I set my mug down.
"I didn't know you saw that."
It rewrote a summer. Maybe two.
I had crouched on my own porch in pigtails at fifteen, sixteen, and seventeen, clocking Easton Ford coming and going from the bungalow with his friends and his secondhand truck with his laugh. I was sure he was a boy who couldn't see me. He had seen me.
I picked my mug back up to have something to do with my hands.
My eyes drifted to where Penny was lying at his feet. White muzzle, soft eyes, a body that had stopped being a young dog and started being an old one, but had stayed well-loved through the whole transition. Her coat was clean. Her nails were trimmed. Somebody had been taking care of her.
"How old is she?" I asked.
"Twelve."
"She looks great. For twelve."
"She's got good days. She's got slower days."
I set my mug down, slid off the couch, and onto the rug. Slowly. Penny lifted her head and gave me a long blink, which on a golden was practically a kiss.
"Hi, sweet girl," I said. "Hi, Penny. Hi."
I stroked the velvet of her ears.
Easton settled back into his chair for the first time since I'd sat down. He let me work. He didn't hover. He watched.
"She's about the last thing I've got of my grandmother's, when you get down to it," he said. His voice was lower and quieter than it had been a minute before. "When Grandma went, Pen was the one who got me through the first month. She'd come find me wherever I was sitting and put her head on my knee. I'd never had a dog like that growing up. I didn't know they did that."
"They do that."
"Mhm."
I ran my hand along her ribs. Good. Not bony, not bloated. I ran my hand down her spine. She liked it.
"How's she been eating?"
A small flicker behind his eyes. Like I'd asked the question he'd been carrying.
"Slow," he said. "Last two months, maybe three. She'll go to the bowl and stand at it. She'll pick up a kibble. She'll drop it. She'll eat the soft stuff. She paws at the side of her face sometimes."
I kept my hand on Penny's ribs. Felt her breathing. Steady. A little fast for resting.
"Lost weight?"
"A few pounds. I switched her to wet."
"Did you take her in for it?"
Easton's jaw worked once before he answered.
"Twice. Caldwell ran a senior panel. Said her bloodwork was clean for her age. Said she was just old."
I lifted my hand off her ribs and put it on the side of her face. Penny watched me, patient, trusting.
"Let me see your mouth, sweetheart."
I peeled her upper lip back gently along the right side.
