Chapter 28
Chapter Twenty-Eight
It was a beautiful sunny day in June, and Daisy was wearing a navy-blue T-shirt dress and a pair of bright white sneakers.
Elliot wanted to comment on the color change, but he decided against it.
Maybe she didn’t want to explain why she’d re-incorporated color back into her wardrobe.
Maybe he wanted to pretend it was because of him.
She’d certainly made the color come back into his life.
They were walking down Main Street after a quick stop at the café. Daisy had an alarmingly large iced coffee in one hand and her great-aunt’s diary in the other. She was filling Elliot in on the latest events from the diary. Her excited voice floated on the warm, early summer air.
‘So, Aunt D has finally stopped refusing Nathan, who she now calls Nate, did I tell you that?’
Elliot shook his head as he sipped his smoothie. She hadn’t told him that yet, but she’d told him lots of other things. They were back to hanging out together, and he’d seen her nearly every day over the past two weeks.
And it was absurd how glad he was. How much he had missed her.
How much he liked her.
Neither of them had mentioned fake-dating again, and they certainly hadn’t mentioned real dating. Apparently, they were just going to spend a lot of time together and let the townsfolk call it what they wanted.
Last he heard, the book club had declared them this summer’s couple to watch. Ominous, to say the least.
‘Okay, well, she calls him Nate now, which I think is really cute. And they’re going to a town dance together on the weekend!
’ She said it as though it were all happening right now as she read it, and not a hundred years ago.
He’d be lying if he said her newfound interest in history didn’t delight him.
‘We should bring back town dances,’ she concluded, taking a big sip of coffee.
She looked so damn cute when she was excited that Elliot had to remind himself to stop staring and respond.
‘If any place could bring back town dances, it would be Dream Harbor.’
Daisy laughed. ‘You’re probably right. I shouldn’t say it too close to a town meeting or it will end up happening.’
‘And you’ll get roped in to the planning committee.’
‘That’s true… Oh, my goodness, puppies—’ Daisy stopped abruptly in front of The Second Chance pet shop.
Elliot stopped, too, and couldn’t help but agree with Daisy’s squealed delight.
Those were some darn cute puppies, all golden and soft, with black noses and pink tongues lolling out of their mouths.
‘Look at those little balls of fluff! They are adorable!’ Daisy went on, her hands pressed to the glass as they watched the wriggling pile of puppies stumble over each other to get to the window.
‘We have to go in!’ She was tugging Elliot by the hand into the pet shop before he could protest, but why would he?
He was always down to pet some puppies. And frankly, at this point, he would pet an alligator if Daisy was the one asking him to.
Once inside, the barking and yipping of the puppies nearly drowned out Daisy’s cooing and laughing. She leaned right over the gated area and was petting each puppy as they fell all over themselves to get to her. Elliot knew the feeling well.
There was one little puppy that couldn’t seem to get into the mix.
Too tiny to keep up with its siblings, the runt of the litter kept getting pushed aside.
Elliot decided to give this puppy some love.
He scooped her up and held her in his arms, scratching right between the ears. The puppy immediately fell asleep.
He looked up from petting his new little friend and found Daisy staring at him.
Not just staring. Daisy looked like she may jump him.
Even more than she had when he was talking about census forms at the library or when he’d suggested they spend an afternoon at the bookstore—or any number of other times during the past two weeks when their gazes had snagged or their hands had touched.
They may have not been talking about the parameters of their relationship, but their bodies certainly seemed to have some ideas.
Maybe he needed to hold cute things more often. First Owen, and now this puppy. Did other men know this? That if they hold babies, women melt on the spot?
‘She loves you,’ she whispered, her eyes tearing up. ‘That little puppy loves you!’
‘I just … she couldn’t … keep up with the others…’ Her reaction had him completely flustered.
Daisy’s tears were threatening to spill over, and Elliot was at a loss as to what his next move should be when one of the owners of the shop, Shawn, emerged from the back.
He and his husband Greg were two older gentlemen who had initially struck Elliot as more urban and sophisticated than you would expect for a small town, like they should be running a boutique in New York and not a pet-rescue shop in Dream Harbor.
But then he met them and realized they fit right in.
‘Hi, Daisy. Hi, Elliot. I see you’ve met our latest guests.
’ Guests like the puppies had checked into a luxury hotel. Elliot smiled.
‘Where did they come from?’ Daisy asked, her eyes still on Elliot. His cheeks heated under her stare.
