He went in through the man door and his jaw nearly hit the floor.
Jean McPhee’s Toyota was jacked up and on stands, and a pair of legs he recognized as Ally’s—mostly because of the pink laces in the sneakers—stuck out from beneath.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
She rolled out from beneath the car as if it was the most natural thing in the world, as if their terrible words had never happened. She met his gaze with a cheeky grin. “Changing Jean’s oil and topping up her fluids. She called and asked if she needed to come get the car because of your accident, but I said to leave it here and it’d be done.”
“You’re not a mechanic.” Never mind she’d told him yesterday they were done. Now she was waltzing in here and messing about with cars?
“I can change someone’s oil. I can top up windshield-washer fluid and put in new spark plugs and an air filter.”
She boosted herself up so she was sitting on the rollaway. She was wearing one of his old sweatshirts that already had streaks of oil and grease on it, and her hair was back in a messy ponytail. She looked fantastic.
But this was his business, his livelihood, and she had no qualifications. “You were out here alone. What if it had slipped off the jack, huh?” His chest seemed to seize thinking about her crushed under the weight of the car.
“Which is why I used the stands,” she explained patiently. “I was careful, Chris. I’m not a total moron, although it must seem that way.”
He blinked. He realized that he was always careful too, but it didn’t stop her from worrying. “Ally, I appreciate the gesture, but—”
“I know I can’t do much, Chris, but you’re going to have to turn away business for a few months. She called and I was here. There’s nothing more to it than that.”
She got up and brushed off her hands. “Just let me put in the oil and we’re good to go.”
“And the fence supplies?”
“I found a couple of tarps to keep the damp off of them.”
“Why are you doing this?” He stepped farther inside and handed her a rag for her hands. They had black marks from grease and oil on them and she didn’t even seem to care.
She paused and looked up at him. “Because yesterday I made a terrible, terrible mistake. And I’m trying to make it up to you in the only way I know how.”
His heart clubbed. A mistake? Did that mean she’d changed her mind? “How?” he asked.
“By being the partner you need. First off, I can handle a drill, so we’ll build the fence together. I know someone with a post-hole digger, so once we get the ground marked, they offered to come dig the holes. I’ve got a cement mixer we can borrow too, to set the posts. And while I’m no mechanic, if you help me I know we can at least keep you going with winter appointments. Oil and fluid changes, putting on winter tires…I can help with that.”
“What about your job? The shelter?”
“Oh, right. I had a visitor this morning. Turns out the investigation put some pressure on the building owner and he confessed to everything. He wanted the insurance money and set the fire himself.”
Chris’s head snapped up as anger flared, hot and immediate. “He what? With you and the animals inside? Oh my God—”
Ally lifted a hand. “Because we were there, most of those animals got out.”
He swallowed. But they might not have. He understood her fear yesterday because he’d felt it when he’d seen her standing in the smoke. But it had only made him want to hold her tighter, not push her away.
“Anyway,” she continued, “Here’s the great thing. I quit at the drugstore. So while you’re recuperating, I’m going to take a little time to figure out what I want to do next.”
She grabbed a jug of oil from the workbench, but he stopped her, putting his hand around her forearm.
“Ally. What I said yesterday…I didn’t mean a business partner. I can hire some help around here for a while.”
She turned her face up at him, her blue eyes shining. “I know that. But a good partner is partners in everything, don’t you agree?”
“Everything?” He held his breath, not sure if he dare hope, but unable to help himself.
Her eyes softened. “Yes, Chris. Everything.”
She’d changed her mind. He didn’t know what he’d said that had broken through, didn’t care. This morning things had seemed bleak and pointless. Other than Moose, he’d had nothing waiting for him. No work, no Ally…no reason to get up in the morning. And now here she was like a ray of sunshine. Her lips parted slightly.
“You mean it? Because if you do, Ally, I swear to God there’s nothing I wouldn’t do to make you happy.”
Her smile grew. “Like offer to leave the fire department.”
It would hurt, but he’d meant it when he’d offered it yesterday. She thought he didn’t understand fear, but he did. He also felt like it was important to step up and help people, to protect and preserve the community. But he could find another way. He would, if it meant she’d say yes this time.
“Like leave the department,” he confirmed.
She stood up on tip-toe and put her arms around his neck. “I don’t want you to leave the department,” she whispered in his ear.
“You don’t?”
She shook her head slightly. “I can’t ask you to be someone you’re not. You are the one who really encouraged me to look for my dreams lately. How can I ask you to give up yours?”
“I know you’re scared—”
“I’ll always be scared, Chris.” She lowered herself back on her heels and pulled back to look at him. She put her hand on the side of his head, her fingers touching the skin just behind his ear. “You were right. My parents were right. You never know where trouble will come from. Look at my sister. She drowned. I was in that fire without intending to be in the middle of trouble. That girl last summer—she was just driving on the highway. My mom made me see that with the right person beside you, there’s nothing you can’t face. I’ll take any time we have together over giving you up and always regretting it.”
He closed his eyes and leaned down to touch his mouth to hers, wishing he could wrap both arms around her and pull her tight but settling for looping his right arm around her back and holding her as close as he dared without squishing his wounded arm.
“I promise you, I’ll do everything I can to keep Kendra Givens from knocking on our door at night.”
“You’d better.”
“And I’ll let you help me now, but you have to promise me one thing.” He caught her hand in his and squeezed. “You’re going to do what you want to do, and I’ll help in any way I can. If that means a new shelter, or going away to school, or a new business…then so be it. I’ll wait for you. I didn’t before and I should have. Now it’s your turn.”
