Not This Guy!
Page 17
Mrs. Calder took Angelina’s hands in hers. “Yes, she is. Welcome to the family, Angelina.” She heaved a healthy sigh as she regarded the two of them. “You look so perfect together.”
“We are perfect together,” Mike said, succumbing to the smile that was quickly becoming a fixed feature on his face.
“And don’t forget this little angel,” Mrs. Calder said, once more drawing Lily under her wing.
Mike looked at Lily. Outfitted in rows and rows of pink ruffles, she did resemble an angel. He grinned at the child. “We could never forget Lily. She’s too noisy.”
Mrs. Calder continued, addressing Angelina, “Thank you for sharing your daughter with us.” Turning to fix Mike with a motherly scowl, she added, “It’s about time I had a grandchild to spoil rotten.”
Mischief slid into Mike’s ever-present smile. “Maybe when you have more than one, you won’t spoil them quite so much.”
“Mommy says now that she and Dr. Mike are married, I can have a baby sister or brother soon,” Lily said.
Mike chuckled as Mrs. Calder’s jaw dropped. “Yes, Mother, we plan on having a baby. Soon. And if you start bawling again, I’m going to exile you to the bedroom with the dogs!”
“It’s perfectly acceptable to cry at a wedding,” his mother replied defensively.
“Between you and Suzie and Inez, it was a wonder the minister could hear himself think!” Mike teased. Inez had brought a beautifully wrapped wedding gift about the size of an electric can opener.
“I’d almost given up on you ever getting married,” Mrs. Calder told Mike in a lecturing tone. “And it was all so...beautiful.”
“Yes,” Mike agreed, putting his arm possessively around Angelina’s waist. “It was, wasn’t it?”
It had really happened, he thought contentedly. This time, it was real.
And it was forever. He felt it right down to the marrow of his bones later as he took Angelina’s hand in his for a mad sprint through a shower of birdseed tossed on their heads by people who loved them.
Angelina waved goodbye to Lily until the car carried them out of sight of the house, then settled back in the seat and sighed.
“Happy, Mrs. Calder?” he asked, placing his hand over hers.
“Yes,” she said. “But—”
But? Panic hit Mike like a ramrod to the guts. But?
“I wouldn’t want you to get the wrong idea,” she said.
“The wrong idea about what?”
“I know you promised to love me, and to be a good daddy to Lily and to give me all the babies I want and a typesetting machine so I can work at home.”
“Yes.”
“Well, I wouldn’t want you to think I married you for any of that.”
Relief swept through him. She was teasing. He could hear it in the tone of her voice. “Oh?”
“I wouldn’t want you to think that I married you because I loved you, either.”
A beat of silence followed.
“So why did you marry me?” he asked finally, playing along.
Her face broke into a devilish smile. “For the sex, of course.”
Mike shrugged philosophically and grinned. “I did promise you that, too, didn’t I?”
“Yes, Dr. Calder. You certainly did.”
“Well,” he said, with a shake of his head, “I guess a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.”
“Yes!” Angelina said. “And often.”
Mike laughed from sheer joy. “As often as you like, Angel. As often as you like.”
ISBN: 978-1-4592-8629-0
Not This Guy!
Copyright © 1995 by Glenda Sanders Kachelmeier
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