Benson laughed and called the car. “I’m going to need to ask the hotel if we can take them there.”
“Wait now, there’s a couple of days where we check on you, and all that. Come fill out the papers, and then we can let you have the dogs in a room to get to know them. You can take them for a walk too, being it’s a nice day.”
Luka nodded hard. “We’ll do whatever. My boyfriend…I mean, my fiancé, he’s loaded.”
She looked surprised only for a moment before she laughed. “Well, okay then.”
“Luka, I swear.”
She led them to a room, and soon the dogs were there with them. As Luka pet them both, talking to them, Benson watched. Again, his love for Luka growing.
“You’re both good dogs and we promise we’ll give you a good home. You’ll never be hungry, and we can take you to the vet, and you’ll have dog beds and the best food, the best of everything.” Luka looked over to Benson. “Right?”
“Right! I always wanted a dog, Luka. We couldn’t afford one, and I think I’m seeing that you went through the same.”
“Yeah. I wanted one so bad. But they are expensive. Mom was right, of course, but I hated her for it. I thought she was being so mean.”
“Well, I didn’t know either. I was pretty angry for years too.”
“Well, we can have them now.”
“Yes, we sure can.”
They spent the day with the dogs, and Benson filled out more paperwork than he remembered doing when he made hiscompany, but he was glad of it. He was happy that the dogs were assured good homes.
As they were saying goodbye to the dogs, Anne, the head of the shelter, came to them and told them, “Your references checked out. The dogs are yours if you can let us know where they will be living.”
That was when they stopped, and Luka squirmed. “We live in New York right now, but we’re moving here this summer.”
“Yes, Luka’s right. We have some business to handle there, but then we’ll be here for most of the year from now on. Can we take them back home with us?”
“Oh! Sure, yes, but when you get here, we’ll need to do a home visit. I can send someone from a sister agency to go to your place in New York, but here, I’d just like to see for myself.”
Luka nodded and said, “Not my place, I can’t have pets, but Benson lives in this amazing penthouse, and he can surely have pets.”
“It’s mine, so of course, I can, and I’ll hire a dog sitter when we’re both at work.”
“A dog sitter for…every day?”
“Yes. I don’t want them to ever be lonely,” Benson reasoned.
Margaret was shocked. “Well, yes, that’s…that’s great, but you know a lot of dogs are left home while their humans work, right?”
“These are our dogs. These are Luka’s dogs. I just assured him they’d be treated like kings, and that is what will happen.”
Luka beamed up at him as he was on his knees again, petting both dogs. “Did you hear that? Perfect timing for Christmas, Benson’s got himself three kings, and we’re going to be so spoiled.”
“Yes. You will.”
Chapter Seventeen
SinceLukahadbulldozedhis surprise proposal, he had to think of another way to gift him the rings he’d gotten. Giving them to Luka just willy-nilly was not happening. The entire trip was planned to keep Luka smiling the entire time, and so far, it was working.
Remembering that face when he first met him at the cast party, the frown that seemed permanently set on those pretty lips. It broke his heart to see it. Someone with so much beauty, with so much of a glow of life, to be so set in his tunnel vision he couldn’t lose the frown.
Benson had vowed then to make him happy. Benson knew he’d use every dime he’d ever made to do it, but he also knew it was so much more than that. Sure, money was important to people with poverty trauma, but so was time.
He knew he had little time with his mother. He didn’t have time to do things with friends, so set on studying to get out of poverty. He also knew it was the same for Luka. Giving up the daily running of his business was part of it, giving Luka time.
