"Sit!" Emily's voice was pleasant and encouraging as she gently pushed down on the German Shepherd's back legs. "Come on, King! Sit!" The puppy sat, opening his mouth to pant as he looked up at her, tamping his forelegs up and down in front of him. He was caught between the desire to move – to run around the wide, open space of the park, and the desire to please this new human whom he was getting to know.

"Good boy!" Emily's voice was low and enthusiastic as she rewarded his obedience with praise and attention, rubbing the scruff of his neck and putting her face very close to his muzzle. She repeated, "Good boy!" and he eagerly licked her chin.

Emily backed away to repeat and reinforce the lesson. When King stood, licking his nose and looking expectantly up at her, waiting for her next command, she repeated, "Sit! Sit!" – Then, with a sense of urgency, she shouted, "Oh, shit! Stay! Stay, King!"

But it was in no use. The puppy, seeing a jogger speed down the sidewalk a few yards away from where he and Emily were practicing on the lawn, couldn't resist the chase. After all, she was running, so, in King's mind, she obviously wanted to play. And King was always up for meeting new friends.

When the jogger heard King's pleasant bark and realized that she was being chased, she turned around and gradually slowed her jog to a slow trot. King slowed his pace, too, looking up at the jogger with his tongue hanging out of his mouth. When she came to a full stop, King did, too. He angled his body towards the ground, with his head down by his forepaws and his hindquarters in the air, wagging his tail furiously. Paige stretched out her hand, and he lifted his head, to sniff it. After he registered her scent and gave her hand a lick, she knelt down to his level. She took his head between her hands and rubbed it. "Hey, Boy! How're you doing?"

"King!" Emily's voice was stern when she caught up with him. King turned around slowly, looking up at Emily and over to Paige, as if introducing the two of them, trying to let Emily know that this new human whom he had discovered was friendly. "King! Stay!" Emily said severely. King walked in a brief circle and collapsed into all fours on the sidewalk, chastened. "I'm so sorry," Emily said, turning her attention to the jogger. "I hope he didn't…" Emily's voice trailed off as the jogger stood up, and Emily got a good look at her. She was wearing a pale blue sports bra, with the Nike "Whoosh" logo in front, drawing attention to the cleavage area. On the bottom, she had on body-hugging running pants that stopped just past her knee. The waistband formed a neon-pink border around the pants – looking like something that was there to make her more visible to drivers, in case she went jogging after hours. Her forehead glistened with a light sheen of perspiration. Emily really just wanted to swipe the few drops away with her thumb – and, maybe brush the loose strand of hair behind her ear, perhaps leaving her hand there on the jogger's cheek as she leaned in to…

Emily shook her head quickly, steadying her thoughts. She smiled apologetically. "I hope he didn't scare you." With a shy chuckle, she added, "I guess taking him to a public park so early in his training program wasn't my best idea." Emily self-consciously looked off to the side.

"No, he's fine," the girl assured her. " 'King,' is it?" As she asked, she tilted her head towards King with her eyebrows raised, to ask Emily's permission to join him on the ground. She didn't want to distract him so early in his training and risk undoing everything he had learned. When she received Emily's nod of permission, she sat down on the ground, spreading her legs wide and pulling King in, scratching him between the ears and letting him lick her face. Smiling up at Emily, she asked, "That's kind of an old-school name, isn't it?"

"Well, actually, his full name is King Mitchell McShawsters O'Shannon von Shepherdson…" Emily stopped, with a shy, weak giggle, not having thought about how foolish the name sounded out loud until she was in the middle of saying it. She didn't even know why was telling this stranger her dog's full name in the first place. All of those extra names had been added as a stupid, running joke between her and Hanna that had gotten out of control.

"Fields," Emily added weakly, feeling obligated, for some unknown reason, to finish reciting the dog's name. What was it about gorgeous women that always got her so flustered?

Emily looked down at her feet, realizing that that's what the problem was. This girl was gorgeous. And confident. Women like that always brought the insecure, inner-child out of her.

Emily was mentally kicking herself for the decisions that she had made when they left the house that morning. It had seemed like the perfect day just to dress down, throw her hair up in a messy bun, and go hang out in the park with King. Rosewood was a small town, and she pretty much knew all of the women there. It had never occurred to her, when she chose that look, that she would run into somebody like this gorgeous jogger.

Emily dropped down to the ground, sitting on her bottom with her legs bent at the knees. She wanted to be in the comfort zone that nearness to King provided. He lay on his back between the two women, exposing his stomach for them to rub.

"And is there a Mr. Fields?" the jogger asked purposefully as she indulged King by rubbing his belly. She thought that she was picking up on something in the shy way that Emily was behaving, but she wanted to be sure.

"Well," Emily said with a wry smile, "there's a Colonel Fields, but that's my Dad!" The jogger's question had emboldened Emily. Why would she probe like that, she asked herself, if she weren't interested? From the way that her face lit up at Emily's answer, Emily was pretty sure that she wasn't just asking for her brother – or a friend. Emily extended her hand, her confidence rising. "My name's Emily."

