Page 72 of Delayed Penalty

I flip him off and shut my locker, eager to get a move on with my plan. “Gotta go, brother.” I nod.

Time to make my girl smile.

After a coupledifferent stops to get puppy stuff and toys, and the flowers and bagels, I finally get Luna who’s the happiest girl in the entire world to see me. She’s even more excited when I put her in my passenger seat, probably remembering the last time she was in here was after she came to live with me.

Reaching over, I scratch behind her ear. “Don’t worry, little one. You’re coming home for good.”

It’s like she can sense what I’m saying, or truthfully understands me because she puts her head on my hand and immediately falls asleep, like she can finally have some peace knowing she found a home.

Not just a home, a family.

She sleeps the entire drive to my apartment and makes me carry her all the way upstairs as well as everything else, which is more difficult than you think it should be when she’s just a puppy, but that girl is dead weight.

“Avery?” I say as I walk in the front door.

“I’m in the living room.” I hear her say, so I set Luna down and let her go. The second her pitter patter feet start as she runs toward Avery’s voice, I hear Avery shout with excitement, and I know I made the right choice.

Setting the flowers and bagels down in the kitchen, I head to find my girls laying on the couch, Luna on her back rolling side to side trying to get Avery to touch every inch of her because she’s so excited. Somehow, this dog is so gentle around Avery’s belly, it’s incredible. Like she understands what’s happening and know it’s something we need to protect.

It was the other thing I noticed the last time we had her here that made me wonder if this was the perfect fit for her. She’s so gentle and protective over Avery and Avery’s belly that I knew immediately she would be an amazing family dog.

A puppy that could grow up with our human puppy.

“Surprise,” I say casually as I sit down on the couch next to Avery, the other surprise sitting in my back pocket.

“How long is she staying this time? I didn’t know she was coming to visit. This is the most exciting thing ever!” Avery says, Luna now curling into Avery’s side and snuggling in to sleep.

“She’s ours.”

“She’s… ours? Like, to keep-keep? The forever kind?”

“Always.” I smile, and she hugs me so hard I swear she’s going to suffocate me, but I embrace it.

“Thank you,” she whispers.

“What do you say we open the other surprise tonight? Together? I mean, now that our family is back together with Luna being home, I’m kind of curious if she’s getting a little brother or a little sister,” I say, pulling the envelope out of my back pocket.

“Yes, let’s open it,” she says, sitting back on the couch, closer to Luna.

“Are you sure?”

“Absolutely.”

“Do you want to?”

“Nope, I got to do the pregnancy test without you, you can do this one.”

Excitement fills me, my body tingling with anticipation as I move to open the envelope. Slowly sliding it up, at a pace that’s damn near torture, the word comes into view and I want to shout it from the rooftops.

Turning the envelope for Avery to see, she starts crying and smiling the second she sees it, laughing and hugging me. It feels like now that we know what we are having we can start thinking about names, more decorations for the room and even more clothes shopping that I swear my family and my friends’ girlfriends could slow down with any moment. They’ve been buying all gender-neutral stuff which is great and all, if I knew they weren’t going to buy even more the second they knew what we were having.

Boy.

We’re going to be the proud parents to a little boy and I couldn’t be more excited.

Pausing for a moment with our foreheads together, we just look at each other, so many words passing in the silence, and I’m so excited for our future. It’s scary, it’s unknown, but I’ve never been more excited for anything in my entire life. It’s in this moment that I feel it for the first time, a soft bump against where I’m touching her belly. Moving my hand closer, I feel it again.

“Is that…”

---