My Funny Valentine

by Rhonda Nelson

  “We won’t see you tomorrow, Bella,” Fayrene told her. “We have a meeting in, in—”

  “In Jackson,” Maggie supplied. “Be gone all day, so don’t look for us to come by tomorrow.”

  Puzzled by their odd behavior, Bella nodded. She didn’t have time to worry about her regulars and their quirks—she was too busy nursing a broken heart.

  ***

  He was dreaming of Bella. Her soft hands, softer lips. The inviting cradle of her hips. Bella’s fingers were roving over his chest, tickling his—

  A none-too-gentle poke in the ribs suddenly pierced Gray’s erotic dream. If that wasn’t enough to get his attention, the sharp “Mr. Cameron!” that followed the poke certainly did.

  “Is he dead?” someone asked.

  “I hope not,” another voice replied. “I’ll take the pleasure outta killing him.”

  At this threat upon his life, Gray cracked one eye open. Bella’s guardians came into bleary focus. What in the hell were they doing in San Francisco? In his bedroom, no less? Alarm shot through him. Gray instantly sat up, taking note of the time from his bedside clock. One-thirty. In the morning.

  “Is something wrong with Bella?”

  “Other than her broken heart, no,” Maggie replied, giving him a scathing look.

  Broken heart? He cringed.

  “You look like hell. What have you done to yourself?”

  “I—uh, nothing.” Gray knew he looked rough. He’d barely eaten and hadn’t shaved in a week. He hadn’t felt like it. He’d planned to get cleaned up tomorrow as soon as he’d finished making his final arrangements to move to Magnolia Grove. Things were taking longer than he’d anticipated.

  “It shows.” Maggie snorted.

  “What are your intentions toward our Bella, Mr. Cameron,” Lila wanted to know, eyes narrowed. “Why haven’t you called her? You’ll marry her, or else.”

  “You’re about as subtle as a sledgehammer, Lila,” Fayrene hissed. “Don’t you know a man needs to think that he’s making up his own mind? We said we’d give him a shove in the right direction since he seems to be a little confused, not knock him over the head with an ultimatum.” Fayrene smiled winsomely as Gray struggled to grasp the conversation. “Now, Gray, what Lila means is—“

  “What she means is this—Bella’s in love with you and you’re in love with her,” Maggie said. “We’re here to see to it that you set things right. Obviously you don’t know how to do it yourself.” Maggie gave Gray a hard look. “Bella’s taken Ethan out to my little cabin. The last time she went there, she’d just buried her husband and couldn’t bear to be alone in her own house.” Maggie paused so that the importance of that statement would sink in. “We expect you to come back with us—now—and bring her back home. With you. Where she belongs.”

  Gray inwardly winced with regret. Damn. He’d made a monumental mess of things. While he’d been trying to get his head on straight, he’d further hurt Bella. He didn’t want to hurt Bella, he wanted to love her.

  “Okay,” Gray said. He started to sling back the covers, but thought better of it. He slept in the buff.

  “Okay?” Hattie parroted. “You’re going to come?”

  “Of course, I am. I’d planned to leave tomorrow—“

  “It worked!” Fayrene exclaimed. “He’s coming back! We fixed it.”

  Maggie snorted. “Why were you ever in doubt? Didn’t I tell you he just needed a tiny push in the right direction?”

  “I knew it all along as well,” Lila chimed in.

  Gray started to tell them that he’d reached the same conclusion on his own, but why spoil their happiness? Let them think what they would. “Er, ladies?”

  The chattering stopped and four pairs of eyes turned to him expectantly. “Yes?”

  “I need to get up.”

  “Oh,” Maggie murmured knowingly. “Come on, girls. Time’s a-wastin’.” Maggie began to herd them to the door. Predictably, Fayrene dug her orthopedic shoes in.

  “Hey, maybe he could use a hand. I—“

  “Out!” Maggie demanded.

  Something occurred to Gray and he halted Maggie before she could close the door behind her. “Maggie, how did you get past the doorman?”

  Maggie’s gaze turned shrewd and she placed her hand over her heart. “Why, we walked, of course.”

  “I know that, but how?” Harry was usually very conscientious about his job. Gray found it hard to imagine that he’d been persuaded by this passle of southern ladies.

