Page 130 of Eye of the Hurricane
Before I know it, we’re loading her up into the car. A two-hour drive home with a nine-year-old dog is less than ideal but she does about as good as you could hope. We even stop at the pet store on the way home to get all the essentials.
Pink bowl, pink collar, pink leash, pink dog bed. Katherine leans down to Rose.
“No more crates, okay? But you have to hold up your end of the deal and not piss on my floor. Deal?” she asks as if the dog will answer her in some way.
When we finish up at the pet store we finally take her home.
“Okay, this is your new home, Rose. You get to stay forever. You have to be nice to Bells,” I tell her. She looks up at me with big eyes and her tail going crazy. I’ll take that as the closest thing to confirmation a dog can give.
We walk through the front door and I hear the jingle of Bells’ collar. I expect her to jump in fear when she sees a full-sized dog standing in the entryway. Instead, she prances up to us without hesitation.
Ironically it’s the big husky that cowers and climbs between my leg and Katherine’s. She whimpers slightly when Bells rubs against her leg.
The first couple of hours are pure chaos. But then it all falls together perfectly when they’ve worn themselves out.
Katherine and I are cuddled up on the couch, her leaned into me with her head on my chest. Rose curls up into a ball by Katherine’s feet and Bells saunters across both me and Katherine to lay with Rose.
In that moment, it doesn’t feel like Katherine’s house anymore. It feels like our home. Despite none of my things being here yet.
“I hope she likes her forever home,” Katherine says looking up at me.
“It looks like she lovesourforever home,” I assure her.
Epilogue- Ares
1 year later…
“Do not fuck this up,” Ravyn says through clenched teeth. She reaches up and straightens out my tie.Yes, these women have me in afuckingtie.
“Don’t let her scare you. You can’t mess this up,” Audra corrects, ruffling my hair with her fingers.
“Don’t lie to the guy. This is Katherine we’re talking about. The sight of you on one knee might give her a panic attack,” Ravyn says.
“It won’t, we talked about it. She’s ready. I wouldn’t have bought the ring if she wasn’t,” I assure them.
“So she knows you’re proposing?” Roman pipes up from the other room.
“No. We had a conversation a couple of months ago about marriage and if it was something she wanted, considering the idea her mother put in her head her whole life.”
“And she said yes?” Ravyn asks, surprised.
“And she said yes,” I confirm with a stiff nod of the head. “In fact, she said if I asked her right then she’d say yes because she was so sure about this.”
Audra clutches at her heart, channeling her inner grandma. “That’s so sweet. This is going to be great.”
“Okay, I take it back. Audi is right, you can’t fuck this up,” Ravyn says.
“I’m not nervous about fucking it up. I just want it to be perfect for her.”
“It will be,” Audra says.
“We all put too much planning into this for it not to be,” Ravyn agrees.
“It’s fancy and extra and everything she’ll want it to be. I’m sure of it,” Audra assures me.
I take one last look at myself in the mirror. My hair is perfectly tamed with the numerous products Audra ran through it. My messy waves are currently groomed into uniform curls. Crazy what a little curl cream will do. At least, that’s what Ravyn said when she saw it.
Audra and Ravyn assured me that my outfit should be left in their hands. I was hesitant at the time to leave it up to them, but now seeing it, they did good. I can’t complain. They’ve got me in a dark gray suit with a peachy orange tie. The colors go beautifully together.
