There was a list of reasons as long as the Rideau Canal why this was not the best time in Ilya’s life to become a dog owner. Shane was about to start listing them, but Ilya’s mouth was stretched wide in one of his rare unguarded smiles, and it made all the reasons float away.
Shane reached out a tentative hand and stroked one of Anya’s ears. “Man. She’s so soft.”
“She just had a bath,” Ilya said. “I took her to the dog spa. Full treatment.”
Shane smiled. “She’s going to be so spoiled.”
“Oh yes. Terrible. Come see all her toys I bought.”
It was not a small amount of toys. As soon as Shane reached Ilya’s living room he spotted at least a dozen brightly colored things on the floor, and on the couch, and there was what looked like a chunk of rope on the coffee table. There was also a luxurious dog bed near the fireplace.
“So, um,” Shane said. “When did you get Anya?”
“Yesterday.”
Shane laughed. “Glad you didn’t go overboard shopping for her or anything.”
“The dog spa sells toys.”
Ilya set Anya on the floor, and she immediately ran over to a stuffed seal and began chomping on it happily. Shane didn’t know much about pets, but he would have expected a dog that had been abandoned to be more timid and rough-looking. Shane hugged Ilya from behind. “I love you, but I have to ask this: Are you sure you didn’t steal someone else’s dog?”
“No! Listen.” Ilya told Shane about how Anya had been found out in the country, and how Harris’s family had looked after her. They’d continued to look after her after Ilya decided, more or less immediately, to adopt her, until he had enough downtime to properly get her used to his house.
They spent the rest of the morning playing with Anya on the living room floor. She was tireless, joyfully chasing after anything they tossed and proudly returning it to them. When they took breaks, she would wiggle her way into one of their laps for pets, completely shameless and adorable. Shane realized he was more into dogs than he’d thought. They took her for a walk, which meant strolling around Ilya’s neighborhood together, but that was okay. Shane smiled at the little red boots Ilya put on Anya’s feet.
“Is to protect from the salt,” Ilya explained. “And keeps her little paws warm. At the spa they said she does not need a sweater because her hair is long. Too bad because there was a sweater that looked like a strawberry and was so cute.”
“They didn’t have one in your size?” Shane teased.
They walked beside each other on salt-crusted sidewalks. Shane itched to hold Ilya’s hand, so he kept his own hands stuffed firmly in his coat pockets. Soon, he reminded himself. Soon they’d be…well, a family, he supposed. Now that Anya was in the picture.
“So,” Shane asked carefully, “when you’re on the road…”
“There is a place that can take her,” Ilya said. “Like a hotel for dogs.”
“A kennel?”
“A hotel for dogs. I have already talked to them, booked time. I went a few days ago to tour it. Very nice. She will be okay there.”
That seemed like an easy enough solution. Although Shane suspected Ilya would worry about Anya whenever they were apart. “Does the hotel have a live camera so you can watch her?”
“Of course it does,” Ilya said.
“You know you can’t use the coaches’ iPads to check on her during games, right?”
Ilya was silent a few seconds too long, then said, “I know.”
They didn’t have sex that night because when Shane had tried to get things started, Anya had started whimpering outside Ilya’s bedroom door.
Shane paused in the middle of the trail he was kissing up Ilya’s inner thigh. “Go get her,” he said, smiling and sighing at the same time.
Ilya bolted out of bed and opened the door. “Anya, sweet girl. What is wrong? Are you lonely?” He picked her up and carried her to the bed.
Shane was sure this was setting a bad precedent, but Ilya was lying on his back with Anya’s head resting on his bicep and it was really hard to care about rules.
Shane lay on his side, perpendicular to Ilya, and rested his head on Ilya’s stomach. He joined Ilya in petting Anya, enjoying the soothing feel of soft fur and warm dog under his fingers. He put a hand on her back and felt the soft rise and fall of her tiny body as she breathed.
The room was quiet, and so full of love it was almost suffocating. And if someone had told Shane that morning he’d rather pet a dog until she fell asleep than have sex with his boyfriend, he never would have believed them. But life was full of surprises.
“I think she’s asleep,” Shane whispered.
The only response from Ilya was a sigh that sounded a bit like a snore. Shane raised his head, and smiled at his sleeping boyfriend, who looked happier and more at peace than Shane had seen him in months.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Ilya was relieved to learn that Anya enjoyed car rides. He was nervous, when, about a week after adopting her, he drove with her for the first time to Montreal.
“Did the stuff arrive that I ordered?” Ilya asked Shane over the phone as he drove. “The bed, and the—”
“The one million dog toys? Yeah, they arrived.”
“Was not one million. Did you set the bed up? Maybe near the fireplace?”
“Yes, it’s all set up. Don’t worry. And listen, I may have mentioned that you got a dog in front of Jade and Ruby, and now the Pikes want us to visit.”
“Today?”
“Yeah. Maybe this afternoon?”
Ilya hadn’t seen Hayden’s kids since they’d officiated his and Shane’s “wedding.”
“Yes, okay. But if Anya is freaked out, we will leave.”
“If anything freaks Anya out, it’s going to be this weird creepy-faced stuffed banana toy you bought her.”
Ilya heard the squeak of a toy being squeezed over the phone. “Do not wear out the toys before Anya gets to play with them, Hollander.”
Shane laughed and squeaked the toy twice more. “Better hurry, then.”
“Aw, man. Now they’re really gonna start asking for a dog,” Hayden lamented.
Ilya, Shane, and Hayden were standing together in Hayden’s living room, watching the four kids and Jackie play with Anya. Ilya had been worried about the number of new people, especially kids, but Anya had made fast friends with everyone.
“Get one,” Ilya said. “You would not even notice, with all these kids.”
“I’d notice,” Hayden sighed. “And Jackie would definitely notice having someone else to look after while I’m on the road.”
“Anya stays at a hotel for dogs when Ilya’s away,” Shane said.
“Like a kennel?”
“No,” Ilya said irritably. “Is a hotel.”
“He takes her to a spa,” Shane said.
Hayden laughed. “Jesus, I’m jealous of this dog.”
Ilya folded his arms. “So is Shane, I think.”
Shane bumped lightly against him.
“Oh shit,” Hayden said, looking at his phone. “I forgot about a thing I have to—um. Be right back.”