  “Lila slipped him a little of her special curative for his arthritis,” Maggie finally confessed. “Don’t worry. He’ll wake up in a few hours.”

  Slack-jawed, Gray watched as Maggie winked at him and slid out the door.

  ***

  “Why do I hafta wear a life jacket just to fish?” Ethan whined.

  “Because I want to torture you,” Bella said, deadpan.

  Ethan gave his mother a quizzical look, making Bella laugh. “If you were to accidentally fall into the lake, I don’t want you to drown. That’s why you have to wear a life jacket.”

  Ethan dug his toe in the dirt, sending a little shower of earth onto the half-lifeless Dog. “Awright. I’ll wear it.”

  Bella buckled the last clamp. “Thank you.”

  “Come on, Dog!” Ethan commanded.

  Dog didn’t so much as blink.

  Sighing, Ethan trotted off to get his fishing pole from the backseat of the car, then paused and looked back to Bella. “I’m glad you aren’t so sad no more, Momma.”

  Bella’s heart twisted. Her son was too young to have to worry about her. Though only a small child, he was all too perceptive of her moods. Despite her resolve not to let anyone know that she was nursing a broken heart, it would appeared that she’d been transparent, even to a four-year-old.

  Bella managed a wobbly grin. “Thanks, baby. That was sweet.”

  Ethan’s face scrunched with distaste. “Aw Momma, I ain’t sweet.”

  “That’s right,” a familiar masculine voice said from behind her. “Boys can’t be sweet, they’re too busy being thick-headed idiots.”

  Bella’s heart tripped in her chest.

  “Gray!” Ethan squealed. “Watcha doin’ down here? Are you gonna stay at Mrs. Maggie’s cabin with us?”

  “We’ll see, little man,” Gray replied.

  Bella had to get control of the situation before it spiraled out of control. She’d known this moment would come; she just wasn’t prepared for it to be so soon. “Ethan, practice your cast and I’ll fish with you in a minute.”

  Bella took a deep breath to settle her nerves, then turned to face Gray. It had been almost three weeks since she’d seen him. Three terrible weeks in which she’d mourned the loss of what might have been. Bella wanted to blast him into oblivion, to completely unload on him…but looking at him, she wasn’t able to.

  “Wh—what happened to you,” she asked instead, concerned welling within her rebellious heart. “You look horrible.”

  Gray smirked. “So I’ve been told.”

  Bella found her feet moving forward. “Honestly, Gray. Have you been sick?” Was that why she hadn’t heard from him? Why he hadn’t called? Bella had discounted the possibility when she’d thought of it before, but looking Gray now made her reconsider.

  Gray’s bloodshot eyes searched hers. “Bella, we have to talk. About us.”

  Bella halted her forward motion. She stiffened. “Us? There is no us.”

  Gray winced, then plowed a hand through his hair. “That’s the problem, I want there to be an us.”

  Thunderstruck, Bella could only stare at him. “What? You left here with barely a good-bye. I haven’t heard from you in more than two weeks—”She bit her lip as tears welled in her eyes.“—and you want there to be an us? Funny, but I got the opposite impression.” Bella swallowed. “You don’t owe me any excuse, Gray. I’m an adult, I knew what I was doing. Still, I somehow thought that maybe…”

  “That maybe our relatio
nship meant as much to me as it did to you?” Gray asked softly. He took a step forward. “Bella, it does—and more. When I’m with you...I don’t know, something happens here.” Gray thumped his chest. His eyes implored her. “I feel like I’m home. You, Bella, it’s you. You’re my home port…and—and I love you.”

  Bella looked up, her heart racing in her chest. He loved her? “What did you just say?”

  Gray took another step forward, so close that the heat from his body warmed her chilled form. His gaze locked on hers. He reached out and brushed a half-heart against her cheek. “I said that I love you.”

  Bella heard him, but couldn’t bring herself to accept it. Her brain was too scrambled, too shocked to absorb the impact of his words. Even though her mind couldn’t assimilate, her heart did, and the seed of hope he’d planted there took root and sprouted.

  Bella shook her head. “I—I don’t understand.”

