lady at the front looked like she wanted to kill somebody. Somebody named Pru.

In a flash, Lucas had captured Tor, who was chewing God knew how many treats. As Pru scrambled to her feet, she could hear Lucas apologizing to the cashier, but the high-pitched barks of puppies and a few of the customers’ dogs joining in the madness were way louder.

“Get the puppies!” the woman from the front door hollered, making Pru realize that the gate had lifted high enough for them to scatter. “And you, get out!” she yelled at Pru.

“I’ll help get the—”

“Out!” She pointed to the door. “With your boyfriend and your dog!”

“He’s not—”

Lucas put his arm at her back, his other hand holding on to the leash to lead a still-chewing Tor. “Come on,” he said. “They want us out of here.”

“I know, but the—”

Suddenly, Tor stood at perfect attention.

“Whoa,” Lucas said. “He wants to run. He has to run.”

“No.” Pru reached for the leash to add her weight to it.

Tor pulled, his gaze on something out in the mall. Who knew what could get his attention? Sniffing noisily, he pulled them toward the door, looking one way, then the other, smelling the ground as he went, stopping for the Christmas train and sniffing each car as it rolled by.

Finally, they managed to get him three stores away, and he walked to a bench, crawled under it, and dropped to the ground.

“His post-chaos nap,” Pru said, only then catching her breath as she took a seat. “I’m so sorry, Lucas. I thought I had him and…”

“Don’t sweat it.” He sat on the bench, as spent as the dog. “He is totally out of control.”

Below them, he snored.

For a second, they just looked at each other in dismay, then smiles pulled, and they both laughed from the bottom of their bellies.

“He’s wild,” Pru managed to say. “And then…” She pointed toward the sleeping dog. “This.”

Still laughing,