Page 73 of All Night with the Cowboy
“Don’t you love him?” Tanner asked, holding up the pup and giving him a cuddle.
“Of course I love him, he’s a puppy,” she said dryly as Tanner passed the dog to her. She cradled him close and inhaled his sweet puppy smell, trying to keep him still as he wriggled and tried to get back to her face for more licks. He was chocolate brown and felt as smooth as silk.
“I thought it was about time we made a commitment,” he said. “We’re co-parenting now.”
Lauren laughed. “Co-parenting? Do you have any idea how much your old rodeo buddies would laugh if they heard you talking like that?”
Tanner laughed straight back at her and flopped beside her on the sofa. The puppy leapt straight out of her arms and scooted over to Tanner, lavishing him with love as her man pretended to fight him off then gave in to the attention.
“Getting jealous?” he asked.
“Of a puppy?” Lauren nudged him with her toe. “Please don’t tell me you did this to make me jealous and get more attention.”
“Shit, is it not going to work?”
They both laughed and she moved closer, snuggling up to him, head on his shoulder as she stroked the puppy’s silky soft head.
“He’s gorgeous, Tan,” she said. “He looks like he’s going to be huge though.”
“I might have picked the biggest puppy in the litter,” he confessed, kissing the top of her head. “Growing up we used to have a German Shorthaired Pointer, and when I saw this little guy for sale, I thought he’d be perfect. He’ll be great on the ranch, and they’re a great breed.”
Lauren didn’t mind. She loved animals, she’d just always been too busy to have a pet with the hours she worked. But if Tanner wanted a dog, then she was happy to share a home with it.
“So long as you get up in the night to take him out, he can be our fur-baby,” she said.
“Does that mean I’ll have to get up in the night for our human babies, too?” he teased.
She groaned. “Don’t even talk about it,” she said, hating the topic. “It makes me worry that you’ve got your heart set on kids.” There was a decent chance she could get pregnant one day, but there was just as good a chance that she couldn’t, and the thought still twisted her into knots.
“Hey, if we decide we want kids, we’ll find a way to have kids. There’s more than one way to have a baby.”
She reached for the puppy to give him a snuggle, holding him to her chest and kissing his warm little head. It was actually quite a nice idea to have a dog around the house—so long as he didn’t chew all her shoes.
“Do you know we’ve been together a year now?” Tanner asked.
Lauren smiled down at the puppy who’d just fallen asleep on her lap, then leaned into Tanner without disturbing their new baby. “It’s a year from our trip to Fiji,” she said. “I don’t know about you, but I’m not convinced that’s our anniversary, Tan. We didn’t actually get together properly for a while after that.” She laughed. “A long while.”
He kissed her, his lips moving so softly over hers and making her moan. He knew just how to kiss her, just how gently to brush his lips over hers to turn her to liquid.
“It’s a year since I first laid eyes upon you again,” he murmured. “And a year since I got to see that gorgeous body naked again.”
She stifled a laugh. “Honey, the baby’s listening! You can’t talk like that anymore.”
The look Tanner gave her was wicked. “Screw the fur-baby.”
He carefully lifted the puppy and placed him on the sofa on the other side of Lauren, pausing to kiss her on the way past and stroke his fingers down her arm to her hand.
“Come with me,” he said. “I have our anniversary present waiting on the table.”
She wasn’t going to argue with him about whether or not it was their anniversary, because so long as there was food waiting on the table, and maybe wine, then she was happy. Lauren happily took his hand and let him haul her up, still tired but feeling more alive than when she’d stumbled in. It had been another crazy busy season forher, and right now she’d be happy if she never had to work another day in her life.
“Oh,” she said, seeing papers stretched out over the table. Her heart sank—clearly he was excited about showing her something, but she wanted food!
“I was expecting dinner,” she said, trying not to register her disappointment.
“Dinner’s on its way,” he told her, pulling her forward. “I ordered Italian.”
Her stomach growled in response. “Okay,” she said, still not sure what he was giving her as she edged closer. And then she focused on the huge sheets of paper that were laid out.
