Puppy time 🐶

"I got a crate, a dog bed, puppy food, two types of dog treats, and a special toy for Boomer so he doesn't get jealous. That's everything right?" Ryder asks walking into the flower shop. He looks like a little boy on Christmas morning. Bright eyes and a bounce in his step.

"How the hell did you find someone exactly like you?" Carley asks shaking her head and heading towards a customer that needs help.

"Do you think we're too compatible?" I ask wrapping my arms around his waist.

He laughs and kisses the top of my head, "just because we both like cursing and dogs doesn't mean we are too compatible. You're still the crazy one."

"Hey! That's rude."

"Don't ask dumb questions then," he says kissing me and then he yells to Carley that we're leaving.

The back of Ryder's car is filled with dog stuff. He got two of everything so Boomer isn't jealous, which is probably the nicest thing in the whole world.

"Are we supposed to bring Boomer?" I ask.

He shakes his head, "I called. They said if we want a puppy we don't have to bring him but if we want an older dog we should bring him to make sure they are compatible."

"You've thought of everything," I say taking a look in the back of the car again.

"I'm fucking excited! I've always wanted a puppy."

"You've never had one?"

"No," he says. "The apartment my mom and I lived in didn't allow pets, my step-dad hates animals, and then when I moved out on my own I didn't have time for a puppy since my work hours were shitty."

"Your first puppy!!"

We arrive at the adoption tent that is located in the parking lot of the local pet supply store. It is a big white tent with crates of puppies inside. There is a van outside full of kittens.

We head right over to a big crate with three little yellow Labrador Retrievers. They are yapping and jumping on top of each other to get to us. I stick my fingers through the wire cage and one the puppies starts nibbling at my fingers.

"I'm in love," I say.

"We should keep looking right? These are the first we've seen," Ryder says walking away from the cage but he looks back twice at the pups.

We wander around the other cages commenting on how cute they are but I can't stop thinking of that little yellow puppy.

We are across the tent when we see a family at the cage of the yellow labs. Ryder looks at me with wide eyes, "we can't let them take our puppy!"

He is across the tent in seconds and flagging down an employee.

"We want to see this puppy," Ryder announces basically pushing the family out of the way. I mutter an apology as I knock them out of the way too.

The worker opens the cage and takes out the puppy that was nipping at me and hands it to Ryder.

The puppy looks so tiny curled up in Ryder's big arms. Ryder can barely take his eyes off of the dog. He looks at me, "please, Addy. I want this one."

I laugh, "let me hold him!"

The dog burrows into my arms and closes his eyes. I automatically fall in love.

"We'll take him," I tell the worker who smiles at us and leads us to a table where we can fill out all of the forms. He goes to take the dog out of my arms, "wait. You can't take him," I whine.

"I have to put him back in the cage and I'll put a sign on it saying pending adoption. No one's going to take him," the man says with a smile. I nod and hand the dog over.

We fill out the piles of paperwork and wait and wait and wait some more before we are finally approved. We pay the adoption fee and head home.

"What should we name him?" I ask.

"I don't know. Maybe Parker?" Ryder says reaching over to pet the sleeping puppy.

"No way."

"What are you thinking?"

"That I wish he was a girl so we could name her a flower name. Like Daisy or Violet."

Ryder rolls his eyes, "I wouldn't have agreed to that."

"Whatever. How about Oscar?"

"Boomer and Oscar? Oscar is definitely going to be a dork."

"They're dogs!" I say. "And with a father like you they will both be huge nerds."

"Fine. Clark?" Ryder suggests.

"Stop suggesting superhero names," I say.

"I didn't think you caught on," he says shrugging.

"Oh I did."

"Oliver?" Ryder asks.

"Boomer and Oliver. That's adorable!" I say loudly making the puppy wake up.

"Sorry, Oliver. She gets excited sometimes," Ryder explains.

We pull into our driveway. I'm holding Oliver and he is lugging in the millions of dog products he bought.

"Boomer, come here," I say nervously. I don't know how he will react to having another animal in the house.

I put Oliver on the ground and we watch as Boomer sniffs Oliver and then walks away.

"Uh, what just happened?" Ryder asks beginning to put Oliver crate together.

"I think Boomer is already over being a big brother." I go towards the bedrooms to find Boomer and he is lounging on Ryder and I's bed chewing a bone.

"Really?" I ask laughing. "Well I guess this is better than you hating the puppy."

Eventually we all sit down on the couch and Boomer joins us. He is sitting opposite of Oliver. He glances over at the puppy when it makes a strange noise but otherwise he doesn't care.

"Well, I guess he will warm up to Oliver," Ryder says.

"We have time," I comment.

"A lot of time," Ryder replies leaning over to kiss me on the lips.

"And Oliver is the name of a superhero," Ryder whispers and I pretend I didn't hear him.

😍😍😍

-Brooke