Page 7 of A Very Merry Matchup
Carson groans and covers his face.
“Ivy?” My mom’s voice is nearly reverent. “Like as in... Nurse Ivy?”
“Just like that,” I say, reaching for my drink. “Thanks for saying yes.”
“Are you kidding?” Mom giggles. “I couldn’t be happier. I can’t wait to hear all the details of how this came about. Is it safe to assume things are pretty serious then?”
“Well, let me put it this way. I’m hoping this is just the first of many Christmases Ivy and I will be spending together considering the small fortune I just spent on her.” And that’s no joke. She’s a purebred. Dogs like that don’t come cheap. I take a quick drink of my tea. “But that’s all I’m saying for now.”
“Oh, Beau!” Mom’s jolly laugh would put Santa to shame. “I’m so excited!”
“Me too. And hey, I realize I’m springing this last minute on you, so don’t worry about making up an extra bed for her.” I wag my brows at Carson. “She’s small. She can just bunk in with me.”
I cover my own mouth to keep from laughing while Carson makes a sign of the cross and my mom sputters in my ear. “Oh, I don’t—no, I don’t think...” She coughs and clears her throat several more times. “I’ll-I’ll-I’ll have an extra room ready. We’ve got the space. You two don’t need to... no. It’ll be fine. See you soon.”
I hang up the phone and let my laughter break free.
“You’re a dead man,” Carson hisses. He’s not wrong. My mom is so going to kill me when she finds out the special girl I’m bringing home isn’t a brunette bombshell, but rather a cairn terrier who looks like Toto.
But hey, what’s Christmas if you can’t have a little fun with your family?
CHAPTER THREE
Feliz Navi-Nada, No Way
Ivy
I know I’m in trouble the second Yesenia starts speaking Spanish.
It’s not so much what she says—I have no idea what she says despite a fourteen-day Duolingo streak last summer—it’s more the panicked tone of her voice. The frantic look in her eyes. The goldendoodle racing around her tiny apartment with a bad case of the zoomies.
“Yesenia, no.”
“Ivy, please.” She launches back into more desperate-sounding Spanish as Hamish—I’m guessing that’s the dog’s name unless the word Hamish means something inSpanish?—speeds past in a blur, kicking up tiny carpet fragments in his wake.
“It’ll only be through the holidays,” she says, thankfully reverting back to English. “Soon as I get back from visiting my family in California, I’m settling into a new place that allows dogs. Please, please, please. My landlord said Hamish has to be gone by tomorrow.”
The crash of a chair hitting the ground sounds in the kitchen. “He’s so sweet.” Hamish streaks past with a green oven mitt in his mouth. “He’s already potty-trained.” He lunges over the couch in the living room. “He’s just a little high-energy.”
So are lightning bolts.“How did you get him?”
“An older lady at my church sort of acquired him from her grandson. He lived with her for a few months, then moved out. Left the dog behind. She can’t handle Hamish on her own, so I told her I’d take him.”
I hear Hamish’s nails slide across the linoleum of the kitchen floor right before another chair topples over. “You sure that’s a good idea?”
“He’s really a great dog once he burns off his energy. You’ll see.”
Right now all I see is a dog with an entire roll of paper towels in his mouth that I’m fairly certain he grabbed off the kitchen counter. “Yessy, my plans for Christmas fell through.I’m not going to my friend’s place in Tennessee anymore. I was actually hoping you’d let me stay here until after New Year’s.”
“What? No. That won’t work. Isn’t there anywhere else you go? Somewhere you can take Hamish? What about staying with your family?”
Ha. Yesenia could be the next Nate Bargatze telling jokes like that.
Ugh. How is this my life right now?I just want to sleep. “What if—”
Before I can finish the sentence, my phone pings with a text message from Lucy. Not that Yesenia would have heard me finish the sentence considering she’s currently chasing Hamish in circles around her living room, yelling, “Drop it, Hamish. Drop it!”
Do you still have that letter from Beau’s mom? The one you sent me a picture of back in September? Had her address and phone number on it?
