Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 93425 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 467(@200wpm)___ 374(@250wpm)___ 311(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93425 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 467(@200wpm)___ 374(@250wpm)___ 311(@300wpm)
My palms started to sweat as I got closer to the Maxwell brownstone. I was so damn nervous. A part of me hoped that Sebastian wouldn’t be around today, just so I could delay going through with it. Last time I’d trained Marmaduke, only Magdalene and Birdie had been home. When I arrived at the house, I took a deep breath and prayed that was the case today.
The walk up the stairs to the front door felt a lot like walking the plank. I shook out my tingling hands and then forced myself to knock. A few seconds later, I saw shadows on the other side and held my breath as the handle started to turn.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t Magdalene.
“Mr. . . . umm . . . Sebastian . . . I didn’t expect you to answer the door.”
He folded his arms across his chest and squinted at me. “No? Why is that, Sadie?”
Was it me or did he just say my name weird? Or maybe my nerves were getting the best of me. Picking imaginary lint off my pants to avoid his intense stare, I cleared my throat. “I . . . uhh . . . thought you’d be at work. Last time I came on this day, Magdalene was here.”
His mouth slid to a wicked smile. “I took the afternoon off. Thought you and I could have a little training session. Just the two of us.”
A giant lump formed in my throat. Shit. Now I had no choice but to come clean. I’d left it up to fate, and fate couldn’t smack me in the face more than it was doing right now. This man who worked six days a week had miraculously taken the day off to spend time with me. Alone. “Umm. Okay. That’s good.”
He stepped back, opening the door wide. “Come in. I’d like to start the training inside today, if that’s alright with you.”
It wasn’t. Not at all. Stepping over the threshold made me feel claustrophobic. At least being outside, I had a place to run. The door suddenly slammed closed behind me and I jumped.
Sebastian flashed another wicked smile. “Sorry. Slipped.”
If I didn’t know better, I’d think he was intentionally making me feel on edge.
Luckily, Marmaduke came to my rescue. He charged at me and nearly knocked me over in an attempt to lick my face. “Hey, boy.” I scratched behind his ears. “It’s nice to see you, too.”
When I looked up, I found Sebastian’s eyes searing into me. He held a folded sheet of white paper in his hand that I hadn’t noticed before.
“Where did you say you got your training from again?”
Uh. I hadn’t that I remembered. Looking around the room, I felt a panic come over me. I could have just ripped off the Band-Aid and come clean right then, but my heart was racing out of control, and I just wasn’t ready. So what did I do? Of course, I dug myself deeper. The hallway we were standing in had a large round table. On top of it was a set of keys. “I went to the Key Training School.”
“The Key Training School . . .”
He glanced at the keys on the table and back to me with narrowed eyes. “Where is that located exactly?”
“Umm . . . downtown.”
“I’ll have to look them up. See if they have a comments section so that I can give you a good review. Is it K-E-Y Training?”
Shit. “Yes . . . but they’re closed now.”
“Closed today or closed for good?”
“For good.”
“That’s a shame. Since they clearly produced such a qualified dog trainer.”
What the hell? Was he mocking me? We’d ended on such a nice note after I’d saved his dog’s life, and now suddenly I felt like we were back to square one.
He tilted his head. “Why did they close?”
“Umm. I think because the rent is so high in the city.”
He squinted so tightly that I could barely see the whites of his eyes. Then, without another word, he turned his back to me and started to walk into the living room. “Follow me.”
Like a puppy, I trailed behind. Marmaduke had walked ahead and was busy doing something in the corner. Sebastian turned to me and pointed to the dog. “This is new. Perhaps we can start today’s session with you demonstrating how to stop my dog from doing that to my daughter’s stuffed animals.”
Leaning in for a closer look, I saw that the giant animal was humping a stuffed turtle. Ugh. His lipstick was out and everything. I scrunched up my nose. “He’s humping a turtle.”
“Is that what he’s doing? I wasn’t quite sure. Perhaps you get a lot more practice than I do.”
My eyes widened. Did he just call me a whore? I blinked a few times. “Excuse me?”
“Well, you told my daughter that you write about your dating life for a living. So naturally I assume that means you go out with a wide variety of men.”