‘They were found abandoned under a car, actually.’
‘No!’ Daisy gasped, turning back to Shawn. ‘That’s terrible. Who would just leave these babies like that?’
He patted her gently on the shoulder. ‘They’re safe with us now and it won’t be long until they’re all adopted. In fact, a few of these guys are already on hold for several families that saw them on our socials.’
Daisy pressed a hand to her chest in relief. ‘I love that you do pet rescues here.’
‘Me, too,’ Shawn said with a smile. ‘And I see you’ve bonded with the littlest member of the family,’ he said to Elliot. ‘Isn’t she sweet?’
‘The sweetest,’ Daisy sighed.
‘Are you looking to adopt?’
‘I’m not sure if I can…’ Elliot looked down at the little ball of fur in his arms, and he wanted to cry. Sam had been even smaller when he and Leigh got him and used to sleep just like this, curled up in Elliot’s arms. God, he missed that dog.
Was he ready to have a new one?
Could he find the space to love a new furry friend?
‘What about you, Daisy?’ Shawn asked and now Daisy looked like she might cry again.
‘I would love to, I just don’t have the room at the moment.’ Her brow furrowed like she was thinking about whether she could fit a dog larger than a teacup poodle in that apartment of hers. She definitely couldn’t. ‘They’re going to get big, aren’t they?’
Shawn nodded. ‘We think they’re at least part golden retriever, so yeah, pretty big.’
He smiled at the two of them, clearly not wanting to pressure them into anything. ‘If you change your mind, you know where to find us.’
Daisy looked at Elliot. Elliot looked at Daisy. The puppy sighed in her sleep.
‘I’ll take her,’ he said.
Daisy clapped her hands in delight.
Shawn smiled wider. ‘Okay, let’s get that paperwork done.’
And just like that, Elliot was a dog-dad again.
* * *
‘How about Buttercup?’ Daisy suggested.
Elliot shook his head. ‘Maybe Mustard?’
Daisy wrinkled her nose. ‘Mustard is not a name.’
‘And Buttercup is?’ he asked with a laugh, rubbing the puppy’s belly as she rolled over. The three of them were sitting on the floor of the flower shop four days after Elliot signed the adoption papers. He had just picked her up and obviously Daisy’s was the first stop they made.
He was already so in love with the little dog.
Daisy gasped. ‘Have you not seen The Princess Bride? Of course, Buttercup is a name.’
‘Sure, a name for a princess. Not for a dog.’
‘Are you saying this sweet girl is not a princess?’ Daisy laughed. The puppy had crawled into her lap and was already dozing off. ‘Sleeping beauty, maybe.’
‘Shawn says it’s normal for puppies to be sleepy at first, just like human babies.’
‘Makes sense. How about Sunny?’
They were sitting with their backs against the counter.
Their arms pressed together when he reached over to pet the puppy.
Like every other time they touched, Elliot wanted more.
He was glad he and Daisy were back to being friends, but his body was having a hard time remembering the just friends part.
‘That could work.’ He ran his fingers through the puppy’s soft fur, and Daisy rested her head on his shoulder. It was the best moment of his week, and he soaked it in. Work had been nothing but chaos and sitting here in the quiet sunshine of Daisy’s shop with a snoring puppy was the perfect break.
‘What about Marigold,’ he murmured.
‘I like that. You could call her Goldie.’
‘Perfect,’ Elliot agreed as they settled back into silence.
The shop was bursting with color, summer bouquets filling the racks.
Yellows, pinks and oranges, tied together by Daisy’s expert hands.
In the window hung green vines and ferns and spider plants.
When his mom went back home, he kept the philodendron he’d bought on that first visit to the shop.
He thought of Daisy every time he looked at it.
Although that wasn’t saying much, because he thought of Daisy all the time.
Sunshine filtered in through the windows between the leaves, and Elliot knew it was this perfect golden moment he would think of when he called Goldie’s name, not the color of her fur.
‘Oh!’ Daisy said after a few more minutes of quiet. ‘I thought we could read some diary pages. Before you have to go.’
‘Sure.’ Daisy passed him Goldie, who barely opened an eye at the disruption, and got up to grab the book.
They still didn’t know what had happened between Nathan and Aunt D, but Elliot noticed that Daisy had slowed down her reading, like she didn’t want to get to the part where it all went wrong. It was as though, if she didn’t read it, she could protect her great-aunt from heartbreak.