Runaway Bride: A laugh out loud funny and feel good rom com. Mary Baker Jayne
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Название: Runaway Bride: A laugh out loud funny and feel good rom com
Автор: Mary Baker Jayne
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Современные любовные романы
isbn: 9780008258320
isbn:
‘And leave you on your own? Not a chance.’ I squeezed his hand. ‘You said you needed me and here I am.’
He flung me a grateful smile. ‘Thanks, Kit.’
I looked at the newest pup. Sandy had freed it of its sack and was giving it a good wash, but the tiny thing just lay there. It didn’t wiggle, and it didn’t join its siblings at the all-you-can-drink milk bar. It just… lay there.
‘Why doesn’t it move, Jack?’ I asked quietly.
He was looking at it with concern. ‘Sorry, girl,’ he said to Sandy. ‘You won’t like this but it has to be done.’
Jack scooped up the little dog. Sandy gave a faint warning growl, but she didn’t try to stop him. Its tiny body looked limp and lifeless in his hand.
He lifted it to his ear. ‘Not breathing.’
‘Dead?’ I whispered.
‘No. Heart’s beating.’ Jack held the puppy between his two hands and rubbed it vigorously. ‘Do me a favour, Kit. There’s cotton buds in the big cupboard, can you grab one?’
‘Okay.’ I got them from the cupboard and handed one to Jack.
Very carefully, he cleaned the puppy’s nose and mouth, then started rubbing it between his hands again. Sandy watched him nervously. After a minute, the puppy made a noise like it was choking on a fly, and I saw it squirm.
‘Thank God,’ Jack said with a low whistle of relief.
He laid the puppy gently down by its mum, who shot him a glare of displeasure – fine thanks for saving her baby’s life, but that’s dogs for you – before giving the little pup a violent wash until he smelled right. Then she dragged him by the scruff to her flank. After a couple of seconds, he managed to clamp himself to a teat and suckle.
‘Airway got blocked up on the way out,’ Jack said. ‘A bit of milk’ll soon get his strength up.’
I fixed him with an impressed gaze. ‘How did you know what to do?’
He smiled. ‘Like I said. Not my first time.’
He stretched his arm round me again, and I tried to work out what I was feeling as I settled into it. I think it was… pride. Yes, that was it. I was proud of Jack, and the kind of man he was. And I was proud that I was the one snuggled into his arm right now; that in some sense, he’d chosen me.
So many times when I’d been with Ethan, he’d managed to make me feel worthless. There’d be some offhand comment or insult that would hit home, and if I’d shown him just how much it hurt he’d tell me it was only ‘banter’, that I was being oversensitive as usual, until I really started to believe I was the unreasonable one.
Jack never make me feel like that. He made me feel like I was somebody who mattered. Somebody he needed.
As we waited for the next puppy, a warm contentment filled me. There was something so pure, so simple and honest and real, about life in the camper. The nights spent playing games, or reading together in quiet serenity. Delivering the puppies, side by side, like a team: like equals. It was so different to my life with Ethan; the dinner parties with his dull work colleagues, the corporate functions, all that grown-up stuff. Now I’d experienced life with Jack, that whole existence just seemed so shallow and artificial. And the feelings I’d once believed I had for Ethan seemed the most shallow of all.
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