“It feels like a moot point when you’re about to leave town.” She stuck her feet back in the water.
“I’m not in a hurry to leave,” I told her.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked.
“It means I’m trying to stay as long as I can. I’d like to see where this thing between us is going. Stop acting like I’ve got one foot out the door.”
“But you do,” she insisted. “Phoebe, if I show you around town as my girlfriend, I’m the one who has to stick around and field the questions about what happened after you’re gone.”
“Fine, then don’t,” I said, harshly enough to make Violet look up at me in surprise. “We’ll just keep hiding out here at the cabin so I can slink back to Boston without your family ever knowing we were together.”
“That’s not what I want,” she said with a frustrated sigh.
“If you want to take me to the wedding as your friend, I’ll go,” I told her. “Because Iamyour friend, or at least I hope I am. I hope I’m more than that too.”
“You’re both,” she said quietly. “Let’s just play it by ear, okay?”
“Fine,” I agreed, but our words buzzed like gnats in the air between us. I wanted more. I suspected she did too, but she was afraid to say so. Could we have more? Or was she smart to keep our relationship under wraps to protect herself after I’d left town?
Beside us, Violet slept on the blanket next to Cherry, who had flopped on her side and passed out in a milk coma, little paws twitching with puppy dreams. I envied the simplicity of her life, despite her dramatic start. Yesterday, she’d gone for a checkup, and the vet was cautiously optimistic that her liver troubles were behind her.
Every morning, Taylor picked up Minnie and went to work at the shelter before bringing Minnie back to her sister’s house so she could come home to me in the evenings, and it was all amazingly good, despite the undercurrent of awkwardness over our future.
“Want to watch a movie tonight?” I hadn’t found much time to sit around and watch movies when I was in Boston. There were a lot of things I hadn’t made time for, like cuddling puppies or singing in a bar or helping a small-town bakery owner figure out where she could cut corners to improve her profit margins and hire the part-time help she desperately needed.
I was calmer and happier now than I’d been in…maybe ever. And Taylor was a big part of my newfound happiness. So was Violet. The puppies weren’t exactly calming, but they did make me smile a lot. And for now, I was doing my best to enjoy every moment and trust that this was all going to work out the way it was meant to.
* * *
On Saturday, I put on a knee-length green dress that I’d brought with me to Vermont and that Taylor assured me was fancy enough for Steven’s wedding. I put my hair up in a twist with a few loose curls to frame my face and did my makeup for maybe the fifth time since I’d been here. I’d gotten used to a more casual lifestyle, and I was discovering that I liked it.
Taylor had spent the morning at her apartment, catching up with Minnie, and had gotten ready there. She’d pick me up in about fifteen minutes, and Holly was coming over to stay with the puppies so they didn’t get into trouble while I was out. Unofficially, she was also picking out which one she wanted to adopt.
I spritzed a little bit of perfume on my wrists and fastened my favorite necklace around my neck. It went perfectly with the low-cut neckline of this dress. Then I slipped into a pair of strappy flats since the ceremony took place in a park and I’d never mastered the art of walking in the grass while wearing heels.
“All right, you guys,” I said as I scooped puppies out of the playpen into the laundry basket that had become their method of transport. A few days ago, Taylor had brought over a larger playpen that we’d set up in the backyard so that they could run around in an enclosed area. Otherwise, they darted off in every direction, and it was impossible to keep my eyes on all of them at once.
I put Sunny, Blaze, and Elizabeth in the basket and brought them out the back door with Violet at my heels. I didn’t need a leash with her while the puppies were outside, because she never strayed far. She’d sit beside the playpen like a watchful mama. Cherry wasn’t allowed to roughhouse with her siblings yet, but her staples came out in a few days, and she’d be allowed to rejoin the fun then.
In the playpen, Elizabeth toppled Blaze while Sunny squatted to pee. They really were growing up fast, just as Taylor had warned. While they frolicked in the grass, I went back in for Cherry. I scooped her out of her box and carried her outside. Mindful of her incision, I’d started carrying her belly up like a human baby, and she seemed to have taken to it.
She lay in the crook of my arm wearing a pink shirt, all four paws sticking skyward, eyes bright and watchful, her body loose and relaxed as if she didn’t have a care in the world.
“Oh, just look at her!”
I turned to find Holly standing there, one hand pressed against her chest, and I had a feeling which puppy she was going to choose. Actually, I hoped she did adopt Cherry, because I’d grown fond of both Holly and Cherry over the past month, and I’d love to see them wind up together. I set Cherry in the warm grass at my feet, and she bounced toward Holly. “She’s a handful today, I’ve got to warn you,” I told her.
As if to prove my point, Cherry pounced on…well, I wasn’t sure what she was aiming for, but she face planted in the grass with her butt sticking up in the air. She had a thicker coat than her mom. They all did. Taylor had told me that while it was impossible to say what breed their dad was without a DNA test, it was starting to look like they might be part Lab.
“I can handle her,” Holly said with a smile as she knelt in the grass beside Cherry. The puppy licked her leg, tiny tail wagging.
“Want me to help you bring them back inside before I leave?” I asked.
“Nah,” Holly said. “I’m happy to stay outside with them for a bit.”
“Okay. I’ll just bring Violet in and feed her.”
As if she knew what I’d said, the dog turned and followed me into the house, those brown eyes tracking my every move as I mixed her usual bowl of wet and dry puppy chow and set it on the floor.
