“Crazy man. Of course you can come with me. I want you to. And when it’s time for you to go home, I’m coming with you.”
“Are you sure? You’ve talked of nothing but seeing the world since we met.”
I could tell I’d pleased him. “And I still want to, but with you by my side. You get two weeks of vacation a year?”
“Actually I negotiated three weeks before I left. The mayor owed me a favor and was feeling rather generous.”
I clapped my hands. “Fantastic. Every year we’ll pick a country to visit.”
“Although that was Plan B, it was my favorite one.”
“What was Plan A?”
“To find you, tell you I loved you, and then send you on your way.”
Somehow I’d found the perfect man to love. “You’re not getting rid of me that easily. So how does Italy next year sound?”
He pursed his lips as if thinking, then said, “Who knows, maybe for our honeymoon.”
My heart tripped over itself. While neither one of us was ready to talk marriage, that he was mentioning the possibility moved our relationship into a whole new realm.
“Well, I have heard that Italy is for lovers.” I could already imagine us in a villa by the sea, the windows open and sheer white curtains billowing in the air while we made love.
“And we’ll have to come back to Greece someday since I’m only getting a glimpse of the country this time around.”
“Definitely.” I loved Greece and wanted to experience it with him.
He rolled off me, then pulled me onto my side to face him. “Will you move in with me when we get home? I mean, you might as well. You’ll be spending all your time in my bed anyway.”
“Ha! Pretty sure of yourself, Chief.”
“No, I’m just hoping.”
His hand was on the bed between us. I curled my fingers around his. “The answer is yes.”
“Thank you.” He brought my hand to his lips and kissed it. Then his expression turned serious. “I should mention that we’re going to have about a dozen kids.”
“Huh?” I gulped. “I was thinking two or three someday. In the future.” If we get married, I silently added.
“Nope. Somewhere between nine and a dozen if the vet’s right.”
At his amused grin, I punched his arm. “Don’t scare me like that.” Then it hit me. “Daisy’s pregnant?”
“She is. Must have happened right before I found her. It would have been noticeable sooner if she hadn’t been so undernourished. The vet said she’ll deliver in about three weeks.”
“We need to go home.”
He chuckled. “Another reason I love you. You love my dog as much as I do.”
“Almost as much. You have a slight edge over her.”
“That’s nice to know.” He leaned over me and kissed me long and hard. “Back to Daisy,” he said when we came up for air. “I want to keep her puppies.”
“All of them?”
“Yeah. I guess we could find them good homes, but how would we know for sure they were being treated right? Before I left, I asked Connor to scout out some land I can build a log house on. Adam said he would fast-track it and have whatever I decided on finished in six months. It would mean a houseful of rambunctious puppies in my apartment for a while, but we could manage it for a short time.”
“If we don’t get evicted.”
