Malory stood in the center of the room, her hands crossed over her heart, laughing like an idiot.
“Where is he? What did he do? Son of a bitch.”
“Who?” Malory braced herself for Moes leap of love but wasnt prepared to have Flynn lift her off her feet. “What?”
“You were screaming.”
“Oh. Okay, Moe, down you go. Flynn, put me down. Im fine, Im perfectly fine.” Other than the fact that she was flushed with embarrassment and trying not to giggle. “I thought I was alone.”
Reaction set in and made Flynn short of breath. He dropped Malory back on her feet with a little thump as his arms started to tremble. “You stand in the kitchen and scream when you think youre alone?”
“Well, not usually. But look! Just look.” She did a fast-time step, followed by a neat little pirouette.
Clueless, Flynn tried again. “Youve realized you want to fulfill a childhood dream and become a dancing star of stage and screen?”
“No!” With a laugh, she whirled Flynn into a circle that had Moe leaping again. “Look. We have a floor. A wonderful, beautiful hardwood floor.”
She executed what Flynn thought might be some sort of clog dance. “Sounds like wood, all right.”
“No more ugly linoleum for us. And look at this!” She whirled away from him and embraced the glossy new side-by-side refrigerator with the passion of a woman greeting a lover returning from the war. “Isnt it wonderful? And see how it matches this?”
While Flynn watched, she spun to the range. “Its so beautiful.” She crooned it now. “So shiny and clean. And everything works. I tried all the buttons and dials, and it works! I actually cant wait to cook something. I walked in, saw all this, and I just had to scream. They put in the floor, Flynn, and brought in the appliances. See the new microwave?”
“Very sexy.”
“It is.” Whirling into a dance again, she tried out arhumba . “And we have pretty new cabinets with pretty glass fronts. Im going to put pretty dishes in them, and sparkly glasses. Its a kitchen. An actual kitchen.”
He was getting it now, and the charge of watching her revel. Shed switched from therhumba to… he wasnt sure what. But she looked really cute. “What was it before?”
“There is no name for what it was before. Im so happy. Im so grateful. Youre the most wonderful man in the world.” She caught his face in her hands and kissed him. “And Im a terrible person.”
“Why? Not the „Im wonderful part, because, hey. But why are you a terrible person?”
“Because I wouldnt move in with you before you did this. I made the kitchen a kind of exchange. Remodel the kitchen and Ill live with you. It was selfish. It worked,” she added, raining kisses over his face. “But it was selfish. Youre doing this for me. I know I said I wouldnt move in until it was finished, and I even madesnarky comments about the lamps up in the bedroom.”
“Something about not being fit to light a cave inhabited by bats and blind spiders.”
“Yes, that was one of them. Anyway, forgive me?”
“Okay.”
“I know its not quite finished. Theres still the counters and the backsplash and, oh, a few more things, but I dont want to wait anymore. Ill move in tomorrow, and we can start, officially, living together.”
“I dont want to live together.”
Her face went blank.
“What?”
“Sorry, Mal.” He gave her shoulders a squeeze. “I dont want to live together.”
“But… but you asked me to move in with you weeks ago. Youve asked me half a dozen times.”
“Yeah, well.” He shrugged. “I changed my mind.”
“You—you changed your mind?”
“Thats right.” Casually, he opened the new refrigerator. “Wow. Look at all this room. And it is shiny.”
She couldnt do anything but stare at him. Her stomach had dropped to her feet, and those feet no longer felt like dancing. “I dont understand. I dont understand how you could just change your mind about something like this, from one minute to the next.”
“Me either. Actually, I dont think I really changed it, I think I just realized it wasnt what I wanted.”
“You just realized you dont want me.” There was too much shock, too much anger for the pain to fight through. So she rode on the shock .and the anger and stepped forward to give him a hard shove. “Well, thats just fine.”
“I didnt say I didnt want you. I said I didnt want to live together.”
“You can take your new kitchen and stuff it. If you cant handle a committed, adult relationship then you cant handle me.”
“There you go, were right on the same page. Committed, adult relationship.” He pulled the box from his pocket, opened it. “This adult enough for you?”
Her mouth dropped open, and he thought shed never looked more beautiful as she stared down, dumbstruck, at the diamond ring.
“Lets be really grown-up, Malory. Lets get married.”
“You want to marry me?”
“I do. Look, I already know my lines.” He grinned at her. “You look a little pale. Im going to take that as a good sign. The jeweler said this was a classic, and Brad gave it a thumbs-up.” Flynn removed the ring from the box. “Brilliant-cut solitaire, blah-blah, whatever. You go for the classic look, right?”
A latch kept trying to slam shut in her throat, but she forced it open. “Yes, I do.”
“There, you know your lines, too.” He took her limp hand, slipped the ring on before she could say another word. “It fits. I didnt think it would, youve got such delicate fingers, but it looks like we wont have to have it sized after all.”
She felt the snap of heat, the spread of warmth from the gold circling her skin. Yes, it fit, she thought dreamily. It looked as if it had been made for her finger. “Its beautiful. Its absolutely beautiful.”
“You could say yes now.”
She looked up from the ring, into his eyes. “Lifes going to be a roller coaster with you. I used to be afraid of roller coasters because you just never know what theyre going to do next. They dont scare me anymore.”
“Say yes. Ill get rid of the lamps.”
On something between a sob and a laugh, she leaped into his arms. “Yes. You know its yes, even with the ugly lamps.”
“I love you.”
“I love you, too.” With her cheek pressed to his, she held up her ring hand and watched the diamond glitter. “How could the same man who bought this gorgeous ring have bought those hideous lamps?”
“The many sides of Flynn Hennessy.”
“Lucky for me.” She heard the front door open and moved nearly as fast as Moe. “Oh, theyre coming. I have to show it off.” She pushed away from Flynn, then nipped back to kiss him again. “I have to show somebody.”
She hurried toward the front of the house, even as Dana hurried toward the back withZoe at her heels.
“What is it?”Zoe demanded.
“Have to show you both at once. Boy, have. I got news for you,” Dana said when Malory rushed toward her.
“Whatever it is, it cant top mine. Ive got news for you!”
Zoepushed between them. “Jeez, somebody tell somebody something before I explode.”
“Me first,” Dana and Malory said in unison, then both held out their left hands.
There were screams, followed by a burst of unintelligible words. At least they were unintelligible to the three men and a boy who looked on.
Simon watched his mother and her two friends jump and squeal like the girls did on the playground at school. Wrinkling his brow, he looked up at Brad.
“How come they do that?”
“Its just one of the many mysteries of life, kid.”
“Girls are dopey.” He clapped for the dog, who was blindly joining in the female ecstasy, and hunkered down for some wrestling.
Flynn looked past the women to Jordan. “Beer?” he asked. “Beer,” Jordan agreed, and skirted the madness to seek the relative sanity of the kitchen.