Page 48 of Between the Shady Groves
“Yeah. I’m kind of excited about it. I shouldn’t spoil the surprise, and I’m not going to tell you what it is. Just that it’s there, and I think you’re going to like it.”
“All right,” she said, laughing, as they went back to where they’d left his shoes and her flip-flops, and they put them on before they started up the trail, him feeling like everything was right in the world.
Twenty-One
“What in the world could you have gotten me?” Lauren wondered aloud as they got closer to the bakery and she saw there was a big box sitting outside.
Big. Huge.
“What in the world?” she asked, thinking at first maybe it was some kind of newfangled mixer, but it was long and wide, not deep.
“I want you to open it,” he said. “And there’s a second package, a small one, behind the first.”
“I can see. It says right here what it is,” she said, turning her head so she could read the words that were sideways since the box sat on its end.
“A kiddie pool?” she asked, furrowing her brows and looking back at him.
“Yeah,” he said, letting the word just hang there.
“What in the world are you getting me a kiddie pool for?” she asked, even as she bent down to look at the smaller box. That one was in a packing box, and he quickly got his pocketknife out so he could cut the packing tape, and she could open it.
Inside was something in a piece of plastic that was shrink-wrapped.
“This is a…dog bed!” she said, jumping up, comprehension dawning inher eyes. “You got a kiddie pool to put in the shed along with the dog bed so that the stray dog can have her babies in there!”
He nodded, grinning.
“Oh my goodness! This is awesome!” She reached for him, kissing him hard on the lips, before she said, “Can we put it up right now?”
“Sure,” he said. He’d measured the shed before he ordered the kiddie pool to make sure that it would fit. He’d already moved some things around while she had been busy doing some baking, when she thought he was outside working on the security system. Everything was ready, all they had to do was take it out of the package and set it up.
Plus, they needed to tame the dog down, but from what Lauren said, she was coming every morning and every evening for a little bit of food. Lauren said she hadn’t tried to pet her, but that was mostly because he had asked her not to unless he was with her, and he hadn’t been there.
He appreciated her considering his feelings on that matter.
The kiddie pool box was not heavy, but it was awkward, and they basically slid it back between their building and Matteo’s shop.
Then, Lauren went back to grab the dog bed while he opened the box and got the kiddie pool out, setting it in the shed. It fit perfectly, like he thought it would, and he had it sitting where it needed to be when she came back with the dog bed.
“I think this will probably take a little bit of time to fluff out.”
“Yeah. It’s supposed to be a lot bigger than that, so it should fluff out a good bit.”
She smiled at him as he took his pocketknife and cut across the top.
She set it in the kiddie pool, and then they went about gathering up the garbage and placing it neatly beside the building where they could grab it and deal with it later.
When they came back, the dog bed was indeed fluffing out.
“I think I should unfold it,” Lauren said as she climbed into the kiddie pool and started messing with the dog bed.
From his calculations, the dog bed wasn’t going to fill up the kiddie pool. He wasn’t sure if they would need to worry about puppies getting caught on the other side of the bed, or whether it would be okay. Hereally didn’t have a whole lot of experience in doing this, but apparently Matteo had heard his buddies talk about doing this in the military.
Regardless, it had made his wife squeal and act almost like her old self, and it had been worth it. Even if he had to deal with the dog and however many puppies.
“I really wanted to get something that we could put in the house, but…if we’re going to try to renew the old permits and get a license to open the business, we really can’t do that.”
“No. No animals in the house at all. Maybe that’s part of the reason why I have always loved animals so much. They were a definite no in the house when I was growing up, although we had a couple cats outside.”
