Rose

  “I thought Lawyer-Greg was a stick-in-the-mud, yes.”

  “Who’s Lawyer-Greg?” His voice carries a smile.

  “I don’t know. I really don’t know.” The two men, Lawyer-Greg and Lover-Greg, are starting to blend together. My heart feels so much lighter than it did at the beginning of this conversation. I’m so glad I took the risk and called him.

  “Listen,” Greg says, “I’ve gotta get going because I’ve got about five people standing outside my door wanting to talk to me, but I want to continue this conversation.”

  “So do I.” I mean it, too. I can’t believe how much I’ve missed him and how much happier I am knowing that maybe there is a chance we could continue this relationship. Where there’s a will, there’s a way, and he seems to have a very strong will.

  “How about I get in touch with you tomorrow sometime?”

  “Sounds good.” I move over to the receiver to hang the phone up. “I’ll be here at the house all day.”

  There’s a long pause and then, “Rose?”

  “Yes?”

  “I’m going to be thinking about you constantly until I see you again.”

  “You are?” My whole body goes warm.

  “I am. And if you think of me, I hope they’ll be good thoughts.”

  “They will be. Mostly.”

  “Next time I see you I’m going to get rid of all those bad thoughts. I promise.”

  “I sure hope so.”

  CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

  I don’t hear from Greg for five days. Five whole days. I’m starting to wonder if we even had that conversation where he said he’s going to come and make everything better between us. I don’t want to call him a stupid guy, but I’m definitely on the verge of thinking it. He wanted me to only have good thoughts about him, but he’s not making it easy.

  I’m in the living room filing my nails when there’s a knock at the front door. When I answer it there’s a teenager standing outside. She smiles at me and waves. “Hi. I’m Linny.” She looks over her shoulder and then back at me. “I ran ahead.”

  I stand there blinking at her and then pull the door open wider to look past her and down the driveway. There’s an SUV parked about ten yards away, and Greg is unpacking suitcases and a dog carrier from the back of it.

  I bring my attention back to my more immediate visitor. “Hi, Linny. I’ve heard all about you. Welcome to the farm.” I reach my hand out to give her a handshake, but she comes at me with a hug. I happily accept it and squeeze her to me. She’s tiny and warm, full of bubbly enthusiasm that’s already brightening my day.

  “Is Amber here? I made some photocopies for her.”

  “Photocopies?” I can’t believe they make a teenager bring her work with her. “Of what?”

  “My butt.”

  Okay, that makes a lot more sense. I point over my shoulder. “She’s upstairs.”

  “Thanks.” She takes off running, papers in her hand flapping in the breeze.

  I look out the front door, unable to wipe the smile from my face.

  Greg looks up. When he sees me, he drops a suitcase on the ground and gently places the dog kennel next to it. I walk down the stairs, and he walks over to meet me halfway, stopping when I’m in front of him. “Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes?” he says, leaning down and kissing me on the cheek.

  The smell of him gives me a head rush. “I just met your niece,” I say, trying to stay on track. “She’s pretty special.”

  “She is, isn’t she? Did she show you the photocopies?”

  “I did not see the photocopies, but I did hear about them.” I have to restrain my laughter.

  “That’s Amber’s influence, I hope you know. Our copy machines are being defiled on a regular basis now, thanks to her.”

  “I’m not one bit surprised. I have apologized more than once for my sister.”

  “Don’t.” He reaches out and puts his hands on my upper arms, rubbing them a little. “She’s not causing any real trouble.” He frowns when he notices what I’m wearing. “You need to get back inside. You’re going freeze to death out here.”

  I step forward and wrap my arms around his waist, letting his warmth seep into me. “Just hug me and I’ll be fine.”

  He holds me so tight it takes my breath away. His mouth rests near my ear. “God, you don’t know how badly I’ve wanted to do this.”

  “You’re right, I don’t. Because you haven’t called me for five days, you big jerk.” I slap him playfully on the butt.

  He leans down and kisses my neck. “I had some things I had to take care of, and I didn’t trust myself to get it all done in time. Talking to you would have tempted me to come sooner.”

  “You’re here now; that’s all that matters.”

  He kisses my neck some more and then moves his lips to my mouth. Suddenly, his tongue is there, and all the passion that we had before is back, full force. I feel the muscles across his back tighten as he slides his hands over me.

  “Hey, watch the PDA; I’m only a child,” comes a voice from the porch.

  We release each other and I turn around. Linny is running back down the stairs, now without the photocopies in hand.

  “Amber loved my pictures. She says she’s going to hang them on the refrigerator.”

  “No, she is not. Help me with these two cases.” Greg tries to sound stern, but I hear the love in his voice.

  “You’re so bossy,” Linny says as she picks up the purple suitcase and disappears into the house.

  “Let me give you a hand with this,” I say, picking up the dog kennel. I peer inside and see Tinkerbell’s little face. She has a pink bow on. “Oh my goodness, she is so cute. Banana and Oscar Mayer are going to go crazy when they see her.”

  “Where are they?” Greg asks. “I expected to at least hear them by now.”

  “They’re out taking a walk with my sister. They’ll be back soon.”

