Page 105 of Puppy Christmas

“Forever,” Emily announced sharply. But with one look at her father’s warning glance, she amended this with “’Cept you can’t make people stay. You can only love them.” She twisted in Lila’s lap until they were face-to-face. “I love you, Lila.”

“Oh, sweetie.” Tears sprang to Lila’s eyes. “I love you, too. And I do want to stay with you, I really do, but—”

Ford cleared his throat again. “I think this is where it’s my turn. Emily?”

Emily leaped out of Lila’s lap, still pale and a little stricken, but doing her valiant best not to cry. She looked so much like Jeeves—proud and determined to see things through no matter what it cost her—that Lila couldn’t help but sniffle. That little puppy was strengthening this girl in so many ways. She was sogladthey could continue being together.

Before she could say as much out loud, Ford grabbed her hands, snatching at them like a desperate man. It might have been to keep her from speaking, but she liked to think it was because he couldn’t go another second without touching some part of her.

She certainly couldn’t.

“We’re not moving to Seattle, Lila. Emily and I are going to stay right here, regardless of what happens between you and me. I think a part of me always knew that.” His voice was low, his gaze serious as he stared into her eyes. “I know I should have told you the second the job offer came in. I wanted to—so many times, I wanted to—but I was scared of coming on too strong, of scaring you away. We’ve only known each other a short time, and I wasn’t sure how involved you wanted to be in my future.”

She knew the answer to that.Fully involved. All the way in.Their hearts and lives moving as one.

“To be honest, I’mstillnot sure,” he said, swallowing heavily. “But it doesn’t matter, because I want you to hear this—no joking, no lies. I love you, Lila Vasquez. I’ve loved you from almost the moment we met. I know you have no reason to believe me, and that I’ve been hiding like a chickens-h-i-tbehind a silly facade the whole time we’ve been together, but it’s the truth.”

“Oh, Ford,” she said.

But he wasn’t done. “I don’t have much in the way of worldly goods to bestow on you. Almost nothing, in fact. Starting on the first of the year, I’ll be an unemployed stay-at-home dad who lives in his ratty pajama bottoms and eats peanut butter straight from the jar. But everything that I do have—my home, my heart, my stacks of half-finished drawings and unfinished dreams—is yours for the taking.” His lips lifted in a rueful smile. “Some offer, huh?”

That showed what he knew. It wasn’t justsomeoffer. It was the best offer Lila had ever received. The idea of being a part of this man’s life—of Emily’s life—in any capacity was everything she never knew she wanted.

And he was giving it to her with no jokes and no playful lies. He was giving her his heart.

Finally.

“That depends,” she said, unable to keep the smile from her face any longer. “Which pajama bottoms are we talking about?”

Laughter lit Ford’s eyes from within. “Lila! I’m trying to be serious over here.”

Emily must have sensed the sudden lightness in the air because she looked back and forth between Lila and Ford, her hands clasped to her chest. “Princess Lila?” she asked, an excited vibrato underscoring her voice. “Daddy?”

Ford took this as his cue to continue. He rubbed his thumbs over the backs of Lila’s hands, sending a delighted shiver straight through to her spine. “I don’t have much, but I do love you—more than I ever thought possible, more than any man has a right to love a woman. I’d marry you right now if you’d have me. But you’ve seen my life—ourlife—up close and personal, so it has to be your choice. It’s not going to get much grander than that anytime soon.”

“Do you promise?” Lila asked.

The question took him aback, but not so much that he didn’t make a quick recovery. His eyes twinkled. “Of course I do. Like George Washington, I cannot—”

“Ford! You know how I feel about that man.”

“Fine.You’re a tough woman to please, but I’m willing to put in the work.” He took a deep breath and started again. “Like Abraham Lincoln, I cannot tell a lie. I want you, Lila Vasquez. For richer and, most likely, poorer. In sickness and, with any luck, health—”

“Jeeves!”

Emily’s sudden squeal of happiness was broken by an even happier bark. Lila barely had time to register what was happening before the curly-eared cockapoo landed on them. Literally. Her exceptionally well-trained puppy—the same puppy who would sit still for hours at a time, who could tell the difference between a fire alarm and the sound of a microwave buzzer going off—tumbled in with all the enthusiasm of a scrappy mutt without an ounce of obedience training.

And to top it all off, he had an arrangement of plastic mistletoe affixed to the back of his collar.

“But Mom!” Lila recognized Neil’s voice in the hallway, followed almost immediately by an indistinguishable murmur from Helen. “You’re the one who made me go get the puppy. And it’smyroom.”

There was a pause as Jeeves began frantically licking Emily’s face. His whole body wriggled with delight, but Ford managed to get hold of him before her training wenttoomuch in reverse.

“Fine,” Neil grumbled from the hallway. “But as soon as they’re done kissing, I’m going in.Gross.”

Which was why, when Ford finally pulled Lila to her feet, she was laughing. She had no choice. Jeeves had given up on licking Emily’s face and decided to make do with Ford’s. Emily was demanding to be lifted up so she could admire the decoration on her puppy’s collar. Ford was trying to hold everything together in his bare-chested pirate ruffles. And unless Lila was very much mistaken, the entire party was crowded in that hallway waiting for the inevitable.

“Well, Lila?” Ford asked, a mocking lift to his brow. “I told you that everything I have is yours for the taking. Here it is in all its loud, squirming, undignified glory. What do you say?”

“Yes, please,” she said, blushing harder than she’d ever blushed in her entire life. Which, considering that she’d spent the last six weeks with a man as outrageous as Ford Ford, was saying a lot. “There’s nothing I’d like more.”

The smile that broke out on Ford’s face was enough to light every Christmas tree from here to Seattle and back again. Emily, seeing it, matched it with one of her own.

Lila would have done the same, but a voice from the hallway interrupted her before she could manage much more than a quirk of her lips in the right direction.

“Oh my God. Would you just kiss her already?” it demanded.

That was all the prompting Ford needed. With both of them breathless from laughter, they shared what had to be the most public kiss of Lila’s existence. It wasn’t dignified or proper, there was a puppy and a child wedged between them, and it ended to a crash of applause in the background.

It was, in a word,perfect.