Page 50 of Between the Shady Groves
“But these are two new treats. She has to do something new.”
“All right. Like what?” she asked, looking up at him and lifting her brows.
“I suppose we could try to get her to get into the kiddie pool, but I think that might be a little bit much.”
“Yeah.”
Instead of that, he turned to Lacey and said, “Sit.”
To his surprise, and to Lauren’s astonishment, Lacey’s rear end went down on the ground.
“Oh my goodness. She’s trained!”
“She sure is. Good girl,” he said, holding the treat out, only this time instead of holding it on his palm flat out the way Lauren had done, he gave it to her with his fingers wrapped around it.
She took it just as politely as she had the other two.
“Someone’s definitely worked with her. Which makes me wonder, did someone drop her off because she was pregnant? Did someone just abandon her? Or did she somehow get separated from her owner?”
“I think I’m going to try to take a picture and see if I can post it online in a few different places, to see if anyone recognizes her.”
“That’s a great idea. Let me see if we can get her to stand up again.”
He moved back just a bit, although there wasn’t much room with the kiddie pool behind them. But Lacey got up and took a step toward him.
“That’s a perfect position. Just hold on a second,” Lauren said as she held her phone out and snapped the picture.
She did a few more things, which he assumed was her posting the picture online with a comment asking if anyone recognized her.
“Do you think it would be okay for us to close the shed and keep her inside?” Lauren looked at him questioningly. She was practically in the shed, and it wouldn’t be hard to close the door behind her.
“I don’t know.” He supposed that if they put food and water inthere, she would be fine. “Is there a way we can just enclose her in the yard? And leave the shed door open? That way, she might find the kiddie pool on her own, and if she has the puppies, at least she’ll be around.”
“There is a fence and a gate in the back, but she’s been getting in and out through a hole that she, or a different dog or animal, dug under the fence. I can’t keep her in.”
“Well then, we have two choices. We can make her stay in the shed, or we can just allow her to choose us.”
He felt like the second option was a better one, but he was guessing that Lauren would go for the first. After all, the dog really didn’t know what was best for itself, and that’s why it needed owners.
But for Cannon, it meant more when she chose them. It was kind of the way he was allowing Lauren to choose. He could have come and demanded that she go back to him, and they could have fought and ended up breaking up completely, because instead of wooing her, he’d commanded her.
Now, he knew what the Bible said about men being in charge of the household and women being submissive and obedient. And he would have had every right to stand in front of his wife and say, “You have to listen to me because the Bible says so.” But sometimes, at least in his newfound wisdom, that wasn’t the best way. Sometimes the best way was to woo things to oneself.
After all, that was the way God worked. He had all the authority in the world to stand in front of any human and say, “I demand that you worship me,” and the Bible clearly said that that was the way it would go someday. But for now, God had given them free choice, and He stood, wooing them. Wooing them with beautiful sunsets, and fresh lake breezes, with sweet smiles from people he loved, and the bonds of neighbors and friends. With summer storms and winter snows and a sky brimming with stars at night. That’s how God drew them to Himself. And that’s how he wanted to draw his wife back. With love and warmth and all the ways he could show her that he cherished her.
“I think we ought to just leave the shed door open and let Lacey decide if this is where she wants to have them.” Lauren stood from where she had knelt before the dog, scratching her ears. “After all, Idon’t want her to have the puppies in the shed on the floor as she scratches to get out, unhappy because she’s penned up.”
“I think that’s a really good idea. Let’s try to make it so that she wants to stay here.”
“I think that’s the best idea,” Lauren said, and he wasn’t quite sure what she was thinking as their eyes met and she smiled at him. A sweet, loving smile, the kind that he hadn’t seen for years and years, but now they came easily to her face.
All it took was a little attention and some love from him, and her entire countenance toward him had changed.
Why hadn’t he done this earlier? Why hadn’t he paid attention to her sooner?
He couldn’t answer those questions, other than maybe he was just so consumed with trying to be successful, enjoying himself even in his quest to be successful, because he saw it as a challenge, he saw it as fun, it was something he had enjoyed. But in his pursuit of his own happiness, he’d left the most important person in the world to him behind. And that was all on him. He vowed that it wouldn’t happen again.
Twenty-Two
