Beware of Doug
Page 26
Lily laughed and reveled in the simple fact of his calling himself her boyfriend.
He kissed her again, then sat up.
“So old Gerald got married, eh?” he asked, running a finger down the side of her neck, making her skin tingle.
“Evidently.” She shivered under his touch, and smiled. “And to Doris, who’ll be perfect for him. She’ll make certain he makes partner, that’s for darn sure.”
“Ah, that type.”
“Yes.” She nodded. “That type.”
“Interesting,” he mused, still tracing that finger along her skin.
“What’s that?” she asked.
“Well, with Gerald going off and marrying someone he’s known for a while, with none of you the wiser to what was going on between them, even though he was acting as if he was going to marry you…”
“Does this humiliation have a point?” she asked dryly.
“In fact it does,” he answered with a sly smile. “The point is, that makes him something of a Mr. Churchill, doesn’t it? I mean, he couldn’t be your Knightley anymore, not with his underhanded ways and unchivalrous behavior. Not to mention his secret girlfriend.”
Lily gaped up at him. “Did you get all this from the movie?”
He gave her an insulted look. “No. I read the book.”
“You read the book!” she repeated. “When?”
He smiled. “Just about a week ago. The way you talked about it, I wanted to see what it was all about. Does listening to it count? I got the unabridged version.”
She grabbed his hand and pushed herself up so she was sitting across from him on the mattress. “Are you telling me you listened to Emma? By Jane Austen. That Emma?”
He gave her a bemused look. “Yes, that Emma. The one with the lying Mr. Churchill and the admirable Mr. Knightley.”
Lily’s smile had to be blinding. She could not have been more surprised. Brady had read her favorite book—to please her! Or understand her. Either way, it was wonderful.
“You know, I think you might be right,” she said, thinking about it. Gerald hadn’t been her Knightley—Brady had. He was the one who’d been true all along, almost without her noticing. And Gerald—well, running off and marrying someone else was pretty Churchill-esque. “Gerald’s behavior does put him in a league with Frank Churchill. But I wouldn’t call you Mr. Knightley, if that’s what you’re getting at.”
Brady frowned and crossed his arms over his chest. “You wouldn’t?”
“No.” She shook her head, smiling, realizing with amazement that despite her own bunglings she’d ended up with exactly what she’d wanted. She echoed one of her favorite lines from the movie. “I’d call you my Mr. Knightley.”
Brady grinned and with that they leaned together at the same time, meeting in a kiss both tender and heartfelt, a kiss that promised everything.
As they kissed, Doug jumped up on the bed and squeezed between them, lying down as they separated, laughing. Almost at once he began to snore.
Epilogue
Doug didn’t think of him as the New Guy anymore. Now he was the Good Guy, this guy that Lily called Brady.
There were many reasons for Doug’s conversion on the issue. For one thing, there was that game with the feather, which he occasionally repeated, though the shoe never made another appearance. But now he even lifted Doug up onto the brand-new seat of his big shiny toy and drove him around.
Doug was refreshed to discover that the seat was much better for sitting on than consuming, and happily jumped up onto it even when the thing wasn’t moving. It made a nice warm spot to lie down on sunny days.
Lily had put a stop to the rides the moment she’d seen one, however, so now they only did it when she was at work, and only in the backyard. But that was okay. It scared the kibble out of any cats who passed by.
Shortly after the Good Guy started spending so much time at the house—after Lily realized how hard the Good Guy worked to make Doug happy with special treats and games and whatnot—Doug decided it was time to start returning his footwear.
One by one, Doug went to his secret spot—behind the big metal cylinder in the basement—and picked out a shoe, bringing it back upstairs to lay it, like an offering, on the altar of Good Guy’s front mat. Sometimes he was even able to bring it up to Lily’s bed, where the Good Guy was often to be found these mornings. The first time Doug had done this, he’d received the heartwarming benefit of loud laughter, first from the Good Guy, then, after some coaxing, from Lily herself.
This made Doug happy. The Good Guy was the first male to inspire Lily to laugh so much, making it easier for Doug to let him do things for him.
Now they were planning some kind of big party, for which Doug would get to wear a special collar, one with a big black bow tie on it. Lily kept calling it his “tuxedo” but Doug thought of it as his black bone collar. Someday he’d get it off and bury it, as it deserved.
After that, it looked like the Good Guy would be bringing all his footwear over to Lily’s house to put in the little side room with hers.
This was perfect for Doug, as he could use some help keeping all the other males away from his Lily. The Good Guy was most effective at that. Doug wasn’t sure how, exactly, since he never peed outside, and certainly had never secured the perimeter with it the way Doug had.
But still, Good Guy turned out to be such a fun and useful presence, that Doug decided to let him stay.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Captain Jeff Smith, pilot extraordinaire, for his generous help with the duties of a private jet pilot. I only wish I could have used more of the fascinating and informative details he gave me. If there are any mistakes in the story, they are entirely mine.
About the Author
ELAINE FOX grew up in Maryland in a family of avid readers and talented writers. After receiving her B.A. in English, she spent several years working in academic and corporate environments before deciding to pursue her dream of writing a book. Fox is now the USA Today bestselling author of thirteen contemporary and historical romances and three anthologies. She lives in Virginia, where she is currently at work on her next book.
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By Elaine Fox
BEWARE OF DOUG
GUYS & DOGS
SPECIAL OF THE DAY
HOT STUFF
IF THE SLIPPER FITS
MAN AT WORK
MAYBE BABY
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
BEWARE OF DOUG. Copyright © 2007 by Elaine Fox. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
ePub edition January 2007 ISBN 9780061739019
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