by Peggy Jaeger
“I’m pregnant.”
Silence. Then, “How?”
“The usual way.” I laughed and kissed Georgie’s snout.
“You know what I mean.” He pulled me into his arms and rested his chin on my head. “We’ve been careful every time.”
“Not every time. There was that once by the fire…According to my dates, that’s about right.”
I pushed back a bit so I could read his face. “Are you…how are you about this?”
“So happy I can’t think straight.”
“Really?”
He kissed me long and slow as an answer.
When we came up for air, my eyes were unfocused.
“I’m due in November.”
“And everything is…okay? With you? With the baby?”
“So far, so good.” I rolled my eyes. “Since I’m over thirty-five, there are a few risks involved. But I’m not worried. Not in the least.”
Mac kissed my nose. “I can’t tell you how happy I am about this.”
I could echo his sentiments. I was finally going to be a mother, and the father was the best man I’d ever known.
Mac let go of me and took a step back. “I had a big romantic scene all plotted in my head about how I’d do this and when, where. But I don’t want to wait because right about now seems perfect.”
“Do what?”
I almost dropped the pup when Mac took one of my hands and dipped down to one knee.
“Mac.” Georgie startled, opened her eyes, and licked her chops, then went right back to sleep. In a much quieter tone I said, “What are you doing?”
“I want to do this the right way, say everything I’ve been thinking of for the past few weeks, so let me, okay? Let me get it all out.”
I cradled the pup even closer with one hand.
“Cathy, I feel like everything that’s happened in my life, every good thing, every bad, every choice I’ve made, every decision, has led me to you, here and now, at this moment. And I’d gladly go through it all again if it ended in this exact same spot. With you. I never envisioned I’d find someone to love as much as I love you. In all honesty, I didn’t think I had it in me to love anyone to the degree I love you. You gave me that. You let me see what love really is. With your honesty, your tenacity, your willingness to forgive, you opened my heart and showed me what love looks like. What it feels like.”
As he pulled something from his pocket, tears streamed down my face, plopping onto the sleeping puppy.
“I told you once, for you I want to be a better man, a man worthy of your love, deserving of the kind of woman you are. And I want to show you I’m that man. My soul, my heart, everything I am and could be, belongs to you. I belong to you.”
He opened his fist and held up a ring that blinded me with its brilliance.
“Cathleen Anne, will you marry me? Will you make a life with me? Walk through the good, the bad, and everything in between with me? Put up with me and all my flaws and love me, now and for the rest of our days?”
I tugged on his hand to pull him up. When we were standing toe to toe, the sleeping—now snoring—puppy wedged between us, I kissed him and said, “Yes. A million times yes. My soul, my heart, everything I am and could be, belongs to you, too. I belong to you.”
After a long, thorough kiss, Mac trailed a finger across my jaw and smiled. “I love you,” he said. “So much.”
“I love you more.”
“Impossible.” He shook his head and placed a kiss on my forehead.
Georgie took that moment to open her eyes. With a quick eye flick between us, she let out a series of baby barks and then tried to lick each of us at the same time, squirming madly, her back legs pumping.
Laughing, Mac declared, “I think she loves us, too.”
I let her run her tongue across my chin, then I held her up and looked straight into her soulful eyes.
“We love you, more.”
A word about the author…
Peggy Jaeger writes about strong women, the families who support them, and the men who can’t live without them. When she isn’t writing, you can find her cooking or crafting.
She loves to hear from readers on her website:
PeggyJaeger.com
and on her Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Peggy-Jaeger-Author/825914814095072?ref=bookmarks
~
http://peggyjaeger.com
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