Nine

Brendan drove away from his friend’s house slowly, giving Ashley and Matthew ample opportunity to wave at Harry’s wife, who was standing in the window holding their little poodle-mix dog.

“I’ve got an idea,” he said quietly, so only Shanna could hear, as he turned onto the main road. “How would you like to pick Boffo up and go for a walk around Green Lake?”

She turned and looked into the backseat. “Ashley hasn’t had a nap. She’ll be pretty cranky tonight, so I’m not sure.”

“What if she has a short nap on the way there? Would that work?”

“She’s not a baby. Do you really expect her to fall asleep with all this action going on?”

“Will she be able to sleep after she calms down if everything else is quiet? It will take about half an hour to get there from your house. I can put her booster seat in the front with me, since this truck was built before the days of passenger-seat air bags.”

Shanna turned and looked over her shoulder at her children, who were in the backseat of his crew cab. “That sounds like it could work. It’s such a nice day; I’ll take the chance.”

While he drove, Shanna told the kids what they had planned. She gently suggested that Ashley sit still and that they would only have fun if everyone was quiet enough for Ashley to have a nap.

He drove quickly to Shanna’s house so they could all change into more comfortable clothes, including Brendan. He always kept some clean clothes under the seat since he often got dirty on the job.

To keep things quiet for Ashley, Shanna, Matthew, and Boffo shared the backseat of the cab, and Brendan buckled Ashley’s booster seat in the front beside him. They kept the music low, and talking in the back was reduced to just above a whisper. Ashley fell asleep about five minutes after they left Shanna’s house.

Being a single man, he was accustomed to his truck being silent, as he usually drove alone. Everyone was being silent for Ashley, which somehow emphasized the crowd. They could have been a family, complete with the family dog curled up and sleeping in the middle of the backseat.

It made Brendan wonder if this was what it would be like when he finally got married and had a family of his own.

Strangely, he couldn’t picture anyone except for Shanna and her two kids in his truck, with maybe the addition of a baby’s car seat in the middle.

Mentally, Brendan shook his head. He had his life planned out. He was going to have two—exactly two—children of his own, and a purebred golden lab. He would give his children everything he’d never had, without killing himself or ignoring his family to do it. It wasn’t unreasonable, and it was realistic.

He couldn’t find a parking spot at the park, but he didn’t mind parking a couple of blocks away. They were already planning to walk the three miles around the lake, so another couple of blocks wouldn’t make any difference.

Ashley woke up as soon as they stopped moving, which was a good thing; because the exact second Brendan turned off the engine, Boffo roared to life.

Brendan reached into the bin between the seats and pulled out the leash he always kept in the truck. “Boffo, sit,” he commanded.

The dog sat, but Brendan could tell by the wiggles that Boffo’s willpower wouldn’t last long.

The second the clip of the leash signified that it was attached, Boffo’s control ended. He practically flew into the front seat, landing squarely in Brendan’s lap.

“Good job training that dog, I’d say.” Shanna giggled.

Brendan mumbled his response, but inside he thought it was good to hear Shanna laugh. She didn’t laugh enough. The heartwarming sound made him want to make her laugh again.

They scrambled out of the truck and walked quickly to the park. Before they started on the path, Shanna took Ashley into the public restroom.

“Is this going to be fun?” Matthew asked while they waited.

“Yes, it is. Haven’t you ever been to Green Lake before?”

“No. I was sick the day my school came here for a field trip.”

“Didn’t your daddy ever bring you here?”

“No.”

“Then where did he take you when it was just you and him?”

Brendan waited for Matthew to tell him some of the other places they’d gone, but Matthew only shrugged his shoulders, which Brendan thought unusual.

He thought of other places that would be fun for a father-son outing.

“Did your dad ever take you to Bainbridge Island?”

“I never been to no island. I can’t swim good.”

“You don’t swim there. You go on a ferry. That’s a big boat you can park your car on.”

Matthew’s eyes widened. “I’ve never been on a boat like that.”

Never been on a ferry. . . Living in Seattle and never been on a ferry. It was a sad thought. He wondered what else Matthew had missed out on.

Brendan remembered the many times his mother had taken him north into Canada to go shopping when he was a boy. He didn’t particularly enjoy shopping, but the adventure of crossing the border had been memorable, especially waiting in the long line of cars. Then, once they were across the border, all the speed signs were different, on the metric system. He remembered having his calculator out, and every time they passed a new sign, he figured out how fast they were supposed to be going. But then, if Roger had never taken the boy to Bainbridge Island, he doubted Roger would have taken the trouble to go as far as the border.

