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Erika’s gaze flew to his, perfectly aware her best friend’s thoughts were traveling along the same path as her own. Blake wasn’t giving this dog up any more than she was.
“We can’t take care of a dog on our own…but that doesn’t mean we couldn’t take care of one together,” he said.
Even as he said it, Erika could think of a million and twelve reasons why his suggestion was a bad idea. But she dismissed every single one.
“What about when I work nights and you’re on the road?” Erika, sensible to a fault, thought she should at least offer a token amount of resistance.
Blake considered her question, then grinned. “Ashley.”
Erika laughed quietly. Fifteen-year-old Ashley lived on the floor below them and had built a babysitting empire within their apartment building. Blake swore the girl was going to earn her first million before graduating from high school.
“She could walk Corky, feed and play with her on evenings when we’re not home,” Blake continued.
Erika nodded as an organizational schematic—one of her favorite things in the world—started to take shape in her mind. “We can print out monthly calendars with our work schedules, figure out who gets her on what days, when we’ll need to hire Ashley.”
She’d get online first thing in the morning to find cute whiteboards for their apartments. No, she quickly reconsidered, recalling a digital organizer she’d seen once with a touchscreen. She would get them each one of those.
Blake smirked. “You’re already organizing everything in your head, aren’t you?”
She nodded. “You know I love schedules.”
“And yet you can’t remember to feed yourself,” he murmured. “You’re an enigma, Erik.” Then he grinned widely as he bent down to place a kiss on the puppy’s head. “We can do this.”
“This is insane,” she whispered, not bothering to mask her excitement that they were keeping this puppy.
“No, it’s not. It’ll be great.” There wasn’t a hint of doubt in Blake’s tone.
Erika lived alone by choice, after two crappy roommate experiences. As soon as she’d gotten to a place financially where she could live alone, she’d done so. And while she liked having a place all to herself, it would be nice to have some companionship to help ward off the loneliness that had taken residence. She still intended to date, but damn if the idea of having a dog to snuggle with at night while she found her Prince Charming didn’t hold a lot of appeal.
She used the tip of her finger to run it down the puppy’s nose. “I can’t believe we’re doing this.” Then, because it was her and she was nothing if not a planner, she started running down her mental list for Blake. “After the vet tomorrow, we need to go shopping. We’ll need food and water bowls for each of our places, and dog beds. Leashes and a collar. We can get a tag with both of our phone numbers on it. We need to research the best ways to train a puppy too. I know there’s a crate-training method that we?—”
Blake’s scoff threw her off, then she narrowed her eyes.
“We need to train her,” Erika insisted.
He simply held her gaze without replying.
“Shit. You’re going to spoil her rotten, aren’t you?” she asked.
He grinned. “I think we both know the answer to that question.”
“Blake,” she started.
“When Corky is with me, she’s sleeping in my bed,” Blake said. “We’re going to cuddle.”
She was already aware there was no way Corky wasn’t sleeping with her too. God. She was already dreading the nights when Blake got her, and she didn’t.
“I think the idea of crate training is for when you’re not home,” she pointed out.
He continued to shake his head. “I’m not shutting her in some damn box, period. It might traumatize her after what she went through tonight.”
When he put it that way, Erika had no way to argue back. “I guess we could go the paper-training route.” Then she added, “I’m ridiculously excited about this.”
“So am I. But…”
“But?” she prodded.
“I think we’re about to have our first puppy fight.”
