Until There Was You(40)
“What does she like?”
Excellent question. Aside from Cookie Monster, he had no idea anymore. At Christmas, he’d bought her a Hello Kitty calendar, which earned him a lecture on how she wasn’t a baby anymore. Last week, she’d come home from the store with a pair of pajamas imprinted with Hello Kitty. “I don’t know. I just thought something a little different. Never mind. It’s fine.”
“I’ll look around,” Cordelia said. “I might have something.”
“Thanks.”
They finished scanning about the same time. Apparently, they were parked near each other, too; Liam’s dark blue Honda next to a battered red pickup.
As he approached, a pony-size black-and-white head appeared in the window of Cordelia’s truck. The dog, the biggest he’d ever seen, yawned then sniffed the air, maybe sensing his Egg Beaters were close by.
“That’s some dog,” Liam said.
“Shilo. He’s a Great Dane.”
“Can I pet him?”
“Do you mind if he rips your arm off?”
Liam blinked. “He bites?”
She smiled, just a little flash. “No. Go ahead.”
The only dog Liam had ever owned was way back when they still lived in Pennsylvania, when Liam was about five—a pit bull his father had trained to attack and which spent its life chained to a stake in the front yard. His dad had called the dog Idiot. Liam had been bitten twice by the dog, but it had still been his job to feed him, tiptoeing up to the dog, who’d always growled, even though supper was approaching.
A little warily, Liam held up his hand for the Great Dane to sniff. Shilo licked his hand once, then closed his eyes, and Liam smiled, then smoothed his hand over the dog’s warm, bony head. Clearly not in the same class as Idiot, though probably five times as big. The thing took up almost the entire front seat of the truck.
“He must outweigh you by forty pounds,” he commented. “How’d you train him?”
“I don’t know. The usual way, I guess.”
Maybe Nicole would like a dog. “Where’d you get him?”
“The pound. See you around, Liam.” With that, Cordelia got into the truck and floored it, tires screeching a little, as if she couldn’t wait to be away from him.
Not his usual effect at all. But fifteen minutes later, when Nicole had snatched the chocolate from him and kissed his cheek, telling him he was the best, Liam couldn’t help feeling grateful to that scratchy little Cordelia Osterhagen.
CHAPTER NINE
“OH!” KATE GRUNTED as she sat down behind her desk. “My side is killing me. I’m ovulating, I think. That sucker must be huge.”
“Must we discuss?” Jon asked.
“Man up, weenie boy,” Kate said.
“You man up, Venus Williams,” Jon replied. “I’m a g*y home-ec teacher. I never have to man up. I never will man up. As God is my witness, I’ll never man up again.”
Posey had finished a quote on taking down a barn in Chelmsford and dropped by the school to pick up Brianna for their afternoon together. Knowing both Kate and Jon had a late lunch, she’d crashed and was now happily eating half of Jon’s chicken salad sandwich (with grapes and walnuts on a croissant, plus oatmeal cookies for dessert). They ate in Kate’s office, just off the locker rooms, despite Jon’s complaints of the faint smell of sweat.
Kate leaned back in her chair, her head touching the poster of Mia Hamm’s moment of sports-bra glory. “So, James and I are thinking of taking a trip to Sedona this summer. Pilates, spa, deep meditation, the whole thing.”
“What every teenage boy dreams of,” Jon said. “Why not Outward Bound or a summer at sea?”
“What do you know about Outward Bound? Weren’t we just discussing what a sissy you were, Jon?” The bell rang. “Oops, time to go,” Kate said. She lurched upright in her chair. “Walk with me, you two. I have bus duty. Oh, and hey, Posey, we’re short on prom chaperones this year. You in?”
“No,” Posey said. “Though I loved the way you slipped that in. Nice work.”
“You should come!” Jon declared. “We can go together, because you know your brother would rather chew off his own arm, then reattach it.”
“At last, Henry and I have something in common,” Posey said. “No thanks, guys.”
“Oh, come on. It’ll be fun,” Kate said.
“Gee, I wish I could, but I’ll be busy hacking my wrists that night.”
“It’s not that bad,” Kate said, locking her office door behind them.
“It’s so much fun!” Jon said. “I’m the most popular boy there. If I were eligible for prom king, I’d win every year.”
As if on cue, a pretty girl bounced over to them. “Mr. White, I totally wish you were straight. I have such a crush on you.”
“Take a number, sweetheart,” Jon said kindly. “Did you plan out your quilt design yet? It’s due on Tuesday.”
“Well, I need chaperones,” Kate continued. “So far I only have Jack Whalen signed up, and only because I’m blackmailing him.”
“What did he do?” Posey asked.
“He subscribes to Cat Fancy magazine,” Kate answered. “Imagine trying to be an authority figure when your students know you read Cat Fancy.”