by Lee McKenzie
She looked at the ring on her hand, and then at him. “It is now.”
He held her face in his hands and kissed her. “Is it okay for something to be the best it can be, without having to be perfect all the time?”
He was shocked to see her eyes fill with tears.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to make you cry.”
“You didn’t.” She slid the ring off her finger and set it in a little glass dish on the counter next to the sink. “But you reminded me why I love you so much.”
“What did you say?”
She put her arms around him. “I love you.”
He lifted her onto the counter and positioned himself between her knees. Her arms stayed around him and he could feel the love in the way she kissed him.
“Where’s Hannah?” he asked when she let him up for air.
“In her bedroom down the hall.”
“So making love to you here on the kitchen counter is probably out of the question.”
“Very much out of the question.” She reached up to touch his hair, and winced. “I keep forgetting my hand.”
“We need to get you to the clinic.”
“I’ll have to get dressed first.”
She seemed in no hurry to move, though, so he slid a hand under her robe and up her leg. He groaned when he discovered just how undressed she really was. “You realize that letting you go now might actually kill me.”
She laughed and inched herself a little closer. “After we’ve been married for a while, the novelty will wear off.”
“Married? Yesterday you didn’t want anyone to know we were engaged.”
She adjusted herself so he had better access. “I changed my mind.”
“People will talk.”
“Since when do you care what other people think?”
“I don’t, but I thought you did.”
“I do. The people who matter aren’t going to be the ones doing the talking.” Her pupils were dark and dilated. “I think you’d better stop what you’re doing.”
“You’re sending mixed messages.”
She sighed and eased his hand from between her legs. “I’m good at that. Or bad, depending on how you look at it. But there’s Hannah, and I guess I should see a doctor.”
She held out her hand and he could see blood seeping through the gauze.
“Go get dressed,” he said. “I’ll drive.”
She slid her arms around him and held on for a minute. “I didn’t thank you last night for all the work you did.”
“And I didn’t tell you how proud I was of the job you did.”
“I think it was because we were fighting.”
“It didn’t feel like a fight.”
She smiled. “If you hadn’t figured out how to get rid of Candice, there would have been a fight.”
“You were jealous.”
“Only if I thought you were falling for her womanly wiles.”
“I was just being persuasive. That was your idea, not mine.”
“Excuse me?”
“Did you see the amount on the check she wrote?”
Leslie shook her head.
“Let’s just say, I can be very persuasive, too.”
“Do you think she’ll remember writing it?”
“I doubt it, so you should cash it before it bounces. But first you need to get dressed.”
She kissed him. “I’m going,” she said. She got as far as the doorway and came back. “I forgot something.” She took her ring from the dish and handed it to him. “I’ve changed my mind about this being an engagement ring.”
He felt like he’d been hit by a truck.
“You know, when the minister says, ‘With this ring…’?”
Was it possible she would say what he hoped she was going to say?
“I want it to be with this one.”
Yes, everything was possible.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-1024-4
WITH THIS RING
Copyright © 2007 by Lee McKenzie McAnally.
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