“It’s a deal,” she answered, squeezing his fingers back.
“Can you wait here just a second? I’ll be right back.”
“Okay.”
Chris spun on his heel and slipped out of the garage, taking fast steps to the house.
He’d let her get away once before. He wasn’t about to let it happen again.
Ally waited inside the garage, curious as to why Chris had disappeared so suddenly but so incandescently happy that she didn’t care much. It was all going to come together. And yes, there would be scary times. There would be days she would worry and there would be rivers for them to cross.
But how could she have ever thought it would be easier to go it alone? Once she’d said the words, it was if something clicked into place inside her heart. That something had changed from being about what she’d
wanted
to be into what
was
to be. A life with Chris.
A world of possibilities and hopes and dreams. The kinds of hopes that Becca would never experience. But it was time for Ally to stop feeling guilty about surviving. Time to step out and claim happiness for herself.
Chris came back in, a little breathless. “Okay,” he said. “Come over here and sit down.” He patted a rolling stool and she obediently went to where he was and sat on it. He reached into his pocket and then braced his one good hand on her knee while he knelt on the hard concrete floor.
“Ally…” He looked up into her face. She watched as he swallowed hard, as his eyes gazed into hers. The cut and the bruise only made her love him more as she understood what was coming. As she welcomed it. This time she was looking forward to the future, rather than running away from it.
The seconds stretched out and then he finally took a breath and simply said, “Please say yes.”
He held out the ring.
The backs of her eyes stung. “You kept it?” she asked, so full of emotion, so amazed by what it meant that he’d held on to the ring all this time.
“I kept it. It belongs to you, Ally. And we don’t need to rush. We can wait until whenever you’re ready. If there are things you want to do first, that’s okay. I just want to know that in the end, it’ll be you and me.”
She held out her hand. “If I say yes, will you put it on me?”
The ring hovered by her fingertip.
She laughed. “Yes,” she answered. “Put it on.”
He slid the ring over her grease-stained knuckle, then folded her hand into his and squeezed. “This was not how I envisioned today going,” he admitted with a shaky laugh.
“Get up off the concrete, you fool. You should be relaxing anyway.”
“You offering to play nurse?”
She rubbed her thumb over the sharp edges of the diamonds in her ring. “Of course. Just like you’d do for me,” she answered. “Oh, and Chris?”
He lifted his brows, questioning.
“I’ve always thought a winter wedding would be beautiful. What do you think? Something small and simple?”
“This winter? What about your plans?”
She wrapped her arms around his ribs and tilted her head up to look at him. “No matter what my plans, I think I’d like to do them as Mrs. Jackson,” she replied.
“Mrs. Jackson,” he echoed. Then he kissed her forehead. “Sounds awfully good to me.”
Epilogue
It seemed the whole community turned up for the grand opening of Ally’s new business, The Purrfect Pooch. In the yard behind the store, tables were set up with food and coolers held cans of soft drinks in rapidly melting ice. Music played from a portable stereo and umbrellas were set up to give some relief from the summer sun. Ally’s parents were there, as well as Chris’s parents from Windsor. Gabe Brenner and his wife Carly were there with their son and another one on the way. Newlyweds Kendra Givens and Jake Symonds manned a barbeque, cooking up hotdogs. Several of Ally’s new clients showed up with their dogs on leashes, and Ally had cooked up a special batch of homemade treats for the furry guests.
Chris slid up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. “Happy?” he asked, covering her hand with his and absently spinning the wedding ring on her finger.
“Very. Tomorrow morning, the only sound you’ll hear from this shop is barking and clippers. Which reminds me, where are Moose and Midget?”
Midget was their new foster dog, a Jack Russell cross with more personality than Ally sometimes knew what to do with. In the end, she’d decided to open her own grooming business, but there was still a longing to rescue in her heart. It was a lucky thing that Chris loved animals as much as she did. In addition to Moose and Midget, they had two cats that called their place home. And Ally hadn’t told him, but she’d gotten a call last night asking if she could foster one more. Besides, one more cat was nothing compared to the other news she’d had this morning while he was out on the fire call.
“Over there, see?” He nodded towards a corner of the yard. Moose and Midget had discovered a group of kids and were currently performing tricks for treats. They looked so oddly perfect, one over one hundred pounds, the other barely twenty, that Ally laughed.
“So you did it,” he whispered in her ear. “Proud of you, babe.”
“Couldn’t have done it without you. Glad you made it back in time.”
“Just in time for a quick shower to wash the smoke off.”
“And it’s all good?” She couldn’t keep the worry out of her voice. It would always be there, just a little bit. But she was learning to deal with it.
He nodded. “It’s all good.”
Ally turned around and, despite having guests in the yard, wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him a big kiss. She’d been going to wait until they were alone to tell him the news, but right now, with everything just about perfect, it seemed like the right time. “You know, not so long ago I realized all you were missing was the wife, the kids and the dog. You don’t mind if our little menagerie gets bumped up by one more, do you?”
“Another dog? Don’t say it’s another dog.” He looked down at her, horror on his face. “I just replaced the last pair of shoes Midget ate.”
“Not a dog.”
“A cat? Oh Lord. I know I said I didn’t mind fostering when you gave up the shelter, but…”
She grinned. “Well, there is a cat I’ve been thinking about bringing home. I’d forgotten about that.”
“Forgotten? Then wha…”
She smiled up at him, waiting for him to realize what she was getting at. It took a few seconds but suddenly his face flattened and his eyes grew alarmed. “You mean…”