Patching The Past (The Extended Hobson Family Trilogy: Book 3)

The Pet Store Adventure

 It's only been two weeks since Danny and I got married and I don't remember being any happier in my life than I am now. Ben and Gabe have accepted me better than neither Danny nor I ever imagined. We both expected them to treat me like they had before and nothing would change, but we were both shocked when Ben and Gabe both decided to call me their mom when talking to other people. Gabe has even started to call me Mom instead of Meli on a regular basis. Ben, won't actually call Danny and me by anything but our names when he talks to us, but when he talks about us to others, he calls us his mom and dad. Danny and I getting married just only two weeks ago has already brought our family closer together.

Danny and I talked it over just a few nights back, after learning that one of the couples in our church family is expecting that we are okay with just having Ben and Gabe. If God sees it fit for us to have a child together, than neither of us would be against it, but it isn't a necessity. We're happy with our little family the way it is right now. We did decide though that a family pet may be overdue. Today, we all piled into Danny's car, that he promised to teach me to drive, and went to the pet store a couple of towns over to find a pet of some sort.

As we walk into the small store, Ben and Gabe beg Danny and me to go over to the reptiles. I'm not a huge fan of the reptile area, mainly because of the snakes, but I know the guys love them. We all make our way over and at the first sign of a snake, I grab hold of Danny's hand harder than I had planned to do. He looks at me and laughs.

"Afraid of a little snake, are we?" I glare at Danny, but I can't keep the smile off my face. Ben and Gabe are bright-eyed, fascinated by all of the reptiles.

"Before we go any further, I only have one restriction here, no snakes." I say, and the boys' faces dim a little. "That doesn't mean I'm opposed to something like let's say a lizard or frog, only snakes."

"So I can get one of the lizards?" Ben asks enthusiastically.

"Hold your horses there Squirt. Let's see what other animals this store has before we make up our minds." Danny says and leads us towards the dogs. Gabe looks at each of them and one in particular catches his eye. It's an Australian Cattle Dog, which I found out last night is Danny's favorite breed of dog. The dog is running around in its cage and spinning in circles, just looking at Gabe. Ben sees this and joins Gabe and the dog starts to bark happily.

"Think we're getting a dog?" I quietly ask Danny. We're standing close enough to watch the boys interact with the dog, but far away enough so they can't hear us.

"I sure wouldn't mind one. Look at how happy the boys are."

"More than that, look how happy that dog is. I noticed before Gabe went over and talked to it, all it did was mope in its cage. I'm pretty positive we are going home with that dog today."

"Where would we keep him?"

"He's a big dog and has a lot of energy, maybe it would be best to keep him outside. You and the boys could work together to make him a doghouse."

"What will you be doing during that time instead of helping us?"

"Taking care of my new cat of course." I walk away from where Danny and I had been standing, triumphantly, and closer to the boys, but still out of their earshot.

"Cat? What cat? We never agreed on a cat." Danny says as he quickly catches up to me.

"If you get a dog, then I get a cat. It's just that simple."

"It is not that simple. What if we end up getting a you know what for you know who?" It may seem unbelievable, but I know exactly what and who Danny is talking about, he means a lizard for Ben.