Chapter 16
Noah
In my brother’s waiting room, I paced like a madman. I’ve always loved animals, but my adult life just wasn’t built for having a pet. I traveled constantly. Spent long days on set filming. And I enjoyed my nights out. Coveted them, even.
And yet, one look into those sweet, brown eyes and I was a goner. This puppy was meant to find me, I just knew it.
“Could you please sit down? Your pacing is making me nervous,” Rosa said, eyeing me from where she sat in the corner, flipping through a magazine that was easily six months old. I made a mental note to order Steve some new magazine subscriptions for the office.
Huffing a sigh, I lowered myself to sit beside her, my knee bouncing involuntarily. “Is it normal that they take a dog away into the back for this long?” I asked. “I thought they usually do the appointment with the parents.”
“Is that what you are now? A pet parent?” Steve’s voice behind us startled me and I launched to my feet, this time Rosa following me, standing too.
“And to answer your question, I do initial exams with the owners, but if we’re doing anything more invasive, we bring the animals to the back private area.
A lot of parents get squeamish when we give shots, sutures, or reset bones… like your little guy needed us to do.”
My little guy . My heart fluttered at the sound of that.
Rosa winced. “You needed to reset his bones?”
Steve nodded. “Just one on his broken leg. We sedated him for it, which is why we’ve had him back there for so long.
He’s just waking up now and Amanda is back there finishing up his fluids.
He’s lucky you found him when you did. He was incredibly malnourished and dehydrated.
If we hadn’t reset that bone soon, he probably would have lost his leg entirely.
There was a pretty gnarly infection settling in. ”
I looked back at the closed door separating me from the puppy, something inside my chest twisting at the thought. “How old do you think he is?”
Steve thought for a moment, “Based on his dentals, maybe five months old?”
Awkward silence settled between us and I shoved my hands in my pocket.
My brothers and I never did get along. Cam was always slightly kinder than Steve, but I always managed to disappoint them both in different ways.
“A family of ducks had adopted him,” I blurted out. “Will he, uh, I dunno, miss them?”
“Miss them?” Steve repeated.
I shrugged, looking down at my leather dress shoes, scuffing them across his tiled floor. “Yeah. Like, do I need to get a blanket that smells like ducks or anything so he feels more at home? Will the ducks send out a search party and attack me and Rosa?”
When I lifted my gaze to his, humor twinkled in Steve’s eyes “I think you’re safe from a gang of ducks shaking you down for custody.” Steve paused, eyeing me carefully. “Does this mean you plan on keeping him?”
“Yes,” I answered quickly.
Steve’s gaze darted to Rosa. “Do you both feel that way? Adopting a dog is a family commitment, so both you and your wife need to be on board.”
Aw, hell. It didn’t even occur to me to check with Rosa. I shifted a glance at her and she gave me a warm smile as Steve continued to talk. “If not, Yvonne’s rescue would be happy to?—”
“I think a puppy is just what our marriage needs, don’t you, sweetums?”
Sweetums? I would have pulled a face at the new nickname except that I was so relieved she agreed to the dog. Fake marriage or not, I wouldn’t do it if she didn’t also want to adopt him. But I would make damn well sure he found a good home.
I gathered her in my arms, her soft curves melting against me. Pressing my lips to her ear, I whispered, “Sweetums?”
Her answering giggle had me digging my fingers playfully into her ribs causing her to squirm her tight little body against mine. “Noah!” she gasped through her laughter. “Stop!”
“Special delivery!” The bell overtop of the door jangled as Yvonne, Steve’s fiance, entered with bags of pet supplies in her arms. Steve and I both hurried over to help her and I took a large bag of puppy kibble from her arms. “I heard I might have a new little pup to bring to my rescue.”
“Actually,” Steve said, pausing briefly to press a kiss to Yvonne’s temple, “Noah and Rosa are going to adopt him.”
“Really?” Blinking in shock, Yvonne’s wide gaze turned to me. “Marriage and a puppy?”
“Big weekend for you two,” Steve echoed her.
Rosa shyly tucked her curly dark hair behind her ear. “Yeah. If you’re going to be a bear, might as well be a grizzly, right?”
Unlike Steve, Yvonne didn’t hide her emotions.
Her wide grin split her face and she launched forward, hugging both me and Rosa.
“You won’t regret saving him,” she said.
“Puppies are hard, but he’s going to love you.
” She paused, holding up the bags of puppy things. “I guess these are for you, then!”
“I usually keep a dog overnight with me at my house for the first night when they’ve had trauma like this,” Steve started to say, “But I think he’ll be fine to go home with you tonight. I do want to hold him until he urinates, though.”
“Why don’t you come over tonight? You can come get the puppy from our house this evening and that’ll give Steve time to ensure he’s well enough to go home with you.
” Yvonne grinned and it was like a beam of light radiating from her smile.
Unlike my brother who only sported a small smirk on the best of days, she seemed to grin with every cell in her body.
“It’s Steve’s turn to host the game night,” she added.
I slid my gaze to my brother, popping a skeptical eyebrow at him. “Game night?”
Playfully he rolled his eyes, and sliding an arm around Yvonne’s waist, he tugged her closer to him. “It used to be poker night. Then we all found partners… and poker night turned into board game night.”
“Sometimes it’s football night!” Yvonne added, poking Steve in the cheek.
What was happening? Was this smiling, joking man in front of me really my grumpy, asshole brother? He was like a completely different person now that Yvonne had gotten her hooks into him.
Rosa jabbed her elbow gently into my ribs.
“Well we do have about twenty cupcakes,” she said, angling her chin to the box of mostly untouched cupcakes.
I’d almost forgotten all about them… and the photos taken of us at Beefcakes.
It seems like this puppy may have saved me and Rosa from a knockout fight, ending this marriage before it ever really began.
I had a lot to thank that pup for.
“Don’t let Lex see those Beefcakes cupcakes,” Steve said. “They nearly put him out of business.”
“Really?” Rosa asked, her eyes going wide.
Yvonne smacked the back of her hand to Steve’s chest. “He’s being dramatic.
It was a little touch and go there for a while, but Neil, Liam, and Lex had a meeting early on and Lex decided to not bake cupcakes and specialty cakes and Neil and Liam don’t sell pies or pastries. They each found their niche.”
That sounded more like the Maple Grove I knew and grew up in. Drama didn’t really settle here for long. “Lex and Ronnie are coming? Who else will be there tonight?” I asked. A game night at my brother’s house could be a recipe for disaster, depending on the guest list.
“The usual suspects,” he said. “Mom, Callie, Lex, Ronnie, Amanda, Kandi, Cam, and Lydia.”
“So… the whole family?”
Steve nodded. “If you come, then yes.”
Great. Just great.
Rosa squeezed my hand. “We’ll be there.”