AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter Twenty-Two
Uh-oh
“G
UINEVERE, WHY AMI so stupid sometimes?”
The Saint Bernard didn’t answer, but she did drop her big head onto Mary’s lap and gaze tenderly at her mistress’s face.
“Ah, honey, no wonder I love you. You love me no matter what, don’t you?”
Guinevere nodded.
“Well, he’ll be here any minute to pick me up.”
Guinevere’s ears perked up.
“One little day. That’s all I could wait. One little day since — you know. I had to call him. I had to hear his voice. I had to see him again. Do you know what I did when I got him on the phone? Do you know why he’s coming to pick me up?”
Guinevere might have creased her forehead in her concern. Mary thought so, but it was hard to be sure with a face as soulful as a Saint Bernard’s.
“I arranged to see him again, all right. I invited him to my mother’s for dinner. Yup, that’s what I did.”“No-o-o,” Guinevere wailed.
“Ye-e-e-es.”
Guinevere licked Mary’s hand, as though to build up the stores of comfort before disaster arrived.
“Mom was putting on the pressure to meet him, and I had to see him, and it just slipped out.” Mary stroked one of Guinevere’s ears. “It could have been worse, you know.”
“Ho-o-o-w?”
“I could have invited him for Sunday dinner. That’s what Mom wanted.”
“O-o-o-w.”
“Ow is right. A big ouch. At least I was smart enough to flatly refuse that. Think of how many in-laws do the command performance thing for Sunday dinner. In-laws! Can you imagine? Wouldn’t that have done a number on my poor commitment-phobic guy?”
“Ro-o-ow.”
“Yeah,areallybigrow.Itwouldhavebeenthefight to end all fights, and I couldn’t even fight to win if I knew I was in the wrong.”
Guinevere flopped down to the floor and hid her eyes under her paws.
“Oh, come on, I said I didn’t do it. This won’t be all that bad. It’s been Wednesday all day, and it won’t be Sunday this evening, either.”
Van would be a basket case, anyway. He had an allergytocommitment,sohereshewas,makinghim meet her mother. This could go down in history as Mary’s Worst Idea Ever.
“I should have put this off until I didn’t have to do it at all.”
Guinevere uncovered enough to reveal an eyebrow quirked into a question mark.
“Remember? He won’t be around forever.” Mary ordered her heart, again, not to break. It had known what it was getting into, and pain hurt less if you prepared for it. Didn’t it? “If I’d waited long enough, he’dbeoffwithsomebimbobeforeIhadtointroduce him to Mom for dueling dinner forks.”
“O-o-o-h.”
“He said yes.” Mary rallied her defenses. “He shouldknowwhathewasdoing.Heshouldknowhe’s in for some parental grilling.” She paused. “Maybe he didn’t know what he was doing. He sounded not-quite-all-there when I called. He said yes, but did he really hear me? Shouldn’t he have been grumpier about it? Defensive? Wary? Maybe he was upset about something.”
Maybe he’d been running so scared he couldn’t express anything amid his quiet terror.
