Bishop stared at me and then laughed. “She’s your dog; if you want her in our bed, she can sleep in our bed. She better not interrupt my happy time though.”
I tried not to laugh. “Your happy time?”
“Yes, my happy time. I’m at my happiest when I’m inside you, Abs.”
My entire body heated, and I felt my core pulse with need. Even after we had stayed up until nearly three in the morning making love, I still wanted Bishop as if I hadn’t had him inside of me for months.
“She won’t. I promise.”
Bishop reached over and grabbed the puppy and held her up. Her little tail wagged as she tried to lick him. “You’ll have to name her before she starts responding to ‘she.’”
I turned and stared at her while Bishop lifted his knees and placed her on her back. He rubbed her stomach, and she instantly went still, her eyes slowly closing.
“Lucky girl,” I whispered.
Bishop looked up and winked. “You’re next.”
“I’m holding you to it.”
The puppy barked to get Bishop’s attention when he stopped petting her. “Okay, what are we going to name her?”
I leaned my head on Bishop’s shoulder and stared down at the precious little girl in his lap. “What about Noel? I think it fits her, and you gave her to me on Christmas Eve as a wedding present.”
Bishop thought for a moment. “Wait, which day are we going to celebrate our anniversary now? Our first wedding date or our second one?”
I smiled and lifted my head off of him. “I think Christmas Eve. It just feels right. I mean, I don’t want to forget about our first wedding and the amazing years we already had together. But this just feels like a new beginning. It can be our wedding anniversary, Noel’s gotcha day, and Christmas Eve.”
Bishop laughed. “Gotcha day? I picked her up on Tuesday.”
“Well, you didn’t give her to me until yesterday, so Christmas Eve is her new birthday.”
He nodded. “Sounds good to me.” Turning to look back down at Noel, he held her two front paws in his hands. “Do you hear that, Noel? Your new birthday is Christmas Eve.”
Noel let out a little bark, and I swore she smiled.
Bishop picked her up and cradled her in his arms. “Now, let’s figure out how to get her to fall asleep, so I can have some more of that happy time with my wife.”
A month had passed since Bishop and I had become man and wife again. We ended up going to Hawaii for a week over the new year, and it had been the most amazing week of my life. That meant we’d missed Hudson’s surprise engagement to Greer though. He’d asked her in front of everyone at the New Year’s Eve party Aiden and Willa had thrown at their house.
I’d hated leaving Noel, but she was in heaven staying with Kyle and Cat. After one week, my sweet, crazy puppy was trained to do a number of commands, for which Bishop said we owed Kyle big time.
Opening the door to the greenhouse, I breathed in a deep breath and slowly let it out. Noel ran in and started sniffing every possible surface she could reach while I shut the door and made my way over to the edible flowers I had growing. Candace and Arabella had asked me to start growing some to use in the café at the apiary.
After checking on those, I turned my attention to a few other seedlings I had recently planted. The greenhouse was slowly coming back to life, and that made me so happy.
My phone buzzed, and I pulled it out to see it was Arabella. I swiped my finger across my phone and smiled. “Hey, Bella!”
“Hey there! What are you up to?”
“I was just in the greenhouse checking on the edible flowers. They’re looking good. I already talked to my folks about planting some on the farm as well.”
“Oh perfect! Candace made these cookies with the lavender you gave us, and they were so good. And Joanne ordered lavender syrup for the bed and breakfast. When I told her about the little kits you wanted to make up for the apiary store, she asked if we could make some labels for the syrup that said Willow Tree Inn.”
“I love that idea. Did you show her how we’re going to package the simple-syrup kits?”
“I did and she loved it. She wants to put a spin on it and put the pancake mix for her famous pancakes in it. Just a little something the guests can buy as a souvenir.”
“That’s a wonderful idea.”
“I thought so as well.”
My phone beeped, alerting me to another call. “Hold on, Greer is calling.”
“OK,” Arabella said before I put her on hold and answered the second call.
“Hey, Greer, what’s up?”
“Willa’s on her way to the hospital! The baby is coming!”