Page 75 of Mother Clucker

“Yeah, I know. What else is new?” Drew shook his head but the good-natured smile said he wasn’t all that annoyed with David or me.

The crunch of tires on the gravel had all of us turning toward the driveway.

“Oh, look. Our guests are here,” David said.

“Guests?” I frowned until I saw Charlie behind the wheel and a smiling Anna in the passenger seat.

Behind her, if I wasn’t mistaken, was Trixie next to CJ in his car seat. I realized what was happening immediately and my heart got a little more squishy.

I leveled a gaze on David. “You little devil. You secretly set up a play date for Rowdy and Trixie.”

Lips pressed together, David nodded. “Mmm, hmm. That’s what I did. Play date for Rowdy.”

Drew let out a snort. I could only guess he was making fun of his best friend from college for indulging my feather baby Rowdy and Anna’s fur baby Trixie.

Drew could mock all he wanted, but every time David did something like this I fell a little deeper in love—just when I thought it wasn’t possible to love him any more than I already did.

The Barker family slowly unloaded out of the car. Rowdy of course jumped on Trixie’s back the moment the goat got near him.

It was then that I noticed Trixie had a new accessory. A pillow strapped on her back.

“What did you do? Get him a saddle for Rowdy to ride on?” I laughed, then looked closer at this saddle.

It was small, made of burlap, with a wide white ribbon tied into a beautiful bow on top.

Something glittered, catching my eye. Catching Rowdy’s gaze too, as he started pecking at it.

Next to me, David dropped to one knee and took my hand in his, and I sucked in a sharp intake of air as realization took hold.

“Oh,” I said on a breath.

“Yeah. I figure it’s about time I did this. Because there’s no question in my mind, I want to live and die loving you and only you. Heather, will you marry me, darlin’?” David asked.

I somehow managed to nod, then got out a strangled yes as my eyes brimmed with tears.

There were cheers from the onlookers but I didn’t see them. Between the tears and the bear hug David enclosed me in, all I could do was cling to him and try not to bawl with happy but no doubt ugly tears.

“Phew. Glad that part is over. I was starting to get a little nervous.” David let out a short laugh.

I pulled back enough I could breathe and wipe my eyes. “You didn’t seem nervous.”

He lifted one shoulder. “I was sure about my part. I just wasn’t sure about your buying in to the whole thing.”

I frowned. How could he not be? There was no question I loved this man and wanted to spend the rest of my life doing so.

But there was one question I had. “What are we going to do about the living situation. And my job?”

He shook his head, emphatically. “I would never ask you to quit your job and relocate for me.”

“So what do we do? Have a commuter marriage the way we’ve been doing?”

I guess we could do that. For a little while anyway. Actually, a lot of the stars were doing that now. There was even a name for it. Something like living together apart?

All I knew was that I hated being apart from David for even short amounts of time.

I guess I could move. I hadn’t hated Texas. It was nice. His family was nice. His mom would probably appreciate our help with his father’s steady but very slow recovery.

The weather there was hot as heck, but I’d get used to it eventually, I supposed . . .

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