Page 49 of Shake the Habit

“You didn’t want a birthday party for yourself, but you’re interested in a dog’s graduation?” Caleb laughed behind his knuckles.

“I’m not going to invite the whole family. Maybe just my parents and Aria,” I said. I wanted to give my mom and dad something nice. There was so much they were going to miss and that I’d already ruined for them, but this was a way I could show a little appreciation. “I’ll make a cake,” I decided. “I’ll write ‘Congrats Sir’ on it and maybe I’ll try to pipe out a picture of a piece of cheese. I’ll decorate the house with flowers like my cousin Prue does, because she’s so good at it. I’ll spend a long time on my hair so that it will turn out well, really well.”

“Can I help with this? Not your hair, but the food portion?”

“I would love that!” I told him. “You know what would be good? If you could make a big bowl of punch.” We would need a set with matching cups and a ladle, but Aunt Paula would definitely have that.

“Uh, ok.” He paused. “I can’t think of the last time I even saw a punch bowl.”

“If you make it instead of me, they’ll all be sure that no one doctored it up with liquor.”

“They wouldn’t think that about you,” he said quietly.

He was wrong, and based on my past behavior, they were right to doubt me. But doing things like planning a party would helpto demonstrate that I was also an adult—no, not as good as Aria and Cassidy, but maybe getting there. Because I really had changed. I nodded, doing a mental affirmation. I had! A nice cake would be a good step to show them.

After a quick dinner, Sir and I got ready to go to his class. It meant me putting on jeans (in case of falling) and my running shoes (in case of squirrels if we practiced walking in the neighborhood). He really was so much better but there was no reason to take unnecessary risks. When I came back downstairs, Caleb was waiting at the door with the dog’s leash in his hand.

“I thought that I’d go too, if you don’t mind,” he told me.

“That’s great! The teacher is always wanting the whole household to be involved. And we’re kind of a household, now,” I added. It was a little like being Sir’s parents, wasn’t it? We were kind of his mother and father, and here we were going to school with him. I smiled all the way to the church rec room where the class was held, and I introduced Caleb to the other participants, dog and human.

“And this is the instructor, Neal,” I told him.“Neal, this is Caleb.”

“Hello,” the teacher said, extending his hand. “I love having Kayleigh here.”He smiled at me.

“Is that right?” Caleb asked, and Neal laughed.

“She makes the class a lot more appealing. Let’s get started.”

One person not having fun in the class: Caleb. My nana had a word for when I’d acted in the same way, a behavior that shereally disliked. “Don’t be sulky, Kayleigh Lynn,” she used to tell me. Caleb frowned, didn’t speak, and stared balefully at the teacher for the duration of the class. He got nothing from it, as far as I could tell, and he didn’t even seem to notice that Sir was (by far) the sweetest and best-looking student. At the end, he quickly collected the leash and the dog and I followed him out, glad it was over.

“You didn’t like it,” I said as we climbed into the truck. That was stating the obvious.

“I didn’t like the instructor. Does he always flirt with you?”

“He’s that kind of person.”

“No, he wasn’t coming on to me or to anyone else there. Just you. Has he asked you out yet?”

“In a way, but I said no,” I answered.

“What does ‘in a way’ mean?” he immediately questioned.

“He asked if I would go out with him when the class was over. But I said no,” I repeated. “I think he likes Sir.” The dog leaned against me. “You’re squishing me,” I told him.

“Sir, come over here,” Caleb ordered. “It’s not about the dog, Kayleigh.”

“Neal is a very good trainer,” I said. “Sir has learned so much. I told him no, I wasn’t interested, and that was the end. Was that why you were acting so sulky?”

“Was I being sulky?”

“Yes,” I said, but I was remembering other things my nana had told me about jealousy: Caleb wouldn’t have acted sulky unless he cared.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to be an ass. It was unbelievable how unprofessional that guy acted. His job, what everyone paid him for, is to work with all the dogs but he wasted everyone’s time giggling over you. If I were another participant in the class, I’d tell him that I want a refund.”

“Oh, well, I guess that is annoying,” I agreed. As a person who worked on earning money for investors, it did make sense that he’d look at the situation through that lens rather than the jealousy angle that I’d been imagining.

We went the rest of the short distance home in silence, where Caleb said that he was going to take Sir for a walk. “It’s really dark,” I noted, but he thought they’d be fine and I shrugged. Fine. I settled on my couch to look up flights to Cuzco and thought about who might take Sir, and for how long. I researched dog boarding rates and also figured out how I could force my relatives to take money for watching him, which they would try to refuse. Everything added up and it would be an expensive trip—and not one that I’d be able to afford in the near-future, not with what I got paid and not with how much I was paying out for Sir’s expenses and for repairs on this house.

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