Warm Nights in Magnolia Bay, Babette Jongh [book club books txt] 📗

sound. Her involuntary “Oof,” wasn’t quite the reaction he was hoping for, either. He held her shoulders still and tried again, but this time, even more water sloshed over the rim of the tub, and Abby laughed. “Maybe we should try the bed?”

An hour later, Abby snuggled under the covers and smiled at the sounds of Wolf whining, Quinn cursing, and water splashing in the bathroom. Georgia had trotted over to Reva’s at the first sign of doggy bathtime.

Finally, the alarming sounds coming from the bathroom died down, followed by the more soothing sound of the hairdryer. Abby dozed a little, dreaming of the house plans she and Quinn had been brainstorming together. He hadn’t exactly asked her to marry him, but they were definitely planning a future together. Now that the shelter’s construction was nearly complete, Quinn’s permission to live at the pool house would also be coming to an end. Reva had offered Quinn a half-acre out behind Bayside Barn that he could build a cabin on, but he and Abby had also been discussing whether to rent, buy, or build somewhere else. Nearby, but not quite so underfoot.

Abby had just drifted from dreaming of floor plans to dreaming for real when the bedroom door burst open. She sat up and clutched the bedspread to her naked breasts, then relaxed when she saw Quinn and Wolf standing there. Both wore satisfied grins on their faces, and Wolf—whose soft fur looked like a clean, fuzzy cloud after his bath, blow-dry, and brush-out—sported a new collar that jingled when he moved.

“Who’s the most handsome boy ever?” Abby asked, holding her hand out to Wolf.

Quinn looked down at his wet jeans and bedraggled shirt. “Not me, I guess.”

Abby laughed as she kissed Wolf’s clean-smelling head. “Not you this time. Correct. But you’re still welcome in my bed if you get out of those wet clothes first.”

“Technically, it’s my bed,” Quinn said, but he quickly complied and slipped between the sheets.

Wolf, who’d only recently begun sleeping in the house at night and had never gotten on the furniture despite Georgia’s bad example, leaped onto the bed and rolled onto his back, thumping his tail and grinning up at Abby. She obligingly petted his belly. “What are you doing on this bed, mister?”

“He wants you to admire his new collar and tags,” Quinn said, leaning back against the pillows.

“Very pretty,” Abby said, still rubbing the dog’s belly.

“No,” Quinn said. “He wants you to really admire them.”

Abby sat up to get a better look at the cluster of jingling tags on Wolf’s new collar. First, the new rabies tag Mack had given them when Wolf finally allowed him close enough to give the injection. Behind that, another tag shaped like a heart. Abby read the engraving: MY NAME IS WOLF. IF I’M LOST…

Abby turned the tag over, and gasped. “Oh, Quinn.”

Behind the tag, a diamond engagement ring sparkled from the tag’s O-ring.

And the other side of the tag read, Please call my people, Abby and Quinn Lockhart (followed, of course, by their phone numbers). “Oh, Quinn,” she said again.

“I was sort of hoping for a more definite answer,” Quinn joked. But a small, lost note in his voice reminded Abby that like Wolf, Quinn had only recently learned to trust those he loved not to betray him.

Abby worked the engagement ring off the O-ring and slipped it onto her finger. Then she shifted the sheets and climbed right on top of her fiancé’s warm, naked body. “Yes,” she said, straddling him. “Yes, I will marry you, Quinn Lockhart.”

Then she kissed him, long and slow, before drawing back to stare into his beautiful blue-jean-blue eyes. “And do you want to know why I’ll marry you?”

He grinned. “Because I’m extremely good-looking and independently wealthy?”

She shook her head. “Nope.” She held her hand up and admired the way the diamond caught the light from the window and threw sparkles of colored light onto the ceiling. “Guess again.”

“Because you love me?”

“Yes.” And she would keep saying it, even after she knew for sure that he truly and completely believed it. “Because I love you.”

* * *

Wolf sat with Georgia outside the closed bedroom door, listening to all the sighs and giggles and groans coming from inside. Georgia sniffed his still-damp ears and gave a happy tail wag. “You’ll have to go roll in something to get rid of that shampoo smell. I know where there’s a dead frog one of the workmen ran over in the driveway.”

Wolf smiled and swished his tail along the floor. “That’s okay. I don’t mind smelling like this, if it makes my people happy.” My people. He still couldn’t quite believe it, but the shiny new tags that jingled on his new collar made it feel at least a little bit more real. “And when you’ve been carrying around a bathtub full of dirt for as long as I have, it feels good to finally get clean.”

“Yes, but…” Georgia shivered. “The smell of shampoo reminds me of baths, and I hate baths.”

He licked her silly little face. “If you hate baths, you should try to stay clean instead of rolling in dead. I’m looking forward to sleeping in the bed now, like you do.”

“Whose bed you gonna sleep in?” She sat up on her haunches to lick his lips. “You gonna sleep in my bed with Reva, or in theirs?” She turned an ear toward the closed door. “Their bed is kind of loud and jumbly. Ours is quieter.”

Wolf cocked his head to listen. There was a lot of squeaking going on in Abby and Quinn’s bedroom. It sounded like they were hopping up and down on the bed. Why they would do that made no sense to Wolf, but then people were mysterious creatures who seemed to do a lot of strange things for no good reason. “Maybe I’ll try all the beds before making a decision.”

Quinn had installed a doggy door in the gate between the two properties and in the