There better be a whatever numbered wonder of the world where we were headed.
It was Christmas Eve!I thought again.It wasn’t like much was happening today.
When Rory pulled onto a dirt road, I started to get nervous.What in the ever loving world…?
Down the gravel and dirt road, we bumped along in his truck, but still he said nothing.
The asshat had a shit-eating grin on his face, though.
When he pulled into a driveway leading up to an older farm house, I really began to frown.What was happening?
He put the truck in park and tapped the middle console between our seats.“Get out.”
I unbuckled as he did, slowly stepping down and out of the truck.“What’s going on, Rory?”
He rounded the front of truck and stepped closer to me, holding out his hand.“C’mon,” he said instead of answering.
…and because after the last two years, more notably the last few months, Ididtrust him, I went with him.We walked past the house and toward the back, where young crying was happening.
But it wasn’t a baby’s cry.
It was…
I stopped in my tracks, pulling on Rory’s hand when he kept walking.With the shit-eating grin still on his face, he turned back to me.“Hmm?”
“I thought we were getting the puppy for the kids after my parents’ house tonight,” I said slowly.
“Who said anything about a puppy?”he asked, still trying to play coy.
He tugged on my hand and again, I followed him to the very back, where a woman was waiting with an adult Golden Retriever, and a puppy in her arms.
“I’m glad you made it,” the woman said, addressing Rory.“She’s the last one and she’s been waiting for you.”
Rory brought me close to the puppy holding woman.“We had a later start this morning than I anticipated,” he answered.He let go of my hand and I let my arm drop to my side.I watched as he reached out and took the dark golden mass of wavy hair from the woman.Awe struck, I simply watched as Rory cradled the puppy in his arms after lifting it, eye to eye, and having some sort of silent communication with the pup.
With the puppy in a football hold, Rory scratched the puppy’s head while having a conversation with the dog’s owner but I was stuck staring at the puppy.I’d seen Rory with his nephew and niece.Multiple times.But even cradling a puppy, he made my heart go all aflutter.Mix that with our baby conversation earlier and I couldn’t wait for school to finish.
When Rory told me the other night about the puppy for Con and Mia’s kids, he said we’d pick it up after my parents’ Christmas celebration.We were still a good hour from their house, and they were only twenty minutes for Con and Mia.There would have been no logical way we would have back-tracked to pick up a puppy for the kids.
Which meant…
Just as my smile started to bloom on my face at the thought, Rory turned toward me.“You want to hold her?”he asked, holding the puppy out toward me.Seeing it’s mama was a Golden but this puppy had some curliness going on, my guess would be it was a Golden Doodle.
“Yeah, sure,” I finally said, holding my hands out.Rory handed me the puppy gently and I saw that on the back of its neck—herneck; she had no little boy parts and the lady did say ‘she’ a little bit ago—was a tiny red Christmas bow with a little note attached.
I was curious to see what it said, but I could feel Rory’s eyes on me so I refrained, instead choosing to cuddle the fluff ball close to my neck.She nuzzled her nose into my neck and the cold of her nose near a sensitive spot had me giggling.
“Thank you, Meridith,” I heard Rory tell the woman and he turned back toward me, putting his hand on the small of my back and turning me back toward the truck.
He took the puppy from me to allow me to climb into the truck, handing her back to me after I secured my belt.He quickly jogged around and got in, too, buckling as well before nodding toward the puppy.“What’s her note say?”
He took his keys and stuck the one in the ignition, cranking the truck back to life.
I pretended to not hear him, instead continuing to cuddle the puppy and rub under her chin.She stretched her neck, offering me more to scratch and closing her eyes in bliss as I did.She had a cute white patch in the middle of her chest, and her little chin was much lighter than the darker color of the rest of her fur.
“She’s so cute,” I finally said as the puppy sighed and curled into my lap.“Will she be ok not in a crate?”I looked over at Rory, who was now pulling the truck back on to the main dirt road.
Just as I ignored his question, he ignored mine.“What’s the note say?”
