Page 61 of Otter Heart
I threw my arms around him, pulling him tight against me. “My mom is gonna be really annoyed about this.”
Mateo tensed underneath me. “So… you… you’re gonna stay?”
“Of course I’m gonna stay!” I reached down, grabbingMateo by the chin and forcing our lips together. “I found the love of my life! Why would I leave?!”
“You really mean that?”
“I do.”
“And you don’t mind the dog?”
“Not at all. Bessie is wonderful.” I paused for a moment. “But I do have one condition.”
Mateo smiled, kissing me again. “Anything, you name it and you can have it.”
“I wanna keep the black and gold puppy.”
His smile widened. “It’s yours.” He kissed me again, all the love and passion I could ever hope for exchanged in the heat between us. “I love you so much, Adam.”
“I love you too, Mateo.” I grinned against his lips. “And your little dog too.”
Epilogue: Adam
Ten Weeks Later
Out of the original nine puppies, only two were left. One black one and the mottled one that was mine. A golden pup had been kept by the neighbor whose dog had sired the litter. The other six went to good homes thanks to James and his connections with the vet clinic. A simple email was sent out to the client list letting them know some pups needed a home and within a half hour, all of them had been claimed.
It was hard to let them go. Harder than I wanted to admit. But after ten weeks of puppies chewing and messing up everything in sight, I was ready to have a little bit of peace back. And so was Mateo. After all, they’d all been living at his condo so they could nurse from Bessie. Not to mention, it was almost impossible to get private sexy time with so many pups around. They were terribly needy.
However, once they were weaned and claimed, they quickly disappeared to their new homes. Bessie, along with the rest of us, was sad to see them go. But she still had the two pups and the one next door. But today we were giving the last one away.
The black pup was the only one in the litter that had a small white diamond on his chest. And it was the pup that Rowan had fallen in love with the moment he saw them. Becauseof course I had to show them the puppies after I decided to stay. I’m not sure which he was more excited about, but he grabbed that pup and babied him every time he and James visited.
So, of course, I had to give him to Rowan. It was a total surprise for him thanks to some clever planning between James and I. James had purchased all the dog supplies they would need under the guise of taking in some fosters. And we’d both told Rowan all the pups were claimed. He looked so crestfallen when we gave him that news. However, that meant the surprise would just be all the more wonderful.
And that’s why Mateo and I were sitting in Rowan’s driveway. He thought we were just coming over for a barbeque. But he had no idea we were bringing a puppy for him. James saw us pull in and came out to meet us.
“He’s on the back porch,” he smiled, petting the pups squirming in my arms. “And he’s about as sullen and moody as he can be.”
“Good thing I brought just the right medicine for that then,” I grinned. I lifted up the mottled pup, handing him over to James. “Here. You take Travis and I’ll go surprise Rowan.”
“Why did you ever name this dog Travis?”
“He looks like a Travis, doesn’t he?” I chuckled. “Besides, it’s fun to yell a people name at the dog park. It makes me laugh every single time some middle-aged dad looks my way.”
“Yeah, and then I get to explain to them what’s going on,” Mateo added, rolling his eyes.
“Well, you’re gonna love the name Rowan picked out,” James sighed, following the pair of us around the house. “Apparently he’d already named this dog Lucky without telling any of us.”
“Christ… good thing we didn’t get rid of him,” I laughed. “I knew he liked him, but I didn’t think it wasthatmuch.”
“This boy…” James said, shaking his head. “He told me he didn’t like animals at all, and you put one puppy in front of him and you’d think the world stopped turning.”
“Sounds familiar,” Mateo muttered, glancing my way.
I just chuckled as we rounded the back of the house and stepped up on the porch. Rowan was on the far side standing in front of the grill with hunched shoulders. He was flipping burgers like he had a personal vendetta with them.
“Hey Rowan!”
