The corner of her mouth curls into her cheek, and her eyelashes flutter as she rolls her eyes at something her mom is saying across from her. I’m fucking done mingling. All I want is my woman.
“Sorry, Mark, but I’m—” I start to excuse myself.
He laughs and interrupts. “No worries, son. I can see the look on your face. It’s a lot like the one I had the night we made Ruby.”
I bark a laugh and slap him on the shoulder before stepping away and heading straight for my little red jewel.
I grab her by the hand and pull her away without saying anything to the women she’s now standing with. She balks but, seeing as I’m not letting go of her hand and it’s attached to her body, she comes with me anyway.
I pull us to the front of the large, inviting space. One of the caterers passes me a microphone, and Ruby shakes her head and rolls her pretty little eyes. Everyone else laughs.
“Good afternoon, everyone,” I say into the mic, and the crowd murmurs its sentiments in return. I scan the faces to find almost everyone we love looking back at us, with the exception of my sister, Lena, now that she’s off to Milan, and my buddy Theo, who is busy globe-trotting in the name of opening new Cruz nightclubs across the world. “Ruby and I want to thank you all for coming out to celebrate our engagement. Truth is, I never thought I’d be a guy who said something like that, but it feels good.”
Ruby sways toward me and leans her head into my shoulder. I grin. I can’t help it. “Really good, actually.”
The women in the group collectively coo.
“We hope you’ll hang around for a while. Drink, eat, mingle. And when you’re done, don’t forget to take a favor.”
I glance to Ruby as she draws her eyebrows together, and the doors open behind me on cue.
Barks sound, and puppies yip as dozens of dogs from the local shelter fill the room. A titter starts up in the crowd, some of the women bending down to scratch little puppy ears while Vicky climbs up onto a chair, horrified.
I put the mic back to my mouth and look directly into Ruby’s beautiful blue eyes. “See, my girl here, she loves dogs. Loves them. So, she’s gonna pick one out, and we’re gonna take it home.” Ruby’s face melts, tears springing to her eyes and running down her cheeks immediately. A crying woman used to terrify me. But I can tell at this point in our relationship, these are the good kind of tears.
I wrap her in my arms and breathe her in for a minute, and when I release her, she runs out into the middle of the room and starts chasing dogs one by one.
I put the mic back to my mouth.
“And…the rest of you guys are going to take one home too.”
The women shriek in excitement, but the guys—my guys—they glare.
And all is right with the world. My Ruby is happy. The women love me. And the fellas—well, they just wish they’d thought of it first, obviously.
THE END