Which suited him just fine. Too busy to think was the way he operated best.
“Your damn dog needs a name.”
He looked up to see Ryan in the doorway to his office, the dog at his side. She wagged her tail with delight. “She’s got a name. Whenever her owners come to get her, we’ll find out what it is.”
“No one’s coming for this dog,” Ryan said. “You’ve had her over a week, and she looked like she’d been on her own out there for a while before that. So give her a damn name so we can stop calling her ‘the dog.’”
Mark shrugged.
“If you don’t name her, I’ll let Emma do the honors, and you won’t like it.”
“Oh please, can I name her?” Emma pushed her way past Ryan into Mark’s office. She sat cross-legged on the floor, and the dog walked over to lick her face. Emma giggled. “Daisy. Or Poppy. What about Marigold?”
Mark lifted his eyes to Ryan. “She going to name your daughter after a flower too?” Earlier that week, Ryan and Emma had learned they were expecting a baby girl.
Ryan beamed. “Actually, yes. We decided on Lily. Lily Rose.”
Aw hell. Emotion punched Mark hard in the stomach as he imagined Ryan and Emma with their daughter. Lily Rose.
Emma was beaming too. “Flowers make beautiful names, Mark. Don’t knock it.”
“It’s a great name,” he said, and he meant it. It would suit their baby perfectly. Emma owned her own landscape design company. She’d planted every flower here at Off-the-Grid.
“So back to the dog,” Ryan said, “because if I have to call her ‘the dog’ one more time…”
The dog in question lifted her head, looking from Ryan to Emma to Mark, tail wagging.
“Thought she was a bear when I first saw her lurking in the bushes out there,” Mark said.
“Well, she’s obviously not a bear,” Emma said, still rubbing the dog’s head.
“It’d be a funny name for her though,” Ryan commented.
“What? Bear?” Emma frowned at him.
Mark glanced down at the dog, with her big fluffy ears and soft brown eyes. Seemed somehow fitting given how they’d met. “Yeah, I like that. Bear.”
“You guys can’t be serious!” Emma looked outraged. “You realize she’s a girl, right?”
“That makes it funnier,” Ryan said.
“I could stick with ‘the dog,’ if you prefer,” Mark told Emma.
“Men are infuriating,” she said, climbing to her feet. “I have to get to class. See you guys later.”
Mark tuned them out while they kissed and said good-bye. He needed to pack up and head out if he was going to have time to grab supper before coming back here for the haunted zip-line. He looked down at the dog. Bear? Maybe. She lay with her head on her front paws, watching the humans in the room. As soon as Mark stood, she bounced to her feet, ready to follow him. Good damn thing too, since he’d never gotten around to buying her a collar or leash. He’d picked up a bag of dog chow at the supermart, but that was the extent of his dog-related purchases so far.
Suppose Ryan was right and no one was looking for her. What then? Did he leave her at the shelter or keep her?
He didn’t know the answer to that question yet, and until he did, she didn’t need a name. Instead, he led the way out the back door, headed for his SUV. The shelter was already closed for the night so she was still his, at least until tomorrow.
“Hey, do you mind dropping this paperwork off at the spa on your way out?” Ryan asked, poking his head out the door.
“What is it?” Mark asked, doubling back to take the papers.
“A copy of the zoning approval.”
“At least they didn’t give us any BS this time.” Mark took the papers from Ryan.
