“A summer fling,” I insisted.
“Fine, if that’s what you want to call it,” she said. “But I’m not sixteen anymore. I’m not going to run off without a goodbye this time. And I’m not giving up on us without a fight either.”
23
Phoebe
“Hi,” I said, not recognizing the soft, silly voice that came from my mouth.
Elizabeth the puppy squinted at me out of baby-blue eyes. She was the firstborn, the biggest, and now, the first puppy to open her eyes. I had definitely named her accurately, because she was a queen in the making. Right now, I held her on my knees, stroking her soft fur as I let her get her first good look at me.
“What do you think?” I asked the puppy. “How’s life treating you so far?”
She blinked at me, looking bored at best. I was never quite sure what to say to them, but Taylor said it was important to get them used to the sound of my voice and that I should hold them regularly to get them used to that too.
At two weeks old, Elizabeth had almost doubled her birth weight, and now that her eyes were open, she looked so much more grown up. Suddenly, I could envision her—and the rest of the puppies—barreling around the house and getting into all kinds of trouble. For now, they only crawled around their playpen, but things would change soon, probably before I was ready for them to.
That seemed like a pretty good metaphor for my life right now, actually.
After spending a few minutes with Elizabeth, I weighed her and put her back in the pen, then repeated the process with the other three puppies. While I played with them, I texted back and forth with Courtney and Emily, the way we did most days since I’d been in Vermont and couldn’t see them in person. I’d just finished weighing Cherry—who was still the smallest—when I heard Taylor knocking at the front door.
With a smile, I kissed the puppy on her little pink nose and set her back in the pen before rushing down the hall to greet Taylor. She’d come over after work every day this week, although she usually stopped at home first to drop off her dogs. It really would be easier if she could just bring them with her.
“Hey,” I said as I opened the door, greeting her with a kiss.
“Hi.” She stepped inside, bending to greet Violet, who’d joined us at the door, barking and wagging her tail. “Mm, it smells good in here.”
“I put a roast in the crockpot this morning,” I told her. “I’ve been hungry all day, smelling it while it cooked.”
“I bet,” she said. “How are the puppers?”
“Big. Oh, and Elizabeth’s eyes opened.”
“Aw.” Taylor headed toward the bedroom to see for herself while I took the roast out of the crockpot.
It practically fell apart beneath my carving knife as I sliced it. I prepared two plates with beef, turnips, and potatoes and had just placed them on the table when Taylor came back down the hall.
“She’s adorable with those little blue eyes,” she said.
“Will they stay that blue?” I asked.
“Probably not,” she said as she sat in the chair opposite mine. “They’ll probably be brown like Violet’s.”
We dug into our food, falling silent for a few minutes while we ate.
“How do you feel about coming over to my place tomorrow night?” Taylor asked.
“Sure,” I said. “Before V and V, you mean?” I wasn’t performing this week, but she and I had made plans to go together anyway, like she did every Friday night.
She nodded. “I thought I could cook for us for a change before we go out, since Holly’s going to stop by and check on Violet for you.”
“I would feel bad about asking her to do that,” I said, “but I’ve seen the way she looks at those puppies. She’s totally smitten.”
“Actually, it’s more than that,” Taylor said. “Remember how I told you about her senior dog who’d gotten too grumpy to let her foster anymore?”
I had a feeling this story was about to take a sad turn. “Yeah.”
“Well, she found out last week that Candy has metastatic lung cancer.”