Page 340 of Under Her Skin

Mrs. Blaine Vanderbilt is the name I will soon carry. Nurse Richards will be no more, and Nurse Vanderbilt will be the one who watches over the sick children at thehospital.

Blaine comes out of the bathroom and catches me gazing at the ring. “You really do like it, don’tyou?”

“It is a thing of great beauty, Blaine. You made an excellent choice. I know I’d never have chosen this for myself. It looks too expensive. And please never tell me what you paid for it. I’m already afraid to wear it. You know, because I might loseit.”

He climbs into the bed, laying out on his back next to me, and pats his chest, his gesture for me to lay my head on it. This is the way he likes to fall asleep every night since we moved intogether.

His arm goes around me, holding me and making me feel safe, secure, and loved. Slipping my hand under the blanket, I settle in and know my dreams will be the sweetest ever. He’s made me happier than I was before somehow. I was pretty damn happy before he proposed, so that was somefeat.

“Before I let you fall asleep, I want to ask you a question, and I want you to give me your honest answer,” he says as he runs his hand through my hair. “Do you really not want to be married inVegas?”

“I really don’t. I didn’t have a lot of dreams about the day I got married, but I don’t think the sound of slot machines and tons of strange people being around is how I want to start our marriage. I want it small, with family and friends around. A quaint, little affair.” I turn to look at him and find him smiling atme.

“I don’t think they have slot machines in the wedding chapels there. But I get what you’re saying, and I don’t want you to go to sleep thinking we are on opposite sides. I will put my problems to the side and give you what you want. That day should be what you want it to be, rather than me being selfish aboutthat.”

“Really? You would really put whatever is bothering you about the hospital out of your mind and actually enjoy having the wedding there? Because I want you to enjoy it too,” I say as I search his eyes for thetruth.

His hand moves in a soft caress across my back as he looks into my eyes. “As a husband and father, I will have to make sacrifices. Being selfish is a luxury I no longer have. Let me do this for you and for us. Let me put into practice how I will need to be if I’m going to be a great husband and father, which I’m strivingfor.”

“Then I will let you do that. I think you’ll enjoy it more than you think you will,” I say and lay my head back on his chest, feeling even better than I did before. I have a plan now, and that fills me with a contentfeeling.

“As long as I’m marrying you on that day, that’s all I need. It’s all I should need, right?” he asks, as if I could argue with hispoint.

“Of course. Now let’s get some sleep. I’m half expecting an early phone call from mom telling me they’ve decided to join us for Christmas. You do realize that means they’ll be staying here for a fewdays?”

“Few days?” he asks, then chuckles. “Baby, they can stay until after the wedding, which will be next week. We can take them shopping for clothes to wear, and I’ll get the settlement all squared away. They will leave our house with a bank account the likes they probably haven’t even dreamtof.”

“My parents are going to be rich?” I ask as I look at him with renewed energy, as I just never realized what would happen for them if they accepted his settlement.I never thought about them beingrich!

“Yes, they will be rich. I also will be throwing in a house for them. I have one on a Lake Tahoe and one on the beach in Miami. Which one do you think is more their speed?” he asks me with a grin as he runs his fingertips along my shoulder, sending chills throughme.

“Lake Tahoe, definitely. How big is the house? It can’t be too big. Mom’s getting too old to clean a bighouse.”

“It comes with a staff. You should know that by now, Delaney. And it’s big. A log-cabin-style mansion,” he says, and my blood really getspumping.

I sit up and laugh. “My God, Blaine! They’re going to think they’ve died and gone toheaven!”

“Pops wouldn’t let me give him hardly anything. A Cadillac last Christmas was the first thing he actually accepted. I bought that place for him and took him up there, and he flatly refused to live there. Even when I told him he could have Kate or Kent or both of them live there too, he refusedit.”

“That’s kind of sad. You just wanted him to be happy. I’m sorry.” Leaving a kiss on his cheek, I lay back down on his chest and run my finger through the sunken line between his abs. “I wonder why he wouldn’t let you do that forhim.”

“Stubborn pride and the fact he saw my money as bad money—money taken from people who really needed it and needed the things they purchased to be worth the money they paid for it. And he hated the fact that I ran small, privately-owned businesses out of business,” he says with a sad tone to his deepvoice.

“But you’re changing all that. Too bad it took his death for you to see it neededchanging.”

“Yes, too bad about that.” He kisses the top of my head. “Let’s go to sleep. baby. We have a big day tomorrow. We have to heat up all that Christmas dinner Roxy made forus.”

“At least I don’t have to really cook,” I say and close my eyes. “Goodnight, Blaine. I loveyou.”

“I love you, Delaney. Goodnight.”

BLAINE

The snapping of branches tells me someone is coming. From out of the darkness emerges a single light. It hovers six feet over the snow-covered ground. The sound of the footsteps stops, but no person stands where I thought I’d seeone.

The full moon’s light overhead filters through the dense forest. How I got here, I don’t know. An owl hoots from far away and the light in front of me grows larger and glows brighter until there is nothing but light in front ofme.

The flapping of wings fills my ears as the light is so bright I have to shield my eyes. Then it goes dark—completely dark—until the moon’s light hasvanished.