The Lilly Within the Ashes

Ch 27

Lilly

I could barely sleep last night due to excitement. All week I have been looking at multiple animal shelters to see if there were any puppies that would suite Anthony. I tried to get Jason involved with the adorable and cooing search, but he just shook his head and mumbled 'the things you do for the ones you love.' 

Now I'm trying to jump out of bed to get ready. Only problem is the heavily muscled and tattooed arm, tightly wrapped around me. Turning around, I peck the tip of his nose and instantly a small smile forms on the gorgeous man in front of me. "Mornin' beautiful." he moans. He goes for an actual kiss, but I push him away. "Morning! Are you ready to go get someone a puppy!" I squeal. "God no. Can't we get him flowers and a fucking Build-a-Bear or some shit like that?" I groaned for this was the hundredth time he's tried to convince me to give up on the dog. "Jason get your rear end up. We're getting a dog for Anthony whether you like it or not!" He goes to open his mouth but I stopped him. "I will not kiss you or hug you until we get the dog."  A spluttering of apologize and whines were heard when I escaped and entered the bathroom. 

Our morning flew within a blink of an eye. I was dragged by Jason to the car to head to see Anthony and then the shelter, because according to him he needs a kiss now. He tried multiple times to steal a kiss or a hug, but my small physic and quick dodges stopped him from getting what he wanted. 

Today was a walk day for Anthony. According to the plenty of calls from the hospital, Anthony will not practice walking unless Jason and I are there. In the exact words from the nurse over the phone, "He's a grumpy man child that needs to grow up and work with his doctors." So Jason and I head to the hospital early on the walk days. 

We entered the same hospital room for the millionth time and see Anthony yelling  at a poor girl. She looked like she was about to cry while Anthony basically told her that she sucked at her job and needed to quit so no other soul has to deal with her stupidity. Jason found these scenes hilarious. I on the other hand was upset in the beginning, but now just annoyed with Anthony's attitude towards the people helping him.  

I cleared my throat to get the grumpy man to look at me. Once Anthony noticed me, his angry expression  quickly turned into one of happiness. It was almost like he wasn't yelling at the poor girl in the first place.  "Hey sis!" I kept my frown. "Apologize to the poor girl Anthony." Jason was snickering behind me while Anthony looked at me with what would only be described as pure shock. "B-but she was fucking hurting me!" The girl started to tremble and I could tell she was going to cry any minute. "It's supposed to hurt Anthony! If you would have been working with her since the beginning, it wouldn't have been hurting as much!" 

In the end I had to apologize to the poor girl and told her we would take care of him. Once she ran out of the room, both men started to laugh. With a smack to both of them as hard as I could on their shoulders they stopped. I know it really didn't affect them, but it did shut them up. As they stood in silence, I stomped over to his walker and grabbed the prothesis. I threw the foot at Anthony, hitting him in the head, and forcefully put the walker in front of him. "Walk." I gritted through my teeth.

The entire time Jason and I were at the hospital, neither one of the boys said a word. It was almost comical really. These men killed people for a living and my tiny self scared them enough that they didn't talk for two hours. Their silence did make the hospital staff happy though. Anthony actually completed his PT and I got to leave without a headache.

When Jason and I arrived at the shelter, my smile returned and Jason was back to complaining about being kissed and hugged deprived. I ignored him and ran into the shelter with pure giddiness. 

"I'm sorry. The puppy you wanted to look at was taken this morning." My joy was deflated once I heard the front desk lady's words. "What do you mean the damn dog was taken?! She scheduled to see the dog!" The lady looked like she dealt with this all the time since she didn't even flinch. "Sir, the dog had a long visitor list. Those at the top of the list get first pickings. That's what happened here." Jason looked like he was about to pounce at her. Before any illegal actions were made, I grabbed his arm and smiled sweetly at the woman. "Could we look at dogs that are not on a waiting list please?"

There were only two dogs to look at. The first one was a one year old Husky with a pee problem. The second was a two year old Staffy. According to the front desk lady, the Staffy was given up due to a man's fiancé being scared of the dog. She thought the dog was a Pitbull and wanted it out of the house.  

The poor thing laid curled up in the corner with the saddest look on her face. Once Jason and I entered the petting room, the beauty stood up and hesitantly walked up to me. "Nope. We will go somewhere else." Jason tried to pull me out of the room but I ripped myself from him and bent down to the dog's eye level. "Lilly the dog looks bad." I quickly shushed him while I didn't leave my eyes from the cutest dog I have ever seen in front of me.  

Ten minutes later I was on the floor laughing while the dog was constantly licked my face. I could feel Jason's eyes on me while he stood guard in the corner of the room.  "Come on Jason. Stop being so stiff and come enjoy the dog." With a curt 'no' from him, the dog seemed to think it meant to go over to the big brute. She trotted up to him and laid her head on his torn up combat boots. "Fuck. You win." 

The pet store was enjoyable chaos on my part. The beautiful Staffy dragged me through the aisles while Jason tried to follow behind with a cart filled with the dog's stuff. The customers must of thought I was crazy since I was laughing the whole time while the man behind me looked like a ticking time bomb about to explode with anger.

We eventually got to the apartment and let the dog sniff around the house. I cooked dinner and once everything was cleaned up afterwards, Jason proposed watching some TV. He jumped onto the couch and patted the spot next to him, but the dog gave me the cutest eyes while laying on the floor. I obviously took the floor. 

"What?! Lilly I have been deprived of you all day! Get on the couch." This grumbling continued for awhile. "Jason stop complaining. Anthony will have the dog by tomorrow and it will be just you and I in the apartment." With a moaned 'thank god' he decided to join me. 

A few kisses here and there, I was able to leave the 'deprived' man and over joyed dog to get a glass of water. Knowing Jason was going to do some work soon, I went to the bedroom to grab my book as well. The moment I returned to the living room, I saw the cutest thing in the world. Jason was asleep on the floor with the dog curled up in his arms.