Staring at the picture, tears came to Dana’s eyes. Her own kennel. A real kennel. Not for purebreds, like her mother had raised, but for pups like Lindy Lu and Little Guy and dogs like Skyline—animals with so much love to give, with healing capabilities, and no home.
It was better than the engagement ring she was still waiting for. “Oh, Josh, I don’t... No one has ever done so much for me... I...” She broke off. She’d almost told him she loved him.
“You can change it if you like,” he said. “This is just a rough sketch based on what I thought you might need. Randy will work with you directly, when the time comes, and he’s doing it for a price I can afford, so...”
“Have you already bought the house, then?”
“No. I was going to sign the paperwork this afternoon, but then we ran over and you had to go. I’m not going to sign anything until I have your okay.”
She nodded. And waited. There couldn’t possibly be anything else for him to do, or say, before he popped the question.
“So? Is it okay?”
“If you buy the house?”
“All of it,” he said, sweeping a hand above the table. “The plan. Are you willing to share a house with me—platonically, of course, just as we discussed—and allow me to take on the expenditures I’ve outlined here as well as give you a percentage of the money I save to do with as you wish?”
She couldn’t possibly have heard him right. “You want me to live with you.”
“Platonically, like we discussed. I won’t expect anything from you sexually.”
Cold and hot at the same time, she sat there, unmoving, as a strange calm came over her, and heard herself say, “But you’re not going to be having sex with anyone else,” she repeated the other thing included in the conversation to which he was referring.
“Correct.”
“You’re going to be celibate.”
“Yes.” His response was unequivocal, without hesitation. Either the man was an amazingly practiced liar, or he was being completely sincere.
“Just for the time I’m pregnant or for afterward, too? This is a small town. I don’t want to live in your home, raising your child, while you’re out with other women.”
“I understand and I wouldn’t ask you to. As far as other people will know, we’re a couple, for as long as you want to keep up that appearance. I can’t birth that child, but I can give you the respectability and companionship you deserve as you do so. After the baby is born, if you want to pursue other men, you just need to come to me and say so.”
“So if I meet someone, I’m supposed to come to you and tell you I want to start dating and you’ll move out?” Was it her or was the man nuts?
“If it’s after the baby’s born, and depending on finances, yes.”
“And if I don’t, we just live together forever?”
“If that’s what you want.”
“Don’t you ever want to get married?”
“What I want became unimportant the second I got you pregnant. But for the record, no, I do not see marriage in my future. Ever.”
If she’d had any hope left, it settled quietly and died.
“Just to reiterate, during the time you’re pregnant, I will expect you to be celibate.” Josh spoke quietly, although they were the only couple sitting in the back portion of the pub that night.
His lips pursed as his eyes met her face.
As if she’d be off having sex with a guy while she was huge. But wasn’t that exactly what her mother had done? She might not have been huge yet, but she had had sex while she was pregnant with another man’s child.
She cringed when she thought of the choices Susan had made. And yet, she understood why she’d made them, too. She’d wanted what was best for the baby she was carrying.
As did Dana.
And the baby was the only reason why, when Josh asked her again if he had her okay for the plan, she nodded.
* * *
JOSH WAS LETTING L.G. run unsupervised in the backyard while he was on the computer the following Thursday, a week before Thanksgiving, when Dana called.
“We haven’t talked about when and how we’re going to tell people about the baby,” she said.
“Okay.”
“Next week is Thanksgiving. I’m going to be speaking with my family and feel like I should tell them, since my address is going to be changing in a matter of weeks.”
“Oh, sooner than that,” he inserted quickly. “I forgot to tell you. I found someone to sublet your duplex yesterday. He’s a young guy who was here in the office on another matter. He’s been living in the dorm, but finding it hard to concentrate and his parents were more than willing to pay a third more than what you’re paying to get him out of there.”