Valentino glanced over at me, a mischievous glimmer in his eye. “Probably should’ve cleared dessert with you first. But I’m the dad. I can spoil my little girl every now and again, right?”
Hearing him refer to Maddie as “his little girl” for the first time was like nothing else.
“You’re allowed to give her ice cream, of course. It’s more this surprise that I'm curious about.”
“Then you’re going to have to wait and see. Not a chance I’m going to spoil it for you.”
We headed across the sidewalk, arriving at his front door moments later.
“One more thing,” he said, turning around. “There’s a spare key underneath this pot here.” He placed his hand on the stone rim of one of the big, fern-filled pots on either side of the front door. “Just reach under it and you’ll find it in a little metal box. You hear that, Mads? If you ever get locked out of your house or anything, just come on over.”
She gave a thumbs up in the middle of petting Mick.
It felt good to hear him say that. The offer of a spare key was like our households were merging in a way, and it felt right and natural.
He opened the front door, Mick blasting past us and running into the kitchen. Across the span of the house we could still hear him chomping eagerly on his dog food.
“What’s the surprise?” Maddie asked.
“Come here, I'll show you.”
She reached up and offered her hand to him, Valentino taking it with a big smile on his face as he led her up the stairs to the second floor. Mick joined us when he heard us heading upstairs, his paws plodding up the steps behind the group.
We arrived at one of the doors on the second floor. It was closed, and before entering, Valentino dropped into a squat in front of Maddie.
“Now, I know you already have a room. But I figured that if you and your mom ever wanted to stay the night, like tonight, it’d be nice for you to have your own space, right?”
“Right!”
He nodded toward the door. “Go ahead and open it—it's all yours.”
Maddie turned back to me with an expression of total excitement.
“Go for it,” I said, fighting back happy tears.
She reached up on her little feet and turned the knob. Behind the door revealed something so amazing I couldn’t help but gasp.
It was a room for Maddie, alright—a room unlike anything I’d seen before.
The space was huge, as big as my master bedroom, with a twin set of bay windows that looked out over the backyard and garden, little pillows on the bottom for seating. There was a four-post bed shrouded in translucent white. A set of matching pink and white furniture furnished the space.
That was all nice, of course. But it was the décor thatreallycaught the eye.
It was alldogs—like, everywhere you looked dogs. The painting theme was that of a dog park, with a bright blue sky, white, fluffy clouds, and tons and tons of dogs all playing in the grass and near the trees. There were dogs of every kind. There was even one that looked like Mick.
“Oh mygosh!” she shouted, running around the room and taking it all in with eager eyes. “This is so cute!” Maddie rushed over to the bed and climbed onto it, grabbing one of the stuffed dogs on the pillow and hugging it tight.
“You like it?” Valentino asked.
“I love it more than anything! Except for Mick! Oh, and you guys too!”
We both laughed. “We’re bringing up the rear,” Valentino said. “But I’ll take it.”
“Mads, why don’t you say thank you to Dr. V.?”
Maddie rolled off the bed and came over, throwing her arms around Valentino’s legs.
“Thank you so much, Dr. V. I love it.”
