Sometimes you have to just go along when things spin out of your control. It’s the only way to keep your purchase. And occasionally, you get to places you never thought in a million years you’d go.
Vincent gave me the puppy to hold on the way home, and he and Matteo had chosen a name by the time we’d left the town of Stittsville behind. I cuddled little Musket in his cozy blanket while Matteo held Charles’ as-yet-unnamed female pup. The sun sparkled off the powdery snow as we drove home with our tiny bundles of potential.
Let it be known that Nic Walker never shies away from an adventure.
At least it wasn’t a human baby. We still had several months before Matteo’s grandchild made its appearance. Perhaps I could practice my nurturing instincts on Musket so that by the time the baby arrived, I’d be able to handle that situation.
Taylor would flip out when he saw Musket. He’d never expect us to come home with a puppy, and I knew he’d be thrilled. Anticipating the joy he would experience made me happy. I was glad to have another person to help with the training.
It took about forty minutes to get to the apartment. We put the pups down on the snow for a pee before we brought them up. Francine had let us know that, at this age, the puppies would need to do their business every hour or so, and that any excitement or a meal or a big drink of water might speed that up.
I texted Juno to let them know we’d arrived. In a moment, they texted that Charles was busy with some cataloguing in the office, so it was perfect timing.
When they opened the door and saw two puppies, they were understandably confused.
“Hi! Wait a minute. Why are their two? We only need one!” they said, their voice hushed so that Charles wouldn’t hear.
I held up my hand to stop them from panicking.
“This one’s ours,” I said, keeping my voice low, pointing to Musket, who was now in Vincent’s arms. “That one’s yours. It’s a girl.”
Matteo held the female puppy out to Juno.
“But…but you don’t want a dog!”
“I never said that. And we couldn’t just leave him there all alone.” I glanced at the puppy in Vincent’s arms. “And now I’m invested.”
Juno laughed. “Wow. Who knew it would only take a little bundle of fur to conquer the heart of Nic the Great.”
I flipped them the bird while they nuzzled the tiny female puppy.
“Oh my goodness! She’s so cute!” They gathered the puppy to their chest and cooed at her. “Charles will be thrilled!”
“I should hope so for the amount of money we just spent,” I said, pretending to be offended. “Anyway, Francine assured us she’s black and silver, like you wanted.”
“She’s adorable. Charles is going to shit himself.”
“Great. Not literally, I hope. Something tells me we’ll be dealing with all the shit we can handle in a little while.”
“Har-har,” Juno said, approaching the closed bedroom door.
“Charles, would you come out here, please? Nic’s here with Vincent and Matteo. They brought something for you.”
“It’s from Juno,” I called out, “but we’re delivering it.”
We exchanged secret smiles and tried to keep the puppies quiet while we waited for Charles. The pups had fallen asleep in the car but now were awake and wriggly.
Vincent made faces at Musket, who kept licking him. Juno snuggled the female pup under their chin, which seemed to calm her.
“Wait a second. It’s not going to pee on me, is it?” Juno said.
“No, they both had a pee on the front lawn before we came up,” I said.
“Oh, thank God.”
“You know you’re going to have to take her out to pee every hour for the first couple of weeks, right?”
“Well, I’m hoping Charles will want to do all that.”
