Page 31 of All I Want For Christmas

“Lindsey, boys, this is Kyle,” Matt said as she stepped out onto the porch.

The other man gave her and boys a warm grin. “Hi.”

“Are you a soldier?” Aidan asked.

“No, but I work with soldiers a lot. I do special trainings. And I’m a veterinarian. Do you know what that is?”

“An animal doctor,” Liam said.

“Right.”

Lindsey shook Kyle’s hand. “Nice to meet you.”

“You too, Mrs. LaSalle. And General is excited to meet you as well.”

“The General?”

Kyle walked back to his truck and pulled the passenger side door open, then reached inside. He turned with his arms full of…dog. A full-grown German Shepard, with big intelligent eyes looked at her. He gave a softwoofand Lindsey just stared.

“Boys, this is General,” Matt said. “He’s going to be living with you.”

Kyle put General down. The dog stood, just looking at the boys. Liam and Aidan stared at the dog. No one moved or said anything. Kyle laughed and knelt by the dog, stroking a hand over his fur. “It’s okay, guys. He got hurt and we’ve been making him better. But he’s good now. You can pet him and play with him.”

Liam and Aidan both looked up at Matt.

“Go on,” he encouraged.

That was all they needed. They flew down the steps and fell to their knees in the grass next to the dog.

Lindsey crossed her arms, watching their sons. “You got them adog?” she said quietly to Matt. “Ahurtdog?”

“He’s not hurt now,” Matt told her. He looked at her, seemingly realizing she wasnotenthusiastic. He turned, taking her upper arms in his hands. “Okay, hang on.”

“You got them adog?” she repeated.

“Kind of,” he said. Then quickly added, “He’s a soldier, Linds. He was with our unit. Best dog we’ve ever had. He got shot and they shipped him back to recover. Now he’s retiring.”

“He’s adog.” Lindsey had never had a dog. She didn’t dislike them and wasn’t scared of them, but she also didn’t really know what to do with one.

Matt bent his knees to get eye-to-eye with her. “He’s a soldier. He’s smart. He’s well trained. He saved our asses more than once.” He held up a hand when she started to respond. “He needs a home and I offered ours because I know our boys will take good care of him and vice versa.”

She looked at the dog. Then the boys. Then the whole picture of the boys with the dog. They were lying together in the grass. The dog was rolling from side to side, licking first Aidan, then Liam. Kyle was telling them about General, how he’d been trained, how he liked to be scratched, that he loved bacon.

“Matt,” Lindsey groaned. How was she going to say no to this?

“They’re old enough for a dog,” Matt said. “I had a dog at their age.”

He’d also had a dad around who knew about dogs. But she’d never say that. She’d be walking General—the boys were too young to do that by themselves—and taking him to vet appointments and the groomer and whatever else you did with dogs. And she’d be learning all about what you did with dogs.

“Kyle will be around. He was one of the trainers. He knows General.”

She nodded. “Okay.”

“He needs you, Lindsey.”

She sighed. “Okay.”

“I love you.”

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