  “Ah, Bella, I know you don’t and I’m sorry.” He paused for a moment, as though gathering his thoughts. “I just had to be sure. Long ago, I made the decision that my career would always come first. When I write, I sort of go into a trance. Sometimes it last for days. Remember, I told you about them? Every person I’ve ever dated hasn’t been able to handle it.” He paused again, unable to meet her gaze. “I was afraid that you wouldn’t either. I wouldn’t ask you to change your life just to accommodate me. And there’s more to this relationship than you and me…there’s Ethan. I needed time to think about that before we went any further. I wanted to be sure.”

  Bella nodded, glad that he’d taken the time to think, but rather hurt that he’d needed it. “I understand. I wouldn’t want you to be anything but sure.”

  “Listen, Bella,” Gray went on. “Everything changed when you came into my life. I don’t know what happened, but I can’t stand to be away from you. I love you. Truly.” His gaze searched hers again. Bella saw anguish there, and confusion, and hope—but mostly she saw love.

  So he did love her.

  Her heart soared, did a figure eight or two, then went into an exhilarating dive. “You want us?” she managed when she could speak.

  Gray nodded. “More than my next breath.”

  “Then we’re yours.”

  “You’re mine—“

  Bella cupped his beard-roughened jaw and cut off the rest of his sentence with a kiss. It was a hungry kiss, a desperate kiss and she packed every bit of her happiness into it. Every ounce of her love.

  At last she drew back to gaze into his eye. “I love you, too.”

  “You, do?”

  “Madly,” she admitted. “I’ve been miserable without you, too. I’ve missed you so much.”

  “Ah, Bella. My angel.” Gray’s lips met hers again. Fierce…possessive…erotic. Vaguely Bella felt something tug on her shirt. Ethan.

  “Whatcha doin?” her little prince wanted to know.

  “Uh,” Bella stammered.

  “I’m proposing,” Gray told him.

  “Proposing?” Ethan echoed. “What does that mean?”

  “It means I’m asking your momma to marry me and we’ll be a family.” Gray squatted down to eye level with Ethan. Tears of joy gathered in Bella’s eyes. “Is that all right with you?”

  Ethan pondered for a moment. “Does that mean you’ll be my new daddy?”

  Gray nodded. When he spoke his voice was rough with emotion. “Yeah, it does.”

  Ethan leapt into the air, then started to skip around them. “Yippee! Yippee! Yippee! I’m gettin’ a daddy!”

  To Bella’s astonishment, the usually oblivious Dog barked. Then a chorus of whoops sounded from behind a stand of nearby bushes. “Did you hear that, Maggie?” Fayrene asked joyously. “They’re gettin’ married!”

  “I heard it, I’m not deaf,” Maggie countered.

  “Oh, Lord,” Hattie began to pray. “Thank you…”

  “You owe me five bucks, Fayrene,” Lila said. “I told you they’d get it worked out in less than ten minutes.”

  Smiling, Gray leaned down and rested his forehead against Bella’s. “I suppose they’ll have to come to the wedding.”

  Smiling, Bella nodded. “But I promise they won’t come on the honeymoon.”

  Gray growled appreciatively. “I’ll hold you to that.”

  Bella tipped her lips up and offered Gray another kiss. “I don’t care…so long as you hold me.”

  Epilogue

  One year later…

  “It’s time to go!” Maggie shouted excitedly. “Remember the drill. Lila, get the bag. Fayrene, grab the video camera. Hattie, get Ethan. Let’s move, people. Move! Move! Move! We’re gonna have a baby!”

  “I told you they would have everything under control,” Bella huffed between contractions as her husband carried her through the front door. “Really, Gray,” Bella protested, exasperated. “I can walk.”

  “No need to walk,” came his stressed-out reply. “I’ll carry you.”

  “My contractions are still eight minutes apart. It could be hours before I deliver.”

  “Good,” he grunted. “Save your strength.”

  Bella grinned despite herself. Her he-man husband had been a bundle of nerves since she’d learned of her pregnancy nine months ago. He’d suffered morning sickness, cravings, and all the other ailments of pregnancy right along with her. Were he not so pitiful, the situation would be funny.

  “Ohhhh,” Bella panted. “I feel another one coming on.” Gray gritted his teeth as his arms clenched tightly about her. “I know,” he ground out painfully.

  Bless his heart, he did, Bella thought, still amazed by her husband’s strange ability to feel her pain. She hated to break it to him, but it only got worse. It suddenly occurred to Bella that this was every woman’s secret fantasy—making their husband endure the pain of childbirth.

