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“Uh. Hi. What do you need? More water?” I hold up the glass I just filled up.
I watch her bend down as Pepper goes to her and starts licking the tears off her face. “Who’s this?” She pets Pepper.
“Pepper. My dog.”
“Hi Pepper. What are you doing here, puppy?” Kate keeps petting Pepper and Pepper is soaking up the attention.
“Well, uh, my mom had a date, and she was watching her. Pepper had nowhere to go.”
“Ah, puppy. You can always come over here, can’t you?” Pepper grabs her hand in her teeth and pulls her to the couch. I watch Kate sit down and Pepper try to climb into her lap. Most of her is on the couch, thankfully, and not squishing Kate.
“Pepper. Get down. You’re not allowed on the furniture here.” I scold her and move to pull her off the couch.
“You can stay up here if you want to, Pepperoni.” Kate says to the dog.
“What did you just call her?” I ask, surprised she called Pepper by her nickname mom and I gave her.
Kate turns to me, “What, can I not call her that?”
“No, it’s fine, it’s just funny. My mom and I call her that all the time.”
Kate smiles.
Smiles.
Kate smiles at me, and it lights up this entire house. And me.
I watch her love all over my dog and instead of getting jealous; I decide to make us some dinner.
“Tacos okay with you?” I ask as I start pulling out the ingredients.
“Um, sure, I guess. I don’t know if I have everything for tacos.” Kate responds from the couch as Pepper lies down across her lap. Kate’s stuck there now.
“You do now. Mom brought over some stuff when she dropped off Pepper.”
I chop and saute, making myself right at home in her kitchen. I had to plug in the appliances like I had to the other morning. It’s weird, but I figure its best not to ask today. I can probably put two and two together.
Dinner comes together quickly, and I plate. “One or two tacos?” I ask.
“Honk.”
I forgot about the goose. I’m not sure Pepper’s ever seen a goose before. I’m not sure how this is going to go over.
Kate gets up to let in Wilbur and I grab Pepper’s collar.
“Honk.”
“I’m coming; hold on.” Kate responds to the insistence of the goose. She turns to me, “Are you ready? I’m not sure how this will go. Wilbur’s been around dogs all his life. He’s got them all afraid of him in the neighborhood.”
I shake my head, “We’ll see. She’s never met a goose before.”
“Here we go.” Kate opens the door and instantly, Wilbur struts up the steps and into the doorway then right up to Pepper.
“Honk. Honk. Honk.”
Pepper doesn’t know what to do. She’s not pulling on the collar, but her nose is going bonkers.
“Bark.”
