Growling and telling her not to waste her sympathy would not be a great idea. “She’s better off,” he said.
They were quiet after that but Guy figured Jilly was back in the realm of her horror and wished he could wipe that out for her.
He needed to do something he’d been putting off. “Just a minute,” he said, and got up.
Jilly’s eyes focused on him and she smiled. “You’re just the best dog dad.”
Trouble was, they weren’t sure when the dog got pregnant, but he had something else on his mind, and when he returned from his room again, he felt like a fool. His hands trembled and he kept them in his pockets. Please don’t let me flub this.
“I did what I was told to do,” he said. “I wanted to do it, too.”
“You did?” From Jilly’s expression he had her full attention.
“If you don’t like it, back it goes. I have a couple of other things for you to see, just in case.”
Her smile started slow, but spread as wide as he’d ever seen it. “This should be good,” she said.
He pulled his hands from his pockets, a small box in one palm, and crossed his arms. “A comment like that could be grounds for an annulment.”
She burst into laughter. “We aren’t married and we couldn’t anul one if we were—not without a bunch of explanations.”
“Good,” he said, and felt so very good—until he thought about the box again. “Okay, this is different so you may not like it. Made in Spain by an old jewelry family. Do you like colored glass?”
Jilly’s lips parted and remained that way.
“Not the gems,” he said hurriedly. “I have such a renegade mouth. Stupid, stupid. Enamel and glass or something like that. I like it but you probably won’t.”
She sighed.
“It’s kind of like a red sunrise. There’re diamonds along the straight edges and rays go up from the sun. The lines between the stuff are eighteen karat. The rest of the ring’s eighteen karat—except for the glass, I mean the enamel glass.”
“Sounds like a fruit salad,” Jilly said, and fell back on her pillows laughing. “Guy, I love you more than my life but you worry about the small stuff too much.”
He almost told her there was nothing small about this stuff. Instead he opened the box with an unsteady hand and held it over her face where she could see the ring.
It fell on her face.
“Ow.” She sat up again and picked up the glowing thing. “Oh. I’ve never seen anything like this. I don’t put it on my own finger. You do.”
Of course he did. “I know that.” He took back the ring and slid it onto the ring finger of her left hand. He cleared his throat. “Will you please marry me?”
“Yes.” She turned her hand this way and that. “I’ve wanted to marry you for so long it’s a wonder I haven’t grown mold waitin’.”
“I tried not to love you,” he said. “Didn’t work. You forced my hand.”
He thought she turned a little pink but she said, “You bet I did. What a ring. I feel like a greedy kid, but I can hardly take my eyes off it. It’s incredible.”
Guy expanded his chest. “I knew you would—no, I didn’t know you’d love it but I’m glad you do. Nat said you would.”
Once more her lips parted and she blinked. “Nat helped you choose my ring.”
“No! He nagged till I showed it to him—after I bought it. Nouveau 1910.”
“Huh?”
“That’s the name of the collection.”
“You did your homework. Guy, would you do something for me?”
“Anythin’, you know that.”
“Take off your robe and climb carefully into this bed. Just to be beside me.”
Hoo mama, he knew he was a weak man in some areas and he should refuse. Guy got up and dropped the robe. And now, fool that he was, he stood there naked. He’d forgotten that.
Jilly whistled and he edged slowly into her bed. “Don’t move,” he said. “Don’t touch anythin’.”
“You can touch anythin’ you like.”
No, he couldn’t, but she drove him nuts. Putting an arm over her, he kissed her neck and settled his chin on top of her good shoulder. “Ah, cher, this feels so good. Won’t be long before the collarbone will be completely healed and the sling can go. You’ll still have to be careful, but…” He decided she could make up the end of his sentence herself.
A different sound, definitely from Goldilocks, froze him. The dog thumped her way into the room, whimpering between sad, pained little noises.
Guy lay still.
Jilly found his hand and squeezed it. “Do you think it’s time?”
He left the bed and ran to his bedroom again, to return with a thermometer. Goldilocks struggled at first but gave up and let him take her temperature. Guy read it and squared his shoulders. “It’s dropped significantly, just like my book says. This is it. Clever girl. We love you. We love your beautiful babies.” He crooned to her, put his face close to hers, and didn’t take offence when she walked away from him.
“I’m going to try to keep her in my room,” he said. “She’ll need to keep walkin’ so I’ll pull my bed out from the wall so she can make bigger circles.”
Jilly swung her feet to the floor and reached for her robe.
“Back in bed,” Guy said. “Now.”
“Help me with this.” She pushed her arm into a sleeve and struggled to drape the rest of the robe around her shoulders.
“Hardheaded woman.” Guy finished the job for her and fastened one button at the neck. “All you do is watch.”
“That’s about all I can do.” She sounded disappointed, but she followed Guy next door, ogling her ring every few steps.
Guy examined Goldilocks like a man who had been dealing with pregnant dogs forever. “She’s been in labor longer than we’ve known about. She’s bulging and there’s fluid.”
“I’ll call Reb,” Jilly said with a panicky feeling in her tummy.
“Put that down,” Guy said when she picked up the phone. “Even if Reb were a vet, she’s in no shape to come out here in the middle of the night.” He held a towel at the ready.
What felt like only minutes passed before Guy gently wiggled a black blob free of Goldilocks. With a soft towel, he rubbed the sac away from the puppy and cut the cord. “Wow,” he said. “Number one and we’ve just begun. That’s it, I like the way you sound, pup. Jilly, all you have to do is help me keep ’em warm and keep Goldilocks from accidentally stompin’ on them. Rub this one gently.”
“Is that all?” she said, taking the firstborn and tucking a piece of fleece around it. Already its mouth opened hungrily. “Healthy puppy here.”
“Cyrus wants to marry us and I’ve told him it’ll work.”
Jilly felt disoriented. “You did what?”
“Puppy two comin’ to you.”
On autopilot, Jilly dealt with another newborn. “We’re both fallen-away Catholics, more or less. I thought we’d have a justice of the peace.”
“And ruin Cyrus’s life?”
“Oh, get on.”
“He’s comin’ to start talkin’ to us tomorrow. Don’t worry, they don’t say you gotta bring the kids up Catholic anymore.”
She realized Guy was on an overload, but this was too much. “Did you also find out if we have to give up birth control?”
“No. And I’m not going to. We’ll have to give it up till we get pregnant, but we’ll make our own decisions about things like that.”
“Pregnant?” she cried. If her hands weren’t full, she’d throw something at him. “When did you think we’d get around to talkin’ about that? You take the cake, Guy Gautreaux. You’re gettin’ carried away with this birth thing.”
He pushed a third pup into her lap and returned at once to Goldilocks. “She’s delivering fast,” he said.
Jilly started rubbing again, but she managed to smile at her ring while she did so. “Sounds like you’ve got good plans. I wouldn’t want to hurt Cyrus—or you.”
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ISBN: 978-1-4603-0853-0
A GRAVE MISTAKE
Copyright © 2005 by Stella Cameron.
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A Grave Mistake Page 39