Brendan doubted Matthew’s father would have taken him to Pike Place Market, either, so he didn’t ask about that.

He knew Matthew liked to play baseball. When Brendan was little, he’d gone to the old Seattle Kingdome with his father just once before his father died. As an adult, he’d watched the news when the Kingdome was demolished, feeling as if a part of him were being chopped away, along with a part of history. But now the new stadium with the retractable roof had been constructed, and it was a major hit, given the Seattle weather. When the weather was good, it was an open-air stadium; but when it rained—and it rained often—they could close the roof. It only took ten minutes if the weather was calm, or twenty minutes at the longest if it was windy. The first time he’d been there while the roof closed, he’d been fascinated. It still fascinated him, even as an adult. “What about baseball games? Did your dad ever take you to Safeco Field to see the Mariners play?”

Finally, Matthew’s eyes lit up. “We watched lots of baseball games on TV. He said it was better that way because the beer was cheaper at home.”

Beer. He remembered Shanna saying that Roger had died in an alcohol-related automobile accident. It stunned him to think that sitting and drinking beer was more important to Roger than taking his son out to an action-packed ball game.

“Do you go places with your mother and your sister?”

Matthew broke out into a full smile. “Mommy took me and Ashley on the Space Needle! It was way high and real fun! Have you ever been on the Space Needle?”

Brendan smiled back. “Yes. It was fun to be so high.”

Shanna’s voice stopped him from asking Matthew any more questions. “We’re back and ready to start our adventure. Let’s go!”

Brendan held Boffo’s leash and walked beside Shanna as they made their way around the park. Since he hadn’t expected to do anything after church, he hadn’t brought his camera, but Shanna had a small digital camera with her. She took countless pictures of the children running and playing, the lake, the ducks, and even a few of him walking with Boffo—which he couldn’t understand, but he put up with it.

About halfway through their walk, the children stopped running in circles around them and started to walk more quietly beside him. By about the two-and-a-half-mile point, Brendan gave Shanna Boffo’s leash so that he could carry Ashley.

When they were nearly at the end, Brendan asked, “Who wants to have supper at Spuds?”

Shanna stopped walking. “Spuds? I haven’t eaten there in years. What a great idea!”

Brendan shuffled Ashley into one arm and reached for his wallet in his back pocket.

“This was my idea, so this is my treat.”

“I can’t let you do that. There’s three of us and only one of you. Do you know how much that’s going to cost?”

He didn’t want to tell her that he was hungry from all the walking and would probably eat as much by himself as the three of them combined. “Never mind. This is my treat. If you want to feed me, I’ll stay at your place for supper one day. I don’t get many home-cooked meals.”

Ashley was too tired to respond, but Matthew started tugging on his mother’s arm. “Did you hear that? Mr. Brendan wants to stay at our house for supper! Can we make spaghetti?”

“I think when Mr. Brendan stays, we can make something more special than just spaghetti.”

Brendan turned and headed toward the restaurant. “It’s a deal. Come on. I’m starved.”

Because of the dog, they couldn’t sit at a table, so he lowered Ashley onto the grass under a tree and left them all at the park. This way they could have a picnic, like several other people with dogs were doing.

He bought one-piece fish-and-chip dinners for the kids, a two-piece dinner for Shanna, and a three-piece dinner for himself—knowing he would finish what the kids didn’t eat—and then joined them at the park.

They didn’t talk much while they ate, but he did notice Shanna sneaking glances at him, as if she couldn’t believe the amount he was eating. It almost made him not want to touch what the kids left behind, except Spuds fish and chips were too good to waste. He finished up the leftovers without guilt, even though they all stared at him. He still managed to sneak a few pieces to Boffo, who was drooling so much there was a wet spot on the grass beneath his lolling tongue.

The walk back to his truck was much more sedate than the walk to the park. He almost laughed at how quiet the return trip was.

By the time they arrived at Shanna’s house, he was yawning almost as much as the children.

“They’ll sleep good tonight,” Shanna said, yawning herself. “This was a great idea. Thank you.”

“I’ll help you take them inside. I think Ashley needs to be carried.”

Shanna grinned. “She doesn’t need to be carried. But she does like to be carried.”

“Then that’s an even better reason to carry her in. I want her to have good memories of this day.” I know she never had these kinds of days with her father. Brendan had good memories of his own father and things they’d done together. That never would happen for these kids, but he could give them memories that were second best.

Ashley leaned into him a little more with each small bounce on the steps. Even though he usually took the stairs two at a time, today he walked up one step at a time, just to make the trip last a little bit longer.

