Cupid's Christmas (Serendipity #3)(50)

“Isn’t that kind of loud?” Traci said.

When everyone began shouting to be heard above the strains of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, John ejected the disk. “I think we can do without the music,” he said. Only after Eleanor glared across at him did he realize why she’d turned the music up so loud.

Seconds later they heard it again—a sharp high-pitched bark.

“Is that a dog?” Traci asked.

John, who by now had caught on, said, “Dog?”

“See, it is a dog,” Lindsay said, “Traci heard it also.” She turned to Traci, “You heard it right?”

By then the barking had stopped. “I thought I heard a bark,” Traci said, “but now I’m not too sure.”

No one noticed Matthew slip back through the dining room and out the kitchen door. He came from the garage carrying a bundle of white fur but before he got to the archway of the living room, he set the dog down on the floor and pointed her toward the living room. “Go find Lindsay,” he whispered, and off the dog went. Hopefully his plan would work…

Since Lindsay had been looking for this dog for over four months, you might wonder why she wouldn’t recognize it right away—but don’t forget, the dog has been bathed, clipped and groomed, so it looks different. The only part of the dog that looks exactly the same is the eyes. Eyes never change. Eyes tell the truth of a person, and it’s no different with dogs. Of course, Lindsay may find it difficult to catch sight of her dog’s eyes in the frenzy of running and tail wagging.

Everything happened in a flash—the dog bounded into the room and ran from one person to another sniffing. First it was John—sniff, sniff. Nothing. The dog moved to Lindsay—sniff, sniff. Yep, that was who he’d been searching for, one leap and the ball of fur was in her lap. Lindsay took one look at the dog’s face and squealed, “You found my dog!” By then the dog was licking her face and reaching for the mistletoe on the Santa hat.

“It really is your dog,” Matthew said, “but, how’d you know?”

“Her eyes,” Lindsay answered.

Matthew walked over and looked at the dog’s eyes—despite his years of veterinary practice, he could not see what Lindsay saw.

“I’ve been looking for this dog for a long time,” Lindsay said, nuzzling her nose up against the fur of the dog’s face. “And it’s obvious that she’s been looking for me too, haven’t you sweetie?”

Matthew said nothing about how he’d trained the dog to recognize Lindsay by smell, how for the past nine days the dog had slept cuddled in the sweater she’d left in the office. “Yep, she’s definitely your dog,” he smiled.

A barrage of questions followed, most of which were about how he’d finally located the dog. I noticed that when Matthew told the story, he left out the how Jayne and Gerald were sad to see the dog go. Not that I blame him for doing so, some things are best left unsaid.

After several minutes of frolicking with the dog, Lindsay noticed the tiny red velvet pouch tied to her collar. “What’s this?” she asked looking at Matthew.

He answered with the same look he’d given her that first night in the park, the look that caused her to fall in love with him—the look that promised forever. Her fingers trembled as she untied the silk thread that fastened the pouch to the collar.

No one spoke. Traci stopped halfway through opening a package and sat waiting.

Lindsay eased the tip of her finger into the pouch and loosened the drawstring. Even when the pouch was fully open it was too small to reach into so Lindsay turned it over and shook the contents into her lap. It was a tiny square of paper that had been folded over countless times. Slowly she began to peel it open…the paper was a pale blue color and she could see bits of writing…the first fold revealed parts of a word ar…the next fold revealed a y the third fold revealed wil Lindsay thought she had it figured out until the next fold attached a mo to the y…ymo? She opened the last three folds but with all the creases it still wasn’t readable. Lindsay smoothed the paper out and read it aloud… “Will you join me for a honeymoon in Paris?”

For a moment she sat there too stunned to speak. Then she looked over at Matthew and with tears in her eyes, answered “Yes.”

Matthew crossed the room in three long strides, and scooped her into his arms. “I love you, Lindsay,” he said, and before she could answer, he covered her mouth with his. When the kiss ended Matthew brought his mouth to her ear and whispered, “Read the other side.”

“Read the other side?” she repeated looking at him quizzically.

He nodded. “Read the other side of the paper.”

Lindsay looked down at the paper in her hand then turned it over. On the other side were a few words printed in such a small size that it was barely readable. She brought the paper closer to her face and stumbled through the words… “Look… on the tree.”

“Look on the tree?” she said.

He gave her a mischievous grin, and nodded.

“I’m supposed to find something that’s on the tree?”

He nodded again.

Everyone’s eyes were on Lindsay as she moved toward the big tree standing in the corner of the room. At one time she’d known every ornament on the tree, but now Eleanor had added several and there seemed to be more shiny balls than she remembered. First she found a white porcelain dog that seemed unfamiliar. “Is this it?”