Page 44 of Nanny for the Athletes

“Heidi is a perfect angel, and I will not allow any slander in her name.”

“She’s a very good girl,” I told him reassuringly. “But shelookslike Bellatrix Lestrange, a heartbeat away from murdering you.”

“Keep slandering my girl,” Christian said, “and I’ll spend next week’s game passing the ball to Montez instead of you.”

I held up my hands. “As I was saying, Heidi is a perfect angel who has never done anything bad in her life, and who looks like she just wants to cuddle.”

Christian nodded with satisfaction.

We landed, collected our things, and drove over to Lizzy’s Dog Boarding. Christian was in his car in front of me, and he drove as “conservatively” as my blind grandpa. No, conservative wasn’t the right way to describe Christian’s driving. He was downrightcautious. Like he had a baby in the back seat and was afraid to go the speed limit on the freeway.

The sun had already set, but there were bright halogen lights on the kennel that illuminated half of the field with harsh light. When we pulled up the driveway toward the kennel, I saw Claire running through the field. A herd of about a dozen dogs was chasing her, and she was squealing and flailing her arms.

What is she doing in there? She’s terrified of dogs!

I parked my car and jumped out without even turning off the engine. When I reached the fence, Claire saw me and came running in my direction. I stretched out my arms over the fence.

“Jump! I’ll lift you over!”

But when Claire reached me, I realized her squeals weren’t fearful. She wasgiggling. She turned around and crouched down, allowing the herd of dogs to lick her face.

“They like me!” she announced. “I’m theirfavorite.”

I shared a confused look with Christian. “Uhh,” he said. “Are you okay, Claire?”

She answered while trying to pet all the dogs at once. “I’m more than okay. I’m very okay. I’mvery veryokay.”

Heidi and Pickles came up to the fence to greet us, tails wagging excitedly. Yet when we passed through the gate and approached Claire, Heidi turned around and pushed through the pack of dogs until she was standing in front of Claire, blocking the girl with her body. A protective stance.

“I guess you won’t have to put Heidi away tonight,” I said.

“Hi!” Beth said as she came out of the kennel building. “I was inside with one of the other dogs and didn’t hear you pull up. Congrats on the win today!”

Seeing Beth filled me with an excited tingle. She was wearing overall jeans that were streaked with mud, and her hair was pulled back in a ponytail that looked like it had been loosing strands of hair all afternoon. Yet there was no more beautiful sight to my eyes. It was like she had a magnetic pull to her that drew my eye, tugging on my soul.

I’ve got it bad for this girl. And I barely know her.

“We’re celebrating tonight!” I found myself saying. “Want to go out and get somedranks?”

“Dranks?” Christian said. “What about…”

Smiling at Beth, I said, “One second,” and put an arm around Christian to lead him out of hearing distance. “Come on man. I need this.”

“I’m just as interested in Beth as you are.”

“I know! But you’re so much better with kids than I am. You’re thegooduncle. I’m thefununcle. I’ll break all of the rules and let her do whatever she wants. And then Logan will be mad at both of us.”

Christian exhaled out of his nose, like a bull. “You’re going to take her out with the team?”

“With whoever wants to go out and celebrate. Yes.”

“And then what?”

I shrugged. “Who knows!”

He stared at me for three long seconds. It was the same face he had when trying to decide if we should try a wacky trick play in football. “Okay. But you owe me.”

I patted him on the cheek. “Add it to my tab.”

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