Page 116 of That First Night

He rises from the couch and shakes his head. His face is still void of emotion. Panic ensues as my eyes lock with his before he’s standing directly in front of me. My arms feel like they are holding the puppy even tighter, but not too tight to hurt him.

“I…” I start to say.

“Stop,” he cuts me off. “I’m not mad at you.”

“Then why do you look like you’re going to kick me and this cute ball of fur to the curb?”

“I don’t look like that.” He smiles. “But you got James a puppy.”

“James. Us,” I correct myself. “I got us a puppy.”

Thomas takes his eyes off of me and drops them to the puppy in my arms. He smiles as he reaches for him. I hesitantly let go, afraid of what is going on inside of his mind right now. To my surprise, he wraps the dog into an embrace. The puppy looks so much smaller in his giant arms. I watch as the puppy looks up to him. Thomas dips his head down to kiss the top of his head and the dog begins to lick him aggressively.

“Daddy.” James chuckles. “He’s giving you puppy kisses.”

“He is, isn't he?” Thomas says, returning his gaze to mine.

“Can I hold him?” James jumps up and down in his spot with his hands in praying position, as if his dad can ever say no to him. Thomas places the puppy on the floor and James brings himself to lay on the floor next to him. The two of them roll around each other while James laughs uncontrollably. “What’s his name?”

“Right now, his name is Matty,” I tell him. “But… if you want to help me come up with a new name, we can always give him a name that you pick out. Since he’s your dog.”

“I get to name him?” James gasps.

“Whatever you want, buddy.”

James thinks long and hard for a couple of minutes while he pets the cute puppy and lets him jump all over his lap. The internet was right about something for once, I can already tell that he will be a family friendly dog.

“I want to name him Cooper!” He beams.

Cooper? I didn’t see that coming considering he named Jim’s goldfish Dooky-west. Thomas and I look at each other and back to James.

“Cooper it is. I’ll go get his toys for you,” I say, before I turn around quickly to head for the space room to get them.

After I enter the room, I start sorting through the bag of things I got and find the toys. I feel Thomas before I see or hear him enter the room.

Slowly, I turn around to meet his gaze and frown. “Listen, I’m sorry. I wanted to do this for James. I wanted-”

Thomas cuts me off when he stalks across the room and circles me in his arms and shuts me up with a mind blowing kiss. I relax into him and wrap my arms around his center. His hand circles the back of my head, holding me in place as he devours me with his lips. His tongue dances with my lips, silently asking to slip in for a tango.

I pull away and raise a questioning brow at him.

“Peyton,” he sighs. “I am so fucking far from mad at you.”

“You’re not mad?”

“No.” He shakes his head. “You bought my son a puppy. Did you know that his dream was to own a fluffy puppy so he can dress it as a dinosaur one day? It’s what he has asked for the last two Christmas’ and the last two birthdays. It just never made sense in the penthouse.”

I step away from him and make my way to another bag I got for the puppy that has a perfect fit dinosaur outfit that is made for dogs. It was hard to find because it’s not Halloween season, but I knew it’s everything James wanted.

I lift it up to show Thomas. “Yes, I knew that. That’s why I went crazy looking for this outfit for the little guy.”

The smile on his face practically reaches his eyes and it causes me to match the smile. He shakes his head as he walks back over to me. “You’re something else.”

“I hope that’s a good thing,” I joke.

“I don’t know what I did to deserve you, Peyton.” He tells me as he wraps his arms around my waist and relaxes his head in the crook of my neck. “You’re like a dream come true.”

“I could say the same for you.”