Read Online To Catch a Treat by Linda O. Johnston - Free Book Online Page B

be interested in working here. If you’d like, you can stay around for the rest of today and I’ll show you how we do things. Then, if we’re both happy about the situation, I’ll offer you a job and we can work out a schedule and salary for you. What do you think?”
    Instead of saying anything, Janelle rose, and I was suddenly engulfed in a huge hug from a thin yet very strong woman.
    â€œThank you, thank you,” she exclaimed.
    â€œI take it that’s a yes?” I said to her as I had to Neal.
    â€œYes!”

seven
    For the rest of the afternoon, I demonstrated how I liked clientele to be served, as well as how to count and pack up treats and use the electronic cash register. Dinah also stepped in and helped out. She seemed fine with the newcomer. But then, she was a great model for our part-timers to emulate.
    I particularly liked Janelle’s attitude. She watched what we did, then did it with our next customers. She asked a lot of questions, tasted both people and pet treats—something I encouraged everyone to do, since what we baked for dogs contained only the best, healthiest ingredients that humans could eat as well—and said she’d look forward to being taught how to bake this stuff.
    Apparently always a photographer, Janelle also took photos of dogs and people eating treats. She always got their permission first, which was a good thing. And then, using her smart phone, she posted the shots on social media sites, mentioning how all the humans here in Knobcone Heights enjoyed sweets from Icing on the Cake and how the dogs always begged for more treats from Barkery and Biscuits.
    I never quibbled with free publicity, as long as it was of the positive sort. And I really did like what she was doing.
    At one point, when we were in the Barkery with confined Biscuit and leashed Go, I was about to ask Janelle what vet she took her dog to back in LA. But then some customers came in and I had to wait. It needed to be the right time, anyway, and sound casual.
    But I intended to contact her regular vet and ask about any identifying characteristics Go had, like scars, to confirm whether “Boomer” and the black Lab now across the room from me shared those traits.
    Sure, I wanted to like and to trust Janelle. So far, the former was definitely a possibility. I hoped things would work out for the latter as well, at least if she and Neal became an actual item. And for Go’s sake—I was always happy when I saw a pet bond as a family member with its owner.
    And what if Boomer wasn’t Janelle’s Go? What difference would it really make, with the two of them clearly so close now?
    It wouldn’t matter, as long as Go didn’t belong to someone else. But what mattered most to me was my brother, and whether he was getting involved with a liar or a very lucky pet owner.
    I was also amused when Janelle notified nearly every customer she waited on that she was putting together a big party at the Knobcone Heights Resort bar that night. It would be “no host,” after all, so she had decided not to pay for anyone else’s food or drinks. But she was absolutely forthcoming about how thrilled she was that she had just found her lost dog Go and wanted everyone possible to join in the celebration.
    I would certainly be there with Biscuit. I also called my clinic and spoke to Arvie and Reed. I invited them to come to the party and hoped they’d be there.
    We had a lot of customers in both shops that day, including some of Neal’s hikers from the other evening who said they hadn’t come in yesterday but hoped they could still get samples.
    Of course they could.
    It was a fine time to be showing a new assistant both the good and bad things about busy bakeries, such as having to be patient with people who took forever to make up their minds despite how many other folks were in line behind them. Or those who changed their minds even after some of the treats