Page 48 of Keeping Penny

“Well, yeah, it would be weird for us to live apart when we’re married,” Laryn said sarcastically.

“Your proposal was so awesome,” Penny said.

“It was, wasn’t it?” Laryn said with a far-off look. “Tate said he was going to be super romantic and make it a proposal I wouldn’t be ashamed to tell our kids and grandkids about, and he was right.”

“Totally,” Penny agreed.

“Thanks for recording it for me, Mandy,” Zita told her friend.

“Of course.”

“And Waffles is settling in?” Zita asked.

“Yes. Except…” Laryn’s voice trailed off.

“Except what?” Jen asked. “He’s gonna need some time to acclimate to his new home. Sometimes they can be destructive or forget how to be housebroken, if he ever was. You need patience, but I promise it’ll be worth it in the end.”

“I know all that.” Laryn nodded. “And Waffles is more than settled already. He walked into the apartment, looked around, and made a beeline for the blanket Tate put down for him. It’s just…is there such a thing as too comfortable?”

“No.”

“I don’t think so.”

“It’s great that he feels at home already.”

Laryn nodded again. “I agree. We’ve found that he loves to burrow under the covers. Especially if we’re also in bed. He prefers our bed to the big fluffy one we got for him.”

“Awwwww,” Jen said.

“Yeah, it’s adorable. Except when we want some sexy times,” Laryn said with a little smile. “We have to kick his cute butt out of the bed, which makes me feel horrible, and he always whines pathetically, even though he has a perfectly comfortable bed of his own. But it’s hard to, you know, when we can hear him crying in the other room. So last night we put his bed in our room, thinking maybe that would help the situation. Well, we were in the middle of…you know…and completely in the moment, when Waffles, who’d jumped onto the bed without us even knowing because we were otherwise engaged, licked Tate’s ass!”

There was shocked silence in the room—before everyone burst into hysterical laughter.

Laryn was grinning from ear-to-ear as she went on. “He yelled, ‘What the hell?’ And I thought he was talking to me, because I had no idea Waffles was on the bed or had licked him. I moaned extra loud and said, ‘What the hell, indeed,’ because I was just going with what he was saying. Then he stopped moving altogether and looked behind him. Waffles was standing there with what I can only describe as a smile on his doggy face.”

She was giggling now, and Penny couldn’t stop laughing. Neither could anyone else.

“Needless to say, that kind of ruined the mood. But Waffles was extremely pleased with himself, since we let him burrow right back under the covers, where he snored all night, happy as a clam. Oh…and the dog farts. Bad. They’re room-clearing bad. We don’t dare waft the covers while he’s buried under there. We need to figure something out about that. Change his food or something, because it’s awful.”

“Oh my God, please stop, my stomach hurts,” Mandy said, still laughing hard.

“So things are going well then,” Zita dead-panned, attempting to control her giggles.

“Honestly? Yes. Even with the Butt Cheek Lick Incident, which it shall be hereby known as, and the farting, Waffles is the sweetest dog. We have no idea what his background is, but he seems so appreciative to be with us, to have food and a warm bed. I thought I loved Tate before, but he scored huge points arranging to get Waffles for me.”

“I love that for you and Tate. And Waffles,” Mandy said with a huge grin.

“Me too,” Laryn agreed.

Penny couldn’t remember a time when she’d had as much fun as she was having tonight. She’d probably laughed with classmates when she was in high school, but the girls she knew back then weren’t true friends. As soon as they graduated, she’d never talked to them again.

But she had a feeling these women would be in her life forever. She hadn’t known them long, but they’d embraced her as if they’d been friends since grade school.

“So…you and Pyro are getting along, huh?” Laryn suddenly teased Penny.

She blushed but nodded. She wasn’t going to pretend she and Pyro weren’t dating, not that anyone would believe her anyway. “He’s the complete opposite of my former husband. In temperament, in how he treats me and Bowie, and how open he is about what he wants and what he’s thinking.”

“Our guys, they have a tendency to be that way,” Zita agreed. “I’m not sure if it’s a byproduct of their jobs and how they’re in constant communication when they’re flying, or if it’s just the way they’re wired. But it’s awesome, isn’t it?”