Total pages in book: 254
Estimated words: 240032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1200(@200wpm)___ 960(@250wpm)___ 800(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 240032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1200(@200wpm)___ 960(@250wpm)___ 800(@300wpm)
Henri Blackrock, the Great Wolf according to the gnomes, had proposed to me in his way.
I had wanted to call Matti and Sienna and tell them everything, but I wouldn’t. There were things I needed to figure out on my own first—and not when there was someone I needed to talk to more than both of them combined, no matter how much I loved them. Because whatever I decided would have a direct effect on him.
And that was what was on my mind when Agnes left the room and my beloved donut gave me those intelligent red eyes, like he was well aware I wanted to talk to him about something.
I could’ve put it off a little longer, but I wasn’t good at keeping things from him.
We knew each other too well. I could tell by his ears how he felt about something, and I didn’t even have to sigh for him to know when something was bothering me. It was one of the greatest gifts of my life being known so well.
I focused on my puppy and smiled over his beautiful coat and perfect head. He looked more and more like a black bloodhound every day, minus the eyes and tail. “We need to talk, Donut.”
He blinked. “Yes.”
“I know you know you’re the most important person in my life, and no matter what happens, you’ll always come first.”
“Yes. Love.”
See? He deserved all my devotion. “I talked to Henri last night, and he said he would marry me. We talked about that, remember? How I have to marry someone to stay here?” I asked him.
“Yes.”
Just what I’d expected. “What do you think? You like him, don’t you? I saw you sitting on his foot last night.” He’d done more than that too. Duncan had wiped his face against the side of Fluff’s leg after finishing his popsicle. Even Henri had noticed before he’d met my eyes with a smile on his face, pleased by it.
“Yes.”
That’s what I’d thought. I stroked the side of his head. It was so much bigger than it’d been a month ago.
“If you like it here, I have to do this. I have to marry someone. I think you know how I feel about him. But if you really don’t like him and you don’t want him around, you can say it.” I meant it, but at the same time…
I knew what I wanted.
His tail swayed in the air, “love” pulsed at my heart, and I smiled at him.
“We would be a family. He’d be your dad someday, if you wanted. I know he would be there for you and protect you. Same as me.” I reached over and touched one soft ear after another. “You can think about it. Maybe you need to spend more time with him. I don’t need an answer this second, but I’d like to be with him. I’d like for us to be a family.”
Duncan’s cheek turned, and he licked my wrist. “Yes.”
I raised my eyebrows, and he repeated himself.
“Yes.”
“Yes, you’re fine with it?” I drew the question out.
“Yes. Love.”
“I love you too, Dunky-Dunk, but you don’t need to say anything now. You can spend time with him by yourself, or us together—”
He pawed my leg and looked at me with those big, round eyes. “No. Yes.”
“Or not.” I laughed a little and pet him again. “You sure you don’t want to think about it?”
“Yes.”
I was talking to a two-year-old puppy about the future. I couldn’t let myself forget that part. On the other hand, though, there was no reason for me to think that Duncan couldn’t grow to trust and love Henri with time. There really was zero doubt in me that Henri would rise to the occasion and earn it.
Could it be this easy?
I tried to look into my boy’s soul, but I knew every part of it already. He had the most brilliant flame of life in him. Strong and steady, a lighthouse at the edge of a dark and misty sea. His soul and lifeline were just as beautiful as I ever could have imagined.
And that made me smile at him even as I squinted and tugged at his ear. “Are you suuure?” I asked my donut.
“Yes,” he told me, rising to his growing feet. “Yes. Love, love, love.”
I watched him stretch, then pad over to my lap and plop down on it, so big now he didn’t fit as well as he had two months ago. He stretched up some more and licked my cheek as he did. And my boy tucked his head beneath my chin, and he said it again.
“Yes. Love. Yes.”
Henri wouldn’t stop staring at me.
He wasn’t being discreet about it either. Not even trying to be from the way Franklin’s eyeballs pinged back and forth between us throughout dinner, his expression going from thoughtful to confused to intrigued. I was almost certain he didn’t have the olfactory senses that told him things, but I figured when you’d lived as long as he might have, you learned a whole lot from body language.