It was better than her saying outright she wasn’t allowed to have them because she wasn’t supposed to be alive to breed a bunch of new people into existence. “Afraid it’s too far off your new paradigm?”
“New paradigm?” she repeated, and then shook her head. “No. More afraid I might turn mean, like my father. What if my child, no matter how well I try to raise it, turns into the world’s biggest polluter and consumer?”
“We won’t let that happen.” He’d slipped that “we” casually in there and watched her smile return before adding, “So long as you don’t make them wear that snowsuit.”
“You haven’t asked me to marry you yet.” She laughed, getting Max’s attention.
Anson shoved the big furball back before they both got licked on the mouth. “I’m working up to it!” When Max would not be dissuaded from licking them, Anson stood and pulled her up from the floor, then set her on the counter where he could kiss her safely and add, “But, it’s going to be a lot easier to ask now that you’ve already said yes.”
She laughed against his lips. “I did not!”
“Yes, you did. I heard you. Plain as day.”
Flinging her arms around his neck, she kissed him again and then peeked around him toward the entrance. “We have to lock the door. Because it’s definitely time I give you the tour of my futon.” With a bounce in her step she scampered to the door and then back to take him by the hand. “Just so you know, it’s a naked futon tour. We like to keep things natural around here...”
EPILOGUE
“NO CHAMPAGNE.”
Ellory Graves drank once a year. Once! But not this year. She looked at her new husband, who had spoken the words, and made a face at him as he shooed off the waiter carrying a tray laden with sparkling flutes of bubbling liquid amber yum-yum. They’d been married since Thanksgiving. True to his word, he’d waited until she was ready for the ring, which happened to be a few months after she’d been ready to make a baby...
“I brought a sparkling apple cider.”
He flagged down another waiter, leaving Ellory to slowly spin on her bar stool, hand resting on her rounding belly that had finally reached the point where none of her shirts seemed long enough.
Mira was a few months further along than she was. Ellory had decided she could have one baby and not ruin the planet. And since every child needs a sibling...and Mira was making a baby...
“I’m almost afraid to make any resolutions this year,” Mira said. “Like nothing can live up to the last year, so stop making them while we’re ahead!”
“No way. We need a goal. I need a goal. Can we hold the resolution to midway through the year when the babies are out and we need to lose weight? Because you’re looking mighty round, Mirry.”
Jack stepped around his wife and laid a hand protectively on her belly. “Don’t listen to her. You’re perfect.”
“Shut it, Sex Machine. I am trying to get out of doing work for the first half of the year!” Ellory laughed, leaning against Anson. It still felt surreal to her—the most negative and contrary resolutions they’d ever made had turned into blessings bigger than either could have imagined.
The universe really had a wicked sense of humor.
Although, if making negative resolutions was the way to ensure big changes in your life, she was done with that. Her life was perfect. No changes welcome!
“I’m going to learn how to turn flax into linen,” Ellory said, snagging the sparkling cider and waiting for Mira to lift her glass. Nice and innocuous.
The countdown had started. She felt pressure on her back, spinning her stool so she faced him. “Leave the lady alone,” Anson said, his lips right at her ear. “She’s got her first New Year’s kiss with her husband to attend to.” He waited a beat, tilting his head to catch her eye, then added, “Hint.”
He regularly made her laugh, and she knew their child’s life would be full of love and laughter. Neither of them would allow anything into their lives that threatened that contented bubble of happiness they’d wrapped around their home.
Graves wasn’t even a bad last name in the right context. A love they’d both go to their graves to protect? Good context, and Anson had the perfect example of it.
When the crowd hit one, he swooped in and delivered a kiss full of promise and acceptance. Her favorite pastime.
And it was even good for the environment.
*
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ISBN-13: 9781460345238
Breaking Her No-Dating Rule
Copyright © 2015 by Amalie Berlin
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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