Chapter 53
“You’re doing a lot better than I expected.”
Allie was rocking Biscuit like a baby, tears painting her cheeks. “I don’t want them to be upset that they’re leaving.”
“You’ve done an amazing job at getting them acquainted with their new parents.”
She had found adopters for our remaining three fosters within a week of Prince going home, and had brought them regularly to her office so they could be socialized and their future parents could get to know them. The upside was that her office was becoming more dog-friendly by the moment. Her boss had taken one look at Boo and inquired about adoption.
“I love that I’m still gonna get to see them sometimes. I can’t believe that they went from being jelly beans to actual dogs in such a short time.” She kissed Biscuit’s nose. “You didn’t even have your eyes open when I met you.”
Everyone was coming to pick up the fosters today to go to their forever homes and then we’d leave for dinner with my family, which would hopefully be a decent distraction. I sat down next to her, Boo and Banjo scampering over to get attention from me. They were all so sweet. I loved being able to see their personalities emerge and watch them grow into confident pups. Allie could expose any babies we fostered to a whole new group of potential parents and the rescue was thrilled that we had found successful applicants so quickly.
“The rescue wants to know when we might be interested in more fosters.”
Allie sighed softly and reached out a hand to stroke down Boo’s back. “If there’s an emergency one, we can take them, but I think I need a couple of days to emotionally recover from my soon-to-be empty nest. I know I would probably feel better if I had the immediate distraction of more babies, but I don’t want to ever get to the point that I’m just trying to replace the babies we just gave up. I’ll take a couple days to grieve and then we can help some more.”
I kissed at the top of her head, resting my cheek against her hair. “That’s completely fair. I’m really proud of you.”
“Really?” Allie sniffled.
“Absolutely. You took the fostering like a pro.” The doorbell rang and I settled Boo and Banjo onto Allie’s lap. “First parents are here.”
“Puppy thieves.”
I smiled gently at her and smoothed my hand over her hair as I stood. The first to arrive was her boss. I let Allie have a few extra minutes with the puppies while I went over everything with him and got Boo’s puppy harness on him for the ride home.
“Hey there, little man.” Allie’s boss grinned and scratched behind Boo’s ears. He glanced at Allie’s shiny eyes. “You won’t even have time to miss him. The office is going to be way less lonely with my new buddy.”
“I’m glad.” Allie smiled, scooping up Biscuit and Banjo and holding them close to her chest. “The box has all of his favorite toys, a package of his favorite treats, some of his regular food, and a USB of every baby picture we have.”
“That’s such a great idea. I adopted my last dog forever ago and always wished that I had some pictures of her when she was young.”
By the time all of the puppies were picked up and gone home, I was close to tears myself. Allie pressed her face to my chest and broke out sobbing. I held her while she cried, letting a few of my own tears slip free.
“I’m so happy they have homes, but I’m going to miss them so much.”
“I know. It’s hard even when you know what you’re doing is right. We have a bit of time before dinner. Did you want to have a bath?”
“A bath sounds amazing.”
I got the water running with some bubble bath and fixed her up a peach sweet tea and a water so she could rehydrate after all of her tears. We spent a peaceful hour soaking before we finally had to extract ourselves to head over to my parents.
“Feeling better?”
“A bit less raw,” she replied. “You?”
“A lot better. Should we get some strawberries and cream for dessert on the way?”
“Never going to say no to a treat.”
Allie was a bit quieter than I’d have liked through dinner, but just like I had hoped, by the time the games were brought out, she was bright and steady again.
Nicky mopped the floor with all of us at Scrabble, clinching the final score by somehow making four words out of eye and hitting a triple word score. She raised her arms victoriously. “It’s so nice playing with someone who’s actually a challenge.”
Allie laughed. “I think you might have an unfair advantage being a librarian. Words are your entire life.”
“You’re not wrong.” Nicky sipped her Italian soda. “Another round?”
“Can we play something I might have a chance of winning?” Luca asked.
“What’s your game of choice, Luca?” Allie asked.
“Trivia?”
“We missed yesterday’s episode of Jeopardy,” said Mr. Marino, “but we recorded it. We could use that?”
“Sounds perfect,” Allie agreed.
It was a continued relief to me that my family liked her and that she liked them in return. The four of them acted like she had been here all along, or maybe it was more like they anticipated her being here forever. Either way, it settled a piece in my soul that she fit so well with the people I loved best.
We paired into teams for Jeopardy, but this time we drew our partners out of a hat, which paired me with Mom, Nicky with Dad, and Allie with Luca. We never used money, and instead simply created a point system based off of the value of the question without all the extra zeros.
I rarely won at game night, so I supposed it was a good thing that I got just as much satisfaction out of seeing my mate and family being happy with their own wins. Mom won even less often, but I was never entirely sure if that was a leftover from letting us win as children, or if she was really just that bad at games.
Watching Allie and Luca collaborate was a treat. I didn’t even care about trying to win because their high-fives and Allie’s shrieks of delight when they claimed points was more than enough entertainment. The two of them beat Dad and Nicky by one point.
“Team Allie and Luca!” My mate and brother double high-fived, both of their faces lit up by thousand-watt smiles. “High-fives all around,” Allie insisted. “You were all very worthy opponents.”
She was too cute. I was the last to get my high-fives and used the opportunity to pull her onto my lap, where she collapsed into laughter.
“I know it wasn’t entirely on purpose,” said Nicky, “but I’m really glad to have you in the family.”
“Seconded!” Luca raised his glass with a grin. “Best sister-in-law ever.”
I could see the gleam in Mom’s eyes, see her desire to ask about a wedding, but I shook my head, and though she pouted, she didn’t say anything about it. There was no rush. We could plan that event anytime, but I wanted to know with absolute surety that Allie was ready for that step. Even so, it hadn’t stopped me from buying a ring and hiding it away after we’d confessed our love to one another.
That red stone was going to look delicious on her finger, with her hand around my throat, and those red-soled shoes pressed against my chest.
Allie’s eyes gleamed as my cock stirred beneath her, and I walked through a mental list of every unsexy thing I could think of so that it would be calm before any of my family noticed. Allie chattered away, showing off pictures of all of the puppies going home with their new parents.
“I feel like I would cry like a baby,” said Nicky. “I raised Spud from the time he was a little potato, and I couldn’t imagine giving him to anyone else to live with.”
“To be fair, that’s because you thought of Spud as yours from the moment you saw him,” I explained. “It’s a bit different when you know you’re raising them to live somewhere else in a matter of weeks.”
“I guess you’re right,” replied Nicky. “Still, I applaud the dedication. I would keep every single baby that came my way.”
“I definitely thought about it,” Allie said with a laugh.
By the time we were ready to head home, I felt considerably lighter, and Allie looked like some of the weight of loss had fallen from her shoulders as well. It lasted until we got home and were met with complete silence.
“Can we sleep at my apartment tonight?”
“Absolutely.” I had a good amount of supplies over there already, but I packed a fresh change of clothes for work, grabbed a couple things out of the fridge for breakfast, and we made the short trip over.
She snuggled down in her nest and beckoned me over, purring contentedly when I wrapped around her. “I love you.” Allie burrowed her face against me.
“I love you too, kitten.”
“I think I’m going to take tomorrow off.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. I have a few personal days I can use. I think I need to decompress after the babies, and I can catch up on my snacking.”
I fucking loved this woman a painful amount. Maybe it was too soon, but I made a mental note to run an errand over lunch tomorrow. “I’ll bring you home a surprise.”
“I love surprises. Maybe I’ll have one for you too.”
I tipped her chin up and kissed her softly. “I can’t wait.”