Jen couldn’t take her eyes off the puppy, who was sniffing every nook and cranny of the beach house. It made her a little nervous, as she obviously didn’t know Daisy very well.
She paused with the corkscrew in her hand. “I think I’m going to take Daisy for a quick walk and I bet she’ll take a nap after that,” Jen said. “Wanna come?”
Faith stretched and glanced longingly at the beach. “I’d love to, but isn’t Carrie going to be here any minute?”
“We can head along the beach in her direction and catch her. Daisy really needs to air out, anyway. Maybe we can get her to swim.”
Faith laughed and nodded in agreement as Jen clipped the leash on Daisy and led her out the door.
Jen closed the garage door—mentally adding an electric garage door opener to her list—and they went around the side of the house, tossing their shoes on the steps of the porch.
“There’s nothing quite like the feeling of the sand in my toes,” Faith said. “I look forward to it every time.”
Jen wiggled her own toes and Daisy sniffed at the sand, something new to her. The puppy stepped gingerly at first, and when her paws sunk a bit, she tested it again. Finally, she decided it was fun and pounced around, rolling in between the sea grass and sending a resting group of seagulls to flight.
“Looks like she’ll enjoy her summer,” Faith said as she caught up with her friend, who had been pulled toward the water faster than either of them had expected her to.
Daisy plunged into the waves, and Jen laughed at the puppy as she stopped dead short, then backed up with a bit of a whimper.
“It’s okay, Daisy. It’s just the ocean,” Jen said, bending down and petting the dog with a reassuring nod. She couldn’t take the leash off—there was a beach up the road that was a dog beach, where they could run free, but this wasn’t it.
Jen tiptoed into the cool water, coaxing Daisy along with her. In a matter of seconds, Daisy was running in circles, patting at the water and trying to catch the droplets in her mouth.
Jen’s feet dug into the warm sand as Daisy played, pulling the end of the leash over her wrist.
“Wow, she’s a handful.” Faith caught up with Jen on the shoreline and stopped running, her hands on her knees as she caught her breath.
“What was that you said? Two against one?”
Faith laughed. “Uh, yeah, but right now she’s all yours.”
As Daisy tired of her current game and raced up the beach toward another dog, Jen had to follow along. Daisy was stronger than she looked, and Jen held her big, floppy hat on tightly as they raced up the beach.