  Gray placed Bella gently in the front passenger seat and quickly buckled her in, then rounded the vehicle. Maggie tooted the horn behind them and, smiling, gave them a thumbs-up. Bella chuckled silently.

  Within minutes, they were at the hospital. Gray pulled into the circular drive, then jumped out and hauled Bella from the seat and back into his arms.

  “I really can walk, Gray,” Bella tried again.

  “Just let me do this.”

  Bella nodded, feeling her abdomen tighten again. Her contractions were coming quicker. Harder. She chanced a look at Gray and noticed he’s gone white with pain and worry. Concern welled in her.

  “It’ll be all right,” she told him.

  Gray’s pale green gaze met hers. “I know, angel. I just hate not being able to help you.”

  “Just be there.”

  Gray pressed a kiss to her temple. “Always.”

  “It’s a girl,” Lila insisted as the guardians trooped into the hospital. “I know it’s a girl.”

  “Oh, yeah,” Fayrene countered. “Put your money where your mouth is. I’ll be one of my antique thimbles that it’s a boy.”

  Bella and Gray shared a look. “We should have found out when we had the ultrasound,” Gray told her.

  “What? And miss all this fun?” Bella teased. “Besides, they would have simply found something else to bet on.”

  “Forget them, angel.” His tender gaze caressed her. “Let’s go have a baby.”

  ***

  Utterly exhausted, Gray gently crawled into the bed beside his wife and kissed the downy head of his newborn daughter, Danielle Rose. His heart swelled with pride, joy, and so many other stupendous emotions. He’d been utterly helpless to do anything for her during the delivery and had felt every ounce of her pain. His wife was an amazing woman. Utterly amazing.

  Gray still couldn’t believe that Bella was his. That he’d been so lucky to have no only found a woman whom he loved beyond distraction, but to literally feel the power of her love as well. Asking her to marry him, to share his life, had been the smartest move he’d ever made and he thanked God every day for his family. Now they had this new addition, this product of
their love; the feeling coursing through him were almost more than he could bear.

  “You did good,” Gray whispered to Bella.

  She grinned sleepily. “So did you.”

  “What’d I do?” Ethan wanted to know

  Bella and Gray turned at the sound of his voice and chuckled. “Nothing yet,” Gray told him. “You have a very important job, though—you’ve got to be a big brother.”

  Ethan’s little chest puffed with pride. “I can do that, Daddy.”

  Daddy. Gray’s heart tripped every time he heard that innocent word come from his son’s lips. Gray had longed for Ethan to call him by that name, but never asked. Ethan had just suddenly started doing it one day.

  Gray tousled Ethan’s white-blond locks. “I know you can, little man.” Gray leaned over and pressed another gentle kiss against Bella’s cheek. "I love you, Bella."

  “I love you more.”

  “Yeah, yeah, we know how much you love each other,” Maggie said dismissively as she and her elderly followers paraded into Bella’s private room. She pushed her shirtsleeves up and gazed at the newborn with undisguised joy. “Let me get a good look at that baby.”

  “Me first!” Hattie yelped.

  “Dream on,” Lila broke in. “I called first dibs. Somebody owes me a thimble.”

  Gray grinned and looked at Bella.

  “Think of it this way,” she told him with a mischievous twinkle. “We’ll never want for a babysitter.”

  There was that. And he couldn't ask for a better family.

  If you enjoyed My Funny Valentine

  try out these other Rhonda Nelson reads!

  Double Dare

  The Perfect Proposal

  About The Author

  A Waldenbooks best-selling author, two-time RITA nominee, Romantic Times Reviewers Choice nominee, and National Readers' Choice Award Winner Rhonda Nelson writes hot romantic comedy for Harlequin Blaze and other Harlequin imprints. With more than thirty-five published books to her credit and many more coming down the pike, she’s thrilled with her career and enjoys dreaming up her characters and manipulating the worlds they live in. In addition to a writing career she has a husband, two adorable kids, a Black Lab, and a beautiful Bichon Frise who dogs her every step and who frequently cocks his head in utter bewilderment at his master. (Rhonda often affects people like this.) She and her family make their chaotic but happy home in a small town in northern Alabama.