  We make it into the house with all of his stuff. I look at the pile of his belongings, surprised to see so many of them. “You thinking about staying for a while?” I’m trying not to get too excited over the idea. I could be reading this wrong. Maybe he’s just stopping here on the way to somewhere else.

  “We decided to take a little vacation. We’re hoping the farm can host us for a little while.”

  I walk over and take his hands. “We can host you for as long as you want to stay.”

  He gives me a funny look . . . part smile, part grimace. “That’s good, because I’m kind of out of a job right now.”

  I stare up at him in shock. “What?”

  “I told you I was going to solve the problem, didn’t I?”

  I back away, letting go of his hands. I feel light-headed. “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying I took care of the conflict-of-interest problem. I can’t represent Red Hot and be with you, so I no longer represent Red Hot.”

  My voice comes out as a whisper. “Do they know that?”

  “Yes, they do.”

  I look around us at the empty house. “What? How?”

  “Two days ago. We made it official.”

  “But . . . nobody told me.”

  “They wanted me to tell you. This is between you and me.”

  “But you’ve worked with them for years.” I’m blown away. I can’t believe I’m hearing this.

  “Yes, I have. And we know each other really well, and we agree on the fact that the most important thing here is your happiness. They can always find another lawyer, but no one can replace you in their hearts.”

  My legs hit the chair behind me and I fall into it. I sit down, staring up at him. “You did all that for me?”

  He comes over and pulls the chair out so he can sit down next to me. He takes my hand and strokes it, hoping to calm me down, I think. Good luck with that. “I don’t want you to freak out about this. I know it seems like a really huge commitment, and it might be, but it’s more than that. Something more important.”

  I blink a few
times, some of the surprise wearing off. “Explain it to me.”

  “I told you that I spend a lot of time with Linny. Well, I’ve talked to her mother, and she has agreed to let me take full-time guardianship of her.”

  “Guardianship? You’re going to be her parent?”

  “I will always be her uncle, but right now I’m going to be her primary guardian, so yes, like a parent. Her mother is no longer in a position to take care of her like she needs to be cared for, and she knows that. This is not an acrimonious thing at all. I’m very close to my sister, and I’m doing this because it’s what Linny needs right now.”

  “Does she know you’re unemployed?”

  He smiles. “She knows I’m unemployed, and she also knows I made a lot of wise investments over the years and I’ve lived frugally.”

  “But that car we saw you driving when you came here . . .”

  “A company car. Not my car, not my loan, not my problem.”

  “Oh.”

  “I don’t need to work to earn a living. I could retire today if I wanted to, and I’d be perfectly fine.”

  “Oh. Well. That makes it easier.”

  “It does, doesn’t it?” He reaches up and moves some hair off my face. “Like I said to you a minute ago; we’re here for vacation. If things get weird, Linny and I can move on. I’m homeschooling her for now, so we can explore things for a little while. She’s never really been out of the city, and I haven’t been out in a long time either, outside of work duties, so I thought maybe we’d take in some world culture while we have the chance.”

  “Oh, that’s really cool. Are you going to travel around the world?”

  He shrugs. “We’re going to play it by ear. We’ll start here at Glenhollow and see where it takes us.”

  “So, you’ll be leaving. Eventually.”

  “Yes. But we’ll come back. As long as somebody here wants us to come back, anyway.” He looks vulnerable for the first time since he arrived.

  “That’s so cool. Really, I’m happy for you.” I shake my head, in awe at his bravery. “This is just so big. It’s so wild. I didn’t know you were that spontaneous.”

  “Neither did I.” He reaches up and places his hand on my cheek, tracing my bottom lip with his thumb. “You and I don’t know each other that well, and we didn’t get the chance to spend a lot of time together when I was here before, but I’d like to. I’d like to get to know you better. I’d like to spend every moment with you for days and days until I know everything there is to know about you and your body.”

  My face flushes and I look down. “You’re being very forward with me, sir.”

  “I am, I know. I’m tired of hiding how I feel. I’m tired of being professional and stiff all the time. I want to open up and be real for a change.”

  I grin at him and his newfound freedom. “I think the hippie around here is starting to wear off on you.”

  “Maybe it is, but is that such a bad thing?” His touch falls away, and he searches my eyes for my answer.

  I take his hand and hold it in mine. “It’s not a bad thing at all. It’s a great thing. I wish more people were open to the idea of being free with their lives like that. Life is meant to be an adventure, not a chore.”

  “I thought you’d understand.” He reaches into his coat pocket and pulls out a box. He holds it out between us and looks down at it for a couple seconds before he looks up at me. “I don’t want this to freak you out.”

  I stare at what looks distinctively like a ring box. “Okaaay.”

  “There’s something inside this box, and it’s for you. I don’t want you to look at it until I talk to you about it first, though.”

  My heart is beating so hard, it almost hurts. I feel like I’m going to throw up. I pull my hands back and fold them in my lap. “Okay. Start explaining yourself.” I hope I don’t have a heart attack right here in the dining room, because it sure feels like I might.

