Epilogue
Six months later…
“Buster, for God’s sake, what are you eating now?”
I smiled against the pillow as Julia’s irritated voice penetrated my sleepy state.
“Mama’s going to kill you Buster, and I won’t be able to save you.”
With a groan I rolled out of bed and followed my fiancée’s voice. “What’s my sweet fur baby doing?”
We’d been living together for two months when we found Buster through a local rescue. The dog had doubled in size since we got him, but now that he was close to a year old he supposedly was going to stop growing. Supposedly. So far he showed no sign of stopping.
Julia was on her knees in the living room playing tug of war with our dog and what looked like…
“Damn it, is that one of my Doc Martens?”
Buster gave my boot a hard tug, as if he was afraid that I was going to take it away from him. Which I totally was.
“Told you,” Julia sing songed.
Buster gave me his wide-eyed I’m an innocent puppy look. It was a look I was very familiar with after eight weeks of him living with us.
“You had to get a service dog school drop-out, didn’t you?” I sighed as I pried the pup’s jaws apart to rescue my boot.
“It’s not Buster’s fault that he’s spirited,” Julia said. “He’s just a little too hyper to be some boring guide dog.”
Truer words were never spoken. This dog was moving all the time. He’d wake up from a dead sleep and start running like the hounds of hell were chasing him. And if he wasn’t running he was chewing. Buster had a legendary oral fixation.
He was a furry little terror. We loved him though.
“We have dinner with our parents tonight,” I reminded Julia.
Ever since we’d gotten back together Julia’s monthly dinner at her parents’ house had expanded to include me and my parents. It was a bit much, but it also helped our moms feel like they were in the loop and thus keep them off our backs. Mostly.
“Yeah, should we put them out of their misery and tell them we got engaged?”
We’d been engaged for a couple of weeks now, but we’d kept it to ourselves, wanting to have something that was just ours for the time being.
“I think we should,” I said. “Then they’ll stop dropping hints about when we’re getting married and move on to when are we having kids.”
“We have Buster,” Julia said in the sweet voice she used to talk to our dog.
She hugged Buster close and planted a kiss on the top of his head. “You’re enough for us right now, aren’t you baby?”
I swear Buster smiled. Little did he know that we’d already agreed to consider having kids once we hit our two year anniversary.
“Life with you is never going to be boring, is it?” I asked.
“Why would you want boring?” she asked.
I laughed.
“I have no idea.”
***