Junior Year Box Set

I admit I nearly pissed myself right before he sat and wagged his tail. I looked back, and both Duke and Precious were pressed up against the back of my legs as they peeked around at Buster. So much for them protecting me!

“He really is very friendly,” his young mistress told me.

I leaned forward and offered him the back of my hand to sniff. When all he did was check it out, I tentatively reached down for his leash, which his mistress had let go of to save herself from being dragged up the driveway. I wanted to have control of him in case he made a lunge at my two charges.

Now that I had control of him, I turned to the girl Buster brought into our yard. She looked like she was in middle school and couldn’t have weighed more than a hundred pounds. There was no way she’d be able to control this dog that looked like he was made of solid muscle.

“Does he do this often?” I asked.

“My mom said he needs exercise, but I have a hard time controlling him. I’m Rachel,” she said.

While we were talking, Duke had gotten brave and greeted Buster. There was a lot of tail-wagging, so it appeared that we were safe for now.

“I’m David. I was just about to go on a run. Do you want to take Duke and I take Buster?” I offered.

“I don’t want to slow you down.”

“I usually do a mile warm-up before I get serious. How about we try that and then see how you and Buster are doing?” I suggested.

Precious wasn’t as trusting as Duke and ran home. I put Duke on his leash and handed it to Rachel. We started off at a slow jog and then gradually increased our pace. Duke was used to this by now and seemed to mind Rachel better than he did me. Buster had to be reminded that he needed to stay with me. When he saw a squirrel, he about ripped off my arm. Buster needed a training collar because his regular collar was either going to choke him out or kill me. By the time we had made our mile circuit, he had begun to realize who was in charge and was running with me. Buster was done when we slowed down.

“Thanks. I don’t think I could’ve handled him,” Rachel said.

“Have your mom get Buster a training collar.”

“You mean a choke collar?”

“No. They make collars with prongs on them. It won’t choke him, but it’ll get his attention and not hurt him. Duke has one, but his isn’t big enough for Buster or I’d lend it to you,” I said.

“If I get him one, will you let me run with you in the mornings?”

“Sure. I have to finish my run. You probably need to get Buster home and get him a drink,” I said, and started my run again.

Duke gave a nervous glance back to make sure Buster wasn’t following him. I really didn’t blame him, because that was a big dog.

◊◊◊

Brook met me in the parking lot again. It gave me a sense of déjà vu. I waited to see what her response would be today.

“My dad talked to me today,” she said.

I thought that was nice, but there had to be more to that little announcement.

“Okay.”

“Dad said you’re famous or something. I guess I kind of knew that, but he said that you kissed me and leaked it to the press because of who I am,” Brook said.

I joke around about being someone because of modeling and the movie. It’s just my way of using humor to get a grasp of my situation. If you can’t joke about yourself, you have a problem. I knew the game of self-promotion. Heck, I’d gone on faux dates with celebrities. That had all been done to further both of our careers. I’d never leaked a photo just to increase my popularity. Well, that might not be true; I had shown off the video of Adrienne and me kissing to my friends and a few others. Was I really so shallow that I would kiss Brook just to get noticed? No. Tami had set me straight on the glory-hound stuff and being conscious of how I appeared when dealing with others. Plus, who the heck was Brook if she thought she could add to my already unbelievable fame? More questionable humor, I reminded myself.

“I hadn’t thought of that,” I said, looking down, embarrassed. I looked up. “Gosh, Brook, I’m so sorry if I gave you that impression. Honestly, I didn’t realize the camera was still going. I planned to show everyone us skydiving. It was the most fun I’ve had in a long time. Lily has access to my video storage account in the cloud. She put the two videos together and sent them out before I saw them.

“While I didn’t actually do it, I should’ve considered your feelings and pulled it down. I’ll do that right now.”

I pulled out my tablet, and Brook stopped me.

“You didn’t do it because of who I am?” she asked.

I must have shown my confusion; I really didn’t know what she was talking about.

“You didn’t know my family is wealthy?” she asked.

“That’s nice,” I said, still bewildered.

“My mom and aunts and uncles hold a large interest in L Brands, the company my grandmother founded.”

“Brook, I don’t follow,” I said.

‘L Brands’ had no meaning to me.