  “After I left here and thought things were falling apart between us, I tried to go back to work, but I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t concentrate on anything. All I kept thinking about was your face, the things you said to me, cleaning out those kennels . . .”

  “The possum made a big impression on you, I see.”

  “That’s not it,” he says, moving past his smile. “You know what I’m saying. Or maybe you don’t. Maybe it’s not the same for you.”

  “It is,” I assure him, putting my hand on his. “It is the same for me.” I don’t want him to think that he’s alone in this crazy thing we have. I don’t even know what to call it—a relationship? Mutual madness? A crazy adventure?

  “I took a real hard look at my life, and then I got a phone call from Linny. She was crying and miserable. I’ve gotten phone calls like this from her before, and I’ve always managed to calm her down and move on with my life. But this time I couldn’t do it. After spending time with you and seeing all of your compassion and your love for the animals who are struggling and need you, I realized that I was in the same position, kind of. I mean, Linny’s not a possum, but I was being given an opportunity to do the right thing for a human being who I love, who needs me . . . who is struggling.”

  He takes me by the hand and looks at me, desperately seeking my understanding. “I’d been lacking the compassion that I needed in order to do the right thing by her and to make the right decisions for my life. I couldn’t even see what was right in front of me. When she called me that night, I knew instantly what the right thing to do was. It just came to me in a flash: I need to focus on her and help her get over these issues that she’s struggling with.”

  He lets my hand go and sits up straight. “And so I did. I had the best conversation with Linny that I’ve ever had, and I talked to my sister and it was the same thing. It was like my heart had been opened when before it was locked up tight.” He reaches out to stroke my fingers. “I don’t want to go back to being that other person. And I don’t want to live in the city. I want to be with you.”

  My heart stops beating for long enough that it hurts before it starts again. Talk about taking a risk! Greg is jumping off that cliff he told me about once, and he doesn’t have ropes or a parachute.

  “I don’t have a crystal ball,” he says. “I can’t tell myself or you how long this thing between us could last. But in my hopes and in my dreams, it lasts forever.” He reaches down and opens up the box.

  Inside is a beautiful diamond ring. “I went to the jewelry store on a whim. I told myself I was just going to look, but then I saw this. It’s not the biggest one in the store; I could’ve bought you something that would’ve had people talking whenever you walked into a room, but then I thought . . . this woman is going be a veterinarian someday, and she’s going to need something that she can wear when she’s working.”

  My heart feels lighter when I envision him thinking of me while he was doing something that was probably freaking him out the whole time. He’s also painted a pretty alluring picture of me as a veterinarian wearing his ring.

  He holds the box up closer. “So this is the one I picked out. If it’s not something you like, we can change it. And if you don’t want to be with me in that way, I’ll close this thing up, put it in my pocket, and you’ll never see it again . . . no harm, no foul.” His voice wavers as he loses confidence. He closes the box and continues. “I know it’s crazy for me to propose to you when we’ve only been with each other for a short while, and most of the time with no real defined relationship. But I feel like I already know you so well, and I can’t imagine my life without you in it anymore. Believe me, I’ve tried. It’s not going to work to try to push you out of my mind and heart.”

  He’s describing me like I’m the love of his life. How can this be possible? I thought I was the only one falling in love here . . .

  “I figured if I don’t take a risk, I’m not going to gain anything. I took a risk with you before, and it worked out, so I thought, What the hell . . . I’ll try it one more time and see if
my luck holds out.” He looks down, his face flushed. “It’s nuts. I know it’s crazy. You can just tell me to put my bags back out in the car and I’ll totally understand.”

  I use my finger to lift his chin so that we can see each other eye to eye. “You are so very brave.” He doesn’t say anything. He just stares at me, waiting for what I’m going to say next.

  My heart is swirling and spinning and flipping. My stomach is doing the same. I have never in my life felt about somebody the way I feel about him. I’ve dated a few men, and I’ve been around countless numbers of them as friends, and none of them, not even the ones I’ve slept with, not even the one I thought I loved, have even come close to making me feel how Greg does.

  This man rocks my world. I knew he was a good guy in the months before this moment, but that’s nothing compared to what I’m seeing now. He’s changed his entire life to help a niece who needs him. He’s sacrificing everything so that she can be happy and so that he and I can have a chance at a relationship. And he’s asking me to join him in the adventure of a lifetime. I think. He hasn’t actually said the words, but I think he means to.

  I believe that the universe puts people in my path who need to be there. And I also believe that forces I don’t understand push me in the direction I need to go. Someone out there saw fit to have Brian burn my clinic to the ground and take away everything that tethers me to this farm. And now there’s a man standing in front of me, a man who’s proven himself to have integrity and dedication, offering me the world as my oyster. How stupid would I have to be to say no to that? Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?

  I reach down and open the box. “Can I just take another look at that?”

  He pulls it up toward his chest and holds it tight in his fist. “Let’s do this the right way.” He slowly slides off his chair and goes down on one knee. He lifts the box and opens it, moving it toward me. “Rose Lancaster . . . will you do me the honor of marrying me, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and health, but mostly for love, happiness, and adventure?”

  I nod, unable to say the word. Tears flow out of me.