thing but I’m afraid my dog and her puppies would wonder what happened to me.”
“When will their new owners be coming for them?”
She didn’t want to think about the other impending loss in her world. How would she find the strength to endure it?
“I was going to deliver them all to their new homes Monday but I’ve decided to wait until the weekend. After...after you and the children leave.”
She wanted to wait a month so she could at least have puppy cuddles to comfort her but knew everyone taking a puppy was anxious for their new arrival.
She dreaded the coming week, on so many levels.
“I was thinking it might be easier on Amelia and Thomas if I took the puppies to their new homes after you’re all on your way home. They will still have to say goodbye to the puppies but not one at a time.”
His arms tightened around her. “I’m going to have to check their suitcases carefully. I think Thomas would pack all three of the puppies in there, given half a chance.”
She smiled a little, though her throat felt raw and achy with emotions.
“I’ll miss them,” she said. “The puppies and...and Thomas and Amelia. So much.”
That was it. Her emotions bubbled over and she drew in a sharp breath, trying to close the floodgates before the tears could start.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured near her ear. “So sorry.”
She turned her head slightly, just enough that his mouth could slide to hers.
Ah. She had been waiting all night to kiss him again. His mouth was deliciously warm and tasted like champagne and strawberries.
The kiss was gentle, slow, with an aching tenderness that made more tears spill over.
She wanted to dash them away before he saw them but he must have caught the glimmer in the moonlight.
He drew away, concern in his eyes. “Are you crying?”
“A little. I’m sorry. Don’t mind them. I just... I wish you didn’t have to go so soon.”
He pulled out a handkerchief and in an echo of the sweet gesture she had seen Josh do to Gemma during the wedding ceremony, Ian gently dabbed at her eyes. “I’m going to make a mess of your makeup, I’m afraid.”
She was lost. Completely, hopelessly, utterly lost. “I don’t care about my makeup,” she murmured. “I care about you.”
There. The words were out and she couldn’t call them back.
“Do you?” he asked, his voice and his expression strangely intense. There was a vulnerability there she wouldn’t have expected.
How could he possibly doubt her feelings when they seemed so very obvious to her and she suspected everyone else who had been at the wedding?
“Oh, Ian. You must know I do.” Through the emotion choking her, she gave a raw laugh. “I might as well be honest. I’m in love with you.”
“You’re...what?”
“I didn’t want to be. I tried everything I could think of to protect my heart, but you basically made it impossible for me to do anything else but fall in love with you.”
He said nothing, just continued to gaze at her with shock and something else in his expression, something she couldn’t identify.
“You don’t have to say anything. I’ve been through this before and can assure you I’ll survive.”
It was a lie. She had never been through anything like this before. All those times she thought she was in love before seemed so completely ridiculous and small in comparison to this, like the difference between a puddle of water and the vast ocean that would soon separate them.
“What if I don’t want you to get over it?” he asked, his voice rough. “It seems only fair that you suffer a little, too, considering that I’m in misery. I fell for you hard. Maybe not the first time we met but certainly by the second, and I’ve been trying to talk myself out of it since then. Without success, I should add.”
She gazed at him, her throat tight and her heart pounding. He couldn’t mean what she thought she heard him say. Could he?
“You didn’t.”
His laugh was low, rough, and he reached to wipe another tear she hadn’t realized had trickled out.
“Tell that to my poor salmon. I’ve been too distracted to finish my project. I’m afraid I’ll be going home with incomplete research.”
“Oh, no. Does that mean you’ll have to come back?”
“I imagine so. Again and again, as long as it takes until I can convince you to spend the rest of your life with me.”
Okay. This really couldn’t be happening. She stood up, needing to feel