Shawn nodded. ‘We think they’re at least part golden retriever, so yeah, pretty big.’
He smiled at the two of them, clearly not wanting to pressure them into anything. ‘If you change your mind, you know where to find us.’
Daisy looked at Elliot. Elliot looked at Daisy. The puppy sighed in her sleep.
‘I’ll take her,’ he said.
Daisy clapped her hands in delight.
Shawn smiled wider. ‘Okay, let’s get that paperwork done.’
And just like that, Elliot was a dog-dad again.
* * *
‘How about Buttercup?’ Daisy suggested.
Elliot shook his head. ‘Maybe Mustard?’
Daisy wrinkled her nose. ‘Mustard is not a name.’
‘And Buttercup is?’ he asked with a laugh, rubbing the puppy’s belly as she rolled over. The three of them were sitting on the floor of the flower shop four days after Elliot signed the adoption papers. He had just picked her up and obviously Daisy’s was the first stop they made.
He was already so in love with the little dog.
Daisy gasped. ‘Have you not seenThe Princess Bride? Of course, Buttercup is a name.’
‘Sure, a name for a princess. Not for a dog.’
‘Are you saying this sweet girl is not a princess?’ Daisy laughed. The puppy had crawled into her lap and was already dozing off. ‘Sleeping beauty, maybe.’
‘Shawn says it’s normal for puppies to be sleepy at first, just like human babies.’
‘Makes sense. How about Sunny?’
They were sitting with their backs against the counter. Their arms pressed together when he reached over to pet the puppy. Like every other time they touched, Elliot wanted more. He was glad he and Daisy were back to being friends, but his body was having a hard time remembering the just friends part.
‘That could work.’ He ran his fingers through the puppy’s soft fur, and Daisy rested her head on his shoulder. It was the best moment of his week, and he soaked it in. Work had been nothing but chaos and sitting here in the quiet sunshine of Daisy’s shop with a snoring puppy was the perfect break.
‘What about Marigold,’ he murmured.
‘I like that. You could call her Goldie.’
‘Perfect,’ Elliot agreed as they settled back into silence. The shop was bursting with color, summer bouquets filling the racks. Yellows, pinks and oranges, tied together by Daisy’s expert hands. In the window hung green vines and ferns and spider plants. When his mom went back home, he kept the philodendron he’d bought on that first visit to the shop. He thought of Daisy every time he looked at it. Although that wasn’t saying much, because he thought of Daisy all the time.
Sunshine filtered in through the windows between the leaves, and Elliot knew it was this perfect golden moment he would think of when he called Goldie’s name, not the color of her fur.
‘Oh!’ Daisy said after a few more minutes of quiet. ‘I thought we could read some diary pages. Before you have to go.’
‘Sure.’ Daisy passed him Goldie, who barely opened an eye at the disruption, and got up to grab the book.
They still didn’t know what had happened between Nathan and Aunt D, but Elliot noticed that Daisy had slowed down her reading, like she didn’t want to get to the part where it all went wrong. It was as though, if she didn’t read it, she could protect her great-aunt from heartbreak.
Her curiosity generally got the better of her, though, and she usually ended up reading Elliot little snippets when they were together.
‘Okay,’ she said, joining him on the floor again. ‘Here we go.’
July 18, 1925