"Paige," the jogger replied. She rubbed her thumb over the back of Emily's hand as she shook it. It was a subtle gesture, but it seemed, to Emily, that Paige was probing again; seeking confirmation, without making it too obvious, that she wasn't barking up the wrong tree, so to speak.

"Paige," Emily repeated. She bit her lip and smiled, her shyness returning at the contact. She slowly pulled her hand away and went back to scratching King's head with it.

"How long have you had him?"

"Just about a week," Emily replied, shrugging her shoulders as she considered her answer. "I picked him up from the shelter last week."

"Well, he's really friendly." Paige leaned closer to King's face, her voice becoming gruff, as if she were talking to a baby. "Aren't you, Boy?"

Emily smiled at her dog and nodded. "Yeah, really friendly." She sighed. "It's nice to have a pal, you know?" Emily backtracked quickly, realizing how pathetic that sounded. "I mean, I do have friends, but…"

"But not like this little guy!" Paige took the dogs face in her hands, and he playfully swatted at her hands with his paws. "I love dogs," she added, as if that fact weren't obvious.

"Well, you should definitely take him out jogging sometime," Emily joked, laughing at how well King and Paige were getting along.

"I would love to take both of you out," Paige said with a smirk. When Emily smiled, as if embarrassed, and looked away, Paige tacked on the word, "jogging." But they both knew that jogging wasn't what she had in mind when she started that sentence.

Emily tightened her lips, trying to maintain her composure. She thought it best to change the subject. "Do you jog through this area a lot? I don't think I've ever seen you." Emily knew that she had never seen Paige around. She was really asking whether Paige was just passing through town for a few days or was there to stay for a while.

"Just moved to Rosewood." Paige stood, wiping both hands across the back of her running pants to clean them off. King stood, too, peeking behind Paige's back to see what her hands were doing back there. Emily was interested in what Paige had going on back there, too, but she, of course, had to be more subtle about her curiosity.

When Paige saw how King reacted to the movement of her hands, she lowered her left hand close to his head and raised it swiftly up over her head, giving him a target to jump for. She repeated the move a few times, letting him jump for her hand as she and Emily continued to talk and get to know each other. Emily was standing, too, and King looked up at her occasionally, asking her to play this new game that his new friend had taught him. Emily was more than eager to play it with him, needing the distraction that the game provided from Paige's big, brown eyes. Emily could sense that she was starting to wilt under their deep, piercing gaze, so, when the conversation hit a lull, she decided that it would be best to beat a quick retreat and pick things up with Paige another day. She stooped down to King's level and hooked his leash onto his collar. "Well," she said, chuckling softly, "we should really let you get back to your run."

"No," Paige asked gently. As Emily stood up straight again, wrapping the leash around her hand a time or two, Paige touched her shoulder and gave it a slight squeeze, nodding once. "Stay?" Emily looked over with a shy smile as Paige continued, "I could help you train him!"

Emily didn't pretend that she didn't want that, and she didn't tell Paige that she didn't have to. Instead, staying true to her feelings, she laughed pleasantly and took Paige up on her offer. But, truth be told, training King had fallen very low on her list of priorities for the day.

Emily stooped down over King again, to undo his leash. Paige trotted over to the grassy area, and King trailed after her. "King," Emily called from behind him, her voice filled with confident authority. King turned around, looking at her. "Come," she commanded, and King came running over. "Sit!" He sat. Emily knelt down to his level, petting him vigorously. "Good Boy!"

By the end of the afternoon, King had learned to stand up and look at Emily when Paige, stationed on the opposite side of the lawn from them, clapped her hands and called him. If Emily said, "Stay," he stayed. If she said, "Sit," he sat. If she pointed and said, "Go," he ran over to Paige at top speed. Either way, he was rewarded for his obedience. After the final exam, his reward was the opportunity to chase and wrestle Paige all around the park. Emily couldn't help smiling at the way that he and his new friend – their new friend – were getting along. And she was smiling at the thought that she might never have met this friend, had King not failed so miserably earlier at the command, "Stay."

"Good Boy," Emily muttered to herself. King was much too far and much too distracted to hear her. And he wouldn't have remembered why he was being praised, anyway. Still, Emily repeated the words, her smile still beaming. "Good Boy!"

A/N – I get the feeling that I've read a plot like this in a Paily fanfic before. If you know of it, please let me know, and I'll give the author due credit for (subliminal) inspiration. There was an unfinished story (which, sadly, has been taken down), "Surrender my Heart," by redgirl24 that had an encounter between Paige's dog and Emily in a park, but does not follow this plot line and was not the inspiration for it.

Thanks for reading! :)

UPDATE: Thanks to jebsk, who reminded me of the incredibly cute story, "Puppy Love," by betterleftblank. It's a different plot ("Paige has dedicated her life to caring for sick and neglected animals. One night, a dog comes into her care that will end up changing her life in more ways than she could possibly imagine."), but a fun read, and, if we wish hard enough, maybe we can inspire the author to start updating it again...

And... Thanks to kias2608, who is an expert on Paily stories with dogs :D, for pointing me to "The Dogtrick," by dinosaurfan, which sounds remarkably similar (Paige borrows a dog as a way to meet someone). I have to confess that I haven't read that one yet, but it looks interesting! :)