Gabriel's Promise (Gabriel's Inferno 4)

He sprang back with a curse.

There, resting on his pillow, was a large, plastic flamingo. It was staring at him with a crazed smile on its face.

He swore.

A giggle sounded from the other side of the bed.

Gabriel switched on the lamp and glared at his wife. “Et tu, Brute?”

“What?” Julia rolled over to face him, feigning drowsiness. But she couldn’t maintain a straight face.

Gabriel grimaced. He picked up the accursed lawn ornament with two fingers and regarded it distastefully.

Julia laughed. “Oh, come on. That was funny.”

He wrinkled his nose and placed the flamingo on the floor. Then he pushed the creature aside with his foot. “I hope you cleaned it after you pulled it out of the dirt.”

“Maybe.” She gave him a saucy wink.

He examined his pillowcase, his hands going to his waist. “We’re going to have to strip the bed.”

She flopped back against the mattress. “It’s late. I washed the flamingo before putting it on your pillow, I swear.”

Gabriel gave her a dubious look.

She patted the sheets on his side. “Look, nice and clean. Come to bed. It’s been a long day.”

He gazed from his pillow to her tired but hopeful face and cast his eyes heavenward. He shook his head. “Fine. But I’m stripping the bed tomorrow morning. And I’m bleaching everything.”

Gabriel removed something from the drawer in his nightstand and hid it in his hand. He left the light on and crawled under the covers. “Rachel must have put you up to it.”

“No, it was my idea.” Julia yawned.

He pulled her toward him and kissed her temple.

“I love to hear you laugh,” he confessed. “And to see you smile.”

Julia snuggled against him. “I’m sorry for the tears earlier. I’m just tired and overwhelmed.”

“I’m worried about you.”

“I’m fine.”

“There’s no reason for you to be tired and overwhelmed. You have me.”

She rested her head against his bare shoulder. “Good, because I need you. And Clare needs you, too.”

Gabriel hid his face in her hair. “Every day is a gift. I vow not to waste them.”

“Me, too.”

He felt for her right hand. “I wanted to give you something at the hospital, but we didn’t have a lot of privacy. Then I wanted to give it to you when we got home, but the timing wasn’t right.”

Julia lifted her head. “What is it?”

He placed a small robin’s-egg-blue box in her hand.

She sat up immediately. She undid the white ribbon bow that was wound around the box and opened the lid. A smaller velvet box was nestled inside.