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“Bark!”
A dog barking.
But I didn’t have a dog. None of our extended family did. Not since Dog, my childhood dog, had died a few years back, breaking my and my sisters’ hearts. I missed him so fucking much, mostly because he’d been the best dog ever and—
A fluffy head popped up.
Big ears. Golden fur. Deep chocolate-colored eyes. And…
A big red bow around its neck.
“I thought it was time,” Eva said softy.
I jerked my gaze away from the tiny ball of fur and looked up at the woman who I knew loved me from my rapidly beating heart down to the depths of my soul and everywhere in between. “What?” I rasped.
“You have so much love to give, honey,” she murmured. “And Pooch needed a good home.”
I inhaled sharply, eyes stinging, throat tight. “Pooch?” I asked, still rasping.
“Well,” she said, moving to the basket and carefully scooping up the puppy, carrying him back toward me, tucking the warm weight of his body into my arms, “you had Dog the dog, and now I thought it was time for Pooch the pooch.” A shrug, her cheeks going the slightest bit pink. “Or we can pick whatever name you want, honey.”
“Pooch,” I whispered.
The puppy lifted his head, eyes coming to mine, head tilting curiously, and just that easily, it was settled.
“Pooch,” I said again, causing his head to tilt the other way.
“Yeah,” she murmured, nibbling at her bottom lip.
“That’s perfect.”
Her expression relaxed, body melting against mine, the warm weight of her more familiar, more right than Pooch.
But his wasn’t wrong.
His was right too.
Right in the weight of a future, the weight of future hopes and dreams.
A future with squeaky toys and rolling balls and walks out in the cold, of cold noses pressing to my throat way too early in the morning and a tail whipping back and forth at warp speed when I walked through the door.
A future where I wasn’t alone.
Where I had a family of my own.
Where I had Eva and Pooch andmore.
My eyes burned and my throat was tight and I was about a second away from bursting into tears. “Eva baby,” I rasped.
She turned into me, her coffee-colored eyes beyond soft. “You don’t hate this.”
Not a question.
“Now, baby,” I tell her, dropping my forehead to hers, settling my hand on her nape. “Aside from the day you honored me by becoming my wife, this is the best thing anyone has ever done for me.” I squeezed lightly. “Thebest.”
She exhaled, her breath grazing my lips. “I’m glad, honey. I was so scared it might be too soon.” Another breath. “You haven’t mentioned getting another dog.”
I hadn’t.