Once at the couch, he didn’t want to put Ashley down, but he felt stupid just standing there holding her. Slowly and gently, he nestled Ashley into the corner against the armrest. While he settled her in, Shanna picked up the remote, and VeggieTales came alive on the screen.

With Ashley and Matthew occupied, Shanna walked down the stairs with him to the door. He tried to keep a straight face when she didn’t go all the way down. She stood on the second step so she was nearly at eye level with him. Being at the same height gave him thoughts as to the possibilities.

“If you give me your e-mail address, I can send you some of the pictures I took.” Shanna yawned. “When I get the energy to download the camera.”

Her yawn was contagious. Brendan raised his hand to cover his wide-open mouth as he yawned, too. “That would be great. I can’t believe how much energy it takes to keep track of two little kids.”

“Good night, then. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Instead of reaching for the door, in order to make his intentions perfectly clear, he stepped closer to Shanna. Moving very slowly, he rested his hands around her waist.

“Good night, Shanna,” he said, his voice coming out much too husky, but he couldn’t do anything about it.

He wanted a good night kiss, except this time he wanted her to kiss him.

He lowered his head even closer, so she only had to lean forward the tiniest little bit and it would happen.

Her eyes lowered as she looked at his mouth. His heart began to pound and his breath came faster, even though nothing had happened except anticipation.

In slow motion, she raised one hand, then ran her fingertips along his chin, making a raspy sound against the rough growth of his two o’clock shadow.

“I like it better when you don’t have the beard,” she said, her voice pitched lower than usual.

His eyes drifted shut, waiting. If she didn’t kiss him, he just might die.

Shanna’s soft lips touched his, sending his heart into a tailspin. Her kiss was slow, gentle, and light, almost a question, until her hands rested on his shoulders. She tipped her head and kissed him more fully.

Brendan’s world shifted off its axis. His hands drifted from her waist to her back, and he embraced her fully as he kissed her the way he wanted to.

Much too soon, she moved back, breaking the sweet contact, and he immediately felt the loss.

“Good night,” she whispered. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.”

He let his hands drop. “Yeah. Tomorrow.”

With Shanna watching him from the second stair, he turned and let himself out.

❧

Shanna hit the Save key. Satisfied that she’d completed another task, she allowed herself to stop working and watch what was happening in her backyard.

Again, the playscape was different than it had been the day before. Today’s addition was a small deck extending out from the now two-story fort.

She had no idea why Brendan was never satisfied, but with every change, his mother faithfully painted the new section and touched up the existing structure as needed. Shanna couldn’t complain. She liked Kathy, and they were becoming good friends. Kathy also never asked her how she felt about Brendan, which made Shanna extremely grateful. She didn’t have an answer.

Shanna stared at the playscape, again complete, at least for the moment. Every time he allegedly finished it, it was always better than the previous version.

Besides his constant work on the playscape, Brendan now had half the fence rebuilt. He wasn’t there every day, but on the days he was, he changed one or two complete sections, including new fence posts; so that by the time he left, the fence was again whole, a mix of old and new, but solid enough so the yard was again fully enclosed and Boffo couldn’t escape.

She watched Boffo, who was currently running around the yard with Brendan’s leather tool belt in his mouth. With aspirations higher than her ability, Ashley ran behind him, chasing the dog, never able to recover the treasure of the moment. Boffo could have run faster if he wanted to, but it seemed he purposely ran just a little faster than Ashley to keep her chasing him. For now, Brendan ignored both Boffo and Ashley while he held the level up to make sure the newest fence post was perfect.

For all his running around while Brendan was present, Boffo never once tried to make a dash through whatever section of the fence was open, even when Brendan had to leave the yard for a few minutes to get something out of his truck. Somehow, Brendan had him trained to stay in the yard, fenced or not.

Because of Brendan, Boffo was again the talk of the neighborhood, not in the same way as before, as a problem. Now everyone thought he was the smartest dog they’d ever seen.

Even though dog school was now finished and Boffo had passed all his tests, Brendan continued to work with Boffo. Instead of normal, sensible dog tricks, Brendan had moved on to teaching Boffo stupid dog tricks. Boffo would howl on command, dance, or balance a biscuit on his nose until given permission to eat it.

Boffo’s favorite activity involved catapulting a tennis ball from a small mechanism Brendan had constructed. With the ball in place, Boffo pressed a button with his paw, causing the ball to shoot out for him to chase. It didn’t seem to bother the dog that a person wasn’t throwing the ball for him. He was quite happy to play ball by himself. Shanna thought this quite odd, but at the same time, very practical, as he was never bored.

