Page 69 of Mommy

Maybe having a dog isn’t too bad after all.

Chapter thirty six

Ivory

“Ivory! I was wrong!”

Derek’s voice echoes up the staircase behind me.

I was about to peel myself out of my still sweaty gym clothes and take a well deserved shower, but the alarm in his deep baritone had me turning right around.

Taking two stairs at a time, I fling myself around the corner at the bottom of the stairwell and come to a breathless halt halfway down the hallway. Derek’s large hands capture me and before I even get a word out or have time to draw a breath, he’s already pushing me back the way I came from. The cautious looks he throws over his shoulder are enough to raise my own awareness and I push against his shove.

“What’s wrong?”

If something is wrong, I need to get Posie. I’m not going to leave her behind. Never.

“The fuck am I supposed to know? Maybe she got the rabies or something. Ivory, move!”

What?

Derek is still shoving me towards the stairs, when I see it.

Posie sprints in our direction, ears slicked back, back rounded and teeth exposed. She’s in full speed, not making any indication to slow down.

Propelling past us, she takes two stairs up, before turning right back around and taking off in the opposite direction again. Her claws click on the wooden parquet, telling me she made it into the living room.

Derek is a frozen block of a man next to me. Like a pretty Greek statue he stands next to me, absolutely motionless. It takes him a moment to recover and when he grabs for me again I’m already dancing out of his reach. Laughing, because this is nothing if not hilarious.

“Ivory, please.”

The concern in his eyes amplifies, when the clicking of Posie’s claws comes closer again.

I’m almost choking on my laugh, when he jumps out of her way, his shoulder bumping roughly into the wall.

“Fuck!” he curses, his eyes glued to Posie, who once again takes off into the living space.

“Derek,” I gasp out, a giggle still on my tongue as I gather air to explain this to him. “She doesn’t have rabies.”

He doesn’t look convinced.

“What is it then? She’s just insane?”

“No,” I choke out, bursting into a full fit of laughter once again. “She’s just excited to see you.”

It’s my first time too, seeing a pregnant pit-mom-to-be get the zoomies, but this is exactly that.

“You’re shitting me.” Derek says, but he slowly follows me when I walk over into the living space.

Posie is still racing around the kitchen island, where I see half her food already in the bowl. Derek must have been in the midst of preparing her food, when she ‘went insane’.

Once she sees us in the doorway, she comes to a very sudden halt, her body bending into what I can make out as a puppy pose. Front legs outstretched, weight leaning forward and tail wagging high in the air like a propeller.

She’s looking up at us, clearly waiting for a reaction.

Derek only stares back at her, clearly not sure what she wants from him, so I’m the one to indulge Posie.

“Hey, babygirl!” I greet her enthusiastically, and just like I expected, she jumps right back into movement, sprinting around the room in wide and chaotic circles. She even goes so far as to use the couch to give herself something to climb onto and jump down from.