Page 26 of Key Lime Kisses
“You want a dog and three puppies?” Weston laughed.
“I love dogs,” I said, “and she did sort of choose me. Plus, she and the puppies will be a lot more comfortable where it's familiar. And I…” I hesitated and then added shyly, “And I have a boyfriend who kind of knows a lot about dogs.”
Weston grinned broadly. “You do! Alright; let's take her back home.”
Soon the six of us were back in the car again heading home, along with some food and a few medications that Weston grabbed from the little store attached to his clinic.
That night, after we got back home Weston ordered some additional supplies for the dogs online, while I took care of making mama and puppies comfortable. Then, I called the tree removal service and someone to fix the window, and Weston helped me cut the branches away from my window and put a tarp over it.
“Ah homeownership,” I groaned as we stepped away from the makeshift window.”
“At least you got four cute pets out of it,” Weston laughed.
“Yeah.” I reached out and took his hand. “I'm glad you're here, this would have been a little more daunting by myself.”
“Well,” he said, “what's a good alpha for?”
We shared a small smile. My stomach rumbled and we decided it was time for a very late lunch. After we were done, I was able to give Weston a tour of the rest of the house. We found another pile of dog poop upstairs and stopped to clean it up. Then, we settled in on the couch to watch some TV. There wasn’t much food left in the house, so we ordered pizza and stayed up late binge-watching a show we had both been meaning to watch.
I thought of my last night in my house, spent tossing and turning, not at all looking forward to the date brunch the next day. Who would have guessed that a week later I’d be happily cuddled on the couch with an alpha.
Although, I suspected part of the reason we were both content to stay up was the uncertainty of where we’d sleep. At last it was getting too late to keep putting it off.
“So, about sleeping arrangements,” I said nervously.
Weston shot me a weak, understanding smile. “Yeah… I know it's different being in your own house than in a single room on a boat. I’m happy anywhere, I don’t want to make it weird.”
I couldn’t help recalling what I said to him earlier in the week and grinned. “Things have been weird ever since I met you.”
He laughed and said, “And you said that before a dog had puppies in your basement.”
“I rest my case,” I chuckled. “Let’s go get ready for bed.”
We checked on the dog and her puppies one last time, then got ready for bed together. Soon we were snuggled up in my bed. As we lay there, I could still feel myself rocking a little bit as if we were still on the ship. We joked around for a little and soon fell asleep in each other's arms. This all could have just been one great dream… until the next morning when I woke up and Weston was still there.
Unfortunately, we both needed to work that day, so after a nice breakfast, we checked on the dogs and then dug through my closet to find some clothes that would fit Weston well enough for the day.
I drove Weston to work, then I finally settled into my home office to catch up on a ton of emails and escalated tickets and a few people who were annoyed I hadn't gotten back to them in the last week. I stopped a couple of times to eat, but the morning flew by.
Sometime after lunch Weston called to let me know that his car was ready to be picked up, but he had managed to get a ride from an employee.
We spent two more awesome days together. Just when it felt like we were settling into a routine, his apartment building reopened. He came back from work to have dinner with me, like we had planned, then he went home.
After dinner I trudged upstairs to an empty bed. It was funny how quickly my opinion of a boyfriend had turned around; I missed falling asleep with the alpha. I knew we’d probably spend weekends together, but it wasn’t the same. The house was oddly empty without him.
~~~***~~~
Two. Weeks. It took two freaking weeks before Weston and I could go on an actual date again; our timing couldn’t have been worse. Spring Break was just endingandregistration for summer classes was open, which meant I had a deluge of work to do, in addition to still catching up from my week off. Several people at the clinic took off work for Spring Break, so Weston ended up putting in tons of time and he was catching up too. Then, while his apartment was cleared for mold, it wassuggestedthat he cleaneverything. That meant when he wasn’t at the clinic, he was home cleaning and doing laundry.
When we finally had a night free, my brother invited me for dinner so he could hear all about the unexpected cruise and blind date. I was upset until Weston’s sister wanted dinner with him.
At last, the following weekend, we had a dinner date planned. My dumb ass nearly missed it; I lay down on my bed to rest my eyes and just happened to wake up to see that our date was in about twenty minutes. I frantically got ready, made sure the dogs were all set, and then rushed to the restaurant.
“Sorry I'm late,” I gasped as I joined an already seated Weston.
“It’s okay,” Weston said, reaching across the table to take my hand. “I was starting to worry you wouldn’t come like my last date and I’d be zero for two.”
“He didn’t know what he was missing,” I said. “His loss.”
