Page 40 of Penance (Rising From the Ashes #2)
Theo
“ N o,” I say, placing my hands on my hips and widening my stance to glare down at Lily. She matches my position, adding in a little hair toss as she glares right back.
Her lips purse, and my eyes follow the movement. There’s a challenge in the set of her mouth, and dang it if I don’t want to meet that challenge head-on. I wonder if she knows how much I have to fight to maintain my common sense—to keep my hands to myself and not kiss her.
One taste.
That was all it took to seal my addiction in stone.
“Yes.” She taps her foot against the concrete, and my gaze snaps back to hers.
“I am not adopting a dog.”
Her pout turns into a breezy smile, one that would look agreeable on anyone else, but on Lily, it’s downright scary.
“Oh yes, you are.” Reaching out, she fists my shirt and drags me into the town square where the animal shelter is having an adoption day. “You need a dog.”
She doesn’t look back as she talks, dragging me behind her like a lost puppy. And I follow because the moment I kissed her, things shifted. This might have started as something fake—something to help us both out—but I don’t know if I’ll be able to give it up. I don’t want to give it up.
People throw us curious looks as we walk through the crowd. I assume I’ll hear about this in the chat in five…four… three…two…
As if on cue, my phone pings in my pocket, and I reach in, pulling it out while Lily continues to drag me behind her.
Annoyance #2 (CR): Word around town is that Lily got a new puppy.
Annoyance #2 (CR): Oh, wait. that’s just Theo.
Annoyance #1 HM: =‘D
Theo: First of all, Hayes, even I know how to use emojis, and I’m older than you. Second of all, Campbell, at least I have a girl.
Silas: So it’s confirmed? She’s your girl?
Theo removed himself from the group.
I shove my phone back into my pocket before anyone can add me back to the group—which they will. I can’t escape it.
She’s pulled me to a stop, and we are standing in front of a kennel full of mutts.
“I’m not getting a mutt.”
“You said you weren’t getting a dog, either,” she says with a shrug, “and look, I’ve already changed your mind about that.”
“More like you coerced me into changing my mind,” I grumble.
Lily gives me a flat look before she turns back to the dogs, pure joy in her eyes. Reaching forward, she picks up the ugliest dog I’ve ever seen, cuddling it to her chest.
Its face is smooshed, looking like it ran into something, and now it’s stuck that way. The shaggy hair and legs just long enough to keep its tail from dragging complete the look.
“That is the ugliest dog I’ve ever seen,” I say, reaching out to pet it. It growls, burrowing deeper into Lily’s arm.
“Don’t talk about him like that,” Lily says, aghast. She cuddles the dog closer, whispering something I can’t hear in its ear.
The dog trembles in her arms to the point I worry he might pee on her, but Lily doesn’t seem to mind. In fact, she’s the happiest I’ve ever seen her. Her face is soft, and I wonder if she realizes she doesn’t have her mask on today.
“He likes you.” I keep my voice soft, afraid that she’ll put it back on if I speak too loudly. “Why don’t you adopt him?”
“Nah. He needs someone who can love him.” She snaps her head up, and her eyes widen as if she hadn’t meant to say that aloud. A storm brews in the depths of her eyes. “You could love him.”
My brows smash together. “What’s that supposed to mean? Do you think you can’t?”
In a blink of an eye, even though I tried to stop it, her mask falls into place, clearing the storm.
“I didn’t mean anything by it.” She glances around as if searching for a way out of this conversation, and when she spies a booth full of workers, she smiles.
“Come on. Let’s find out what it will take for you to adopt this guy. ”
With the puppy safely tucked into her arms, she takes off toward the booth, effectively shutting down the conversation. She’s running, but it’s okay because I’m willing to chase. And when I catch her, she’ll see that love isn’t always a choice we make.
______________________
We walk out of adoption day with the mutt tucked safely into Lily’s arms and several shopping bags in mine.
The bags are full of things like dog food and leashes—all the usual items you need to care for a dog—plus little sweaters and bows.
Those were for Lily. She might deny loving the dog, but the way she smiled the entire time we were there says otherwise.
“Today was a good day,” Lily says, her nose pressed to the dog’s head.
Can’t love him, my foot. She already does and doesn’t even realize it.
“Yeah, hopeless, it was. ”
She sighs. “Are you ever going to tell me why you call me that?”
Smiling, I change all the shopping bags to one hand and throw my arm around her shoulders, pulling her into me and dropping a kiss on the top of her head. She stills, and I worry I’ve pushed her good mood too far, but after a moment, she sinks into me, letting me hold her.
We walk to the truck like that, with me slowing us down so I can stretch this moment out a little longer. Pretend it’s real.
Eventually, we make it, and I have to let her go, opening her door so she can climb inside. She hands the dog over to me, and she immediately takes her back once she’s settled.
“You know,” I say, acting casual. “I’m terrible with names. Maybe you should name her for me.”
She eyes me like she knows what I’m doing. “It’s your dog, Theo. You have to name her.”
“Fine. Dog.”
She presses her lips together, disappointed. “You cannot name your dog ‘Dog. ’”
“Okay, Mutt.”
“No.”
“Monster?”
She doesn’t even grace that one with a response, just a growl.
I throw my hands up in the air. “I give up.”
Lily looks softly down at the dog. There are hearts in her eyes as she strokes her hand over the dog’s back.
“Lucy,” she says almost inaudibly. “I think you should name her Lucy.”
The dog perks up its ears, and I chuckle. Reaching up, I give the dog a playful scrub on the head. “Lucy it is, then.”
Lily holds Lucy in her lap for the rest of the ride, and when I drop her off at her house, she looks a little sad when she places the sleeping puppy in my seat and walks away .
I can’t help but wonder how many times Lily has had to walk away from the things she loves.