In addition to fetching the ball, Boffo now also fetched Brendan’s tools on command instead of burying them. The amazing thing was that Boffo knew the difference when Brendan called his tools by name. Boffo never failed to bring exactly what Brendan needed at that particular moment. It wouldn’t have surprised Shanna if Brendan trained Boffo to hammer in nails. She couldn’t believe his patience with the dog. He was even better with her children. They were going to miss him dearly when he was finished.

Shanna suddenly didn’t want Brendan to finish the fence. She was going to miss him, too. Probably even more than the children would—which she didn’t understand. She couldn’t deny that she liked him—from a distance. But still, no matter how many self-help books she read, she couldn’t control the nervousness she felt with him, even though he’d never done anything threatening or violent to her.

He’d never been anything but a perfect gentleman. He was the type of man who could have had women melting at his feet. Shanna had almost melted at his feet a couple of times. Those were the times he’d kissed her and she hadn’t been nervous—she had known exactly what he was going to do, because the moment had been gentle and romantic. Probably one of the reasons he was so easy to like was because his face was an open book. One look at him told her exactly what he was thinking and what kind of mood he was in. So far, all his moods had been relatively good. In all the time she’d known him, she’d seen him annoyed but never angry—unless he really had been angry with Ray but bottled it up inside so she couldn’t tell. If that were the case, it made him even more dangerous than Roger, because she would never know in advance when he was going to explode with rage. Knowing his potential, she couldn’t be sure of what he would do when that moment came. All she knew was that she didn’t want to be near him when it happened.

No matter how hard Shanna tried or how much she wanted to, she was too afraid to trust Brendan. It wasn’t fair to him, and she’d prayed about it more times than she could count, but she couldn’t make it happen.

Shanna returned her attention to her screen, since she was supposed to be working. She hadn’t transferred much information when the ring of Brendan’s laughter stopped her.

Outside, Boffo was wearing Ashley’s pink hair bow behind one ear, enjoying the attention while Ashley hugged him. Matthew was pointing at the dog and his sister, making the sourest face Shanna had ever seen. Brendan was watching Matthew, laughing so hard he was holding his sides. The laughter made Matthew’s expression turn even more sour. Matthew’s disdain caused Ashley to hug Boffo even more. Boffo sat, his tongue lolling, without a care in the world, despite how pathetic and ridiculous he looked wearing Ashley’s hair accessory.

The sight almost brought tears to her eyes. If Brendan was an accountant, she easily could have fallen in love with him.

Brendan tamped down his laughter to unclip his cell phone from his belt and flip it open to take a call. The mood had been broken, so Shanna returned to her work. She hadn’t completed more than a few more entries into her data file when Brendan walked into the room with Boffo, who was still wearing the pink bow. When Brendan halted, Boffo stopped and sat, as he’d been trained.

Shanna smiled. “I can’t believe the difference in him since dog school. I don’t know how I can thank you. He does everything we tell him, and he even behaves off the leash in the baseball field.”

Brendan squatted to pat Boffo, which put him below Shanna’s eye level.

“Speaking of that, my friend who runs the dog school just phoned. Every year he has a competition, and he invites the top participants from each session throughout the year to enter. The cable channel sends a crew there, and they’ll air it a few days after the taping as an interest segment. After the competition, there’s a banquet and prizes, and any profits are donated to the local animal shelter. That’s why the cable channel is there every year. Jeff says Boffo’s done really well, and he thinks Boffo could win a prize. Even if he doesn’t, it’s always fun. Do you want to go?”

“Are you saying that people will have their dogs at a banquet?”

He grinned. “Well, it is a dog school thing. Everyone there will have a dog at home that probably sits in the kitchen while they eat. It’s just like home, except on a larger scale, and there won’t be any kids.”

Shanna froze. “No kids?”

“It’s a competition and an adult function. I think it’s best to leave them at home. I can ask my mother if she can babysit.”

Shanna stared into his face, actually able to look down because Brendan was still positioned low, with Boffo. Since she’d met him, she’d acknowledged his blue eyes, but she’d never been so close to him in bright daylight. His eyes were gorgeous—a bright, slate blue that could have been the eyes of a movie-star idol. Except that Brendan wasn’t a movie star. He was her landscaper and, more important, the person who was saving her from her devious brother-in-law and all his plans to take away everything she valued.

Today he was asking her to go out for dinner with him, without the children, and he was even offering to arrange for babysitting.

Dog or not, it sounded like a date. She didn’t want to date him, but he’d done so much work with the dog for her, she couldn’t say no.

“When is this banquet happening?”

“Tomorrow.”

“I’ll go under one condition.”

One eyebrow quirked. “Name it.”

“Don’t wear green.”