That Holiday Feeling (Virgin River #8)(90)

She giggled. “I have puppies to deliver,” she informed him.

“Aw, you haven’t done that already? I was so hoping we could just go home and go to bed….”

“Why don’t I take you home to your house, then you can sleep and I’ll deliver the puppies. I don’t think you should be driving if you can’t roll over.”

“I’ll be fine,” he said, facedown in the hay. “You’ll see. Any second now I’ll perk right up.”

“You love me?” she asked. “What makes you think so?”

He couldn’t roll over, but he looped an arm over her waist and pulled her closer. “You are so under my skin, Annie McKenzie, I’ll never be a free man again. Pretty soon now you’ll probably want to say you love me, too. Hurry up, will you? I’d like to be conscious for it.”

She laughed at him.

“Say it, damn it,” he ordered.

“I love you, too,” she said. “I can’t believe you came back in the same day. Why didn’t you just call? Or come back and tell me you had a miserable time? You could have had your vacation and then told me.”

“Because, Annie—I realized if I stayed away from you, I’d be lonely. No matter how many people were around, I’d feel alone if I wasn’t with you.” He pulled her closer. “I wanted you to know how important it was to me, to be with you. I wanted you to know you were worth a lot of trouble. You aren’t something I can put off till later. You’re not the kind of woman I can send flowers to with a note to say how I feel—you have to be in my arms. I’m not looking for the easy way with you, Annie. I want the forever way. And I don’t think that’s going to ever change. Now can we please deliver the puppies and get some sleep?”

“Sure,” she said, running her fingers through the short hair over his ear. “Merry Christmas, Nathaniel.”

“Merry Christmas, baby. I brought you something. A diamond.”

“You brought me a diamond?” she asked, stunned.

He dug in his pocket and pulled out a plastic diamond about the size of a lime, attached to a key chain. “Our first Christmas Eve together, and I shopped for your present in an airport gift shop. By the way, when I get the real diamond, I don’t think it’s going to be this big.”

She laughed and kissed him. “You will never know how much I like this one.”

“Wanna show me?” he asked, hugging her tight.

“I will,” she promised. “For the next fifty years.”

“Works for me, Annie. I love you like mad.”

“You make my knees wobble,” she said. “Let me take you home so you can start wobbling them some more.”

“My pleasure.” He kissed her with surprising passion for a man dead on his feet. “Let’s go home.”