A Proposal for Christmas by Linda Lael Miller

Author:Linda Lael Miller
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin Enterprises, Australia Pty Ltd
Published: 2013-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Trish and Mallory watched with comically serious faces as Pat modeled one of several wedding gowns she was considering.

“Too many ruffles,” Mallory commented.

“Too few,” Trish countered.

Pat paused, a vision bathed in spring sunlight, to glare at the spectators lounging on the living room sofa. “You two are no help at all!”

Mallory and Trish exchanged a look and then burst into a simultaneous fit of giggles.

Mallory, her stomach well rounded with the cherished weight of her child, Nathan’s child, sat cross-legged, like a small, plump Indian. Beaming, she reinspected Pat’s beautiful gown. “You look lovely. Yes, indeed, I think that is definitely The Dress.”

“Me, too,” Trish admitted. “Of course, I looked much better in mine, you know. Some of us just have better bodies than others.”

Mallory and Pat both laughed, and Mallory glanced eloquently down at the dome of her stomach. Though it was only April, she was big enough that she couldn’t join in the good-natured teasing by claiming any superiority for her own figure. “No comment from this quarter!”

“I should say not, fatso,” Pat answered.

Trish rolled her eyes and sighed theatrically. “And it’s April, for heaven’s sake. By August, they’re going to be transporting El Tubbo here with a block and tackle!”

Mallory gave her friend a good-natured shove and pretended to pout. “Nathan thinks I’m beautiful!”

“What does he know?” Trish countered.

Pat laughed. “Maybe we should ask Weight Watchers to send over their emergency squad.”

Eyes twinkling, Mallory shot to her feet in dramatic indignation and summoned up her most imperious glare. “When are you two going to let up on the fat jokes?” she cried. “You’ll destroy my ego!”

Pat lifted her chin and grinned. “If you run out of ego, sis, just borrow some from Nathan—he has plenty. As for the fat jokes, we’ll let up when you can see your feet again, McKendrick. You remember—those things south of your knees?”

Mallory laughed and the child moved within her and she thought, in that moment, that she had never been happier in all her life.

Pat and Trish exchanged a look and giggled. A moment later, Pat was off to an upstairs bedroom to change out of the wedding gown and back into jeans.

Trish patted Mallory’s hand with affection. “All jokes aside, old friend, you look wonderful. I know it’s corny, but you actually glow.”

“Thanks,” Mallory replied, sitting down on the sofa again and resting her hands lightly on the protrusion beneath her blouse.

Trish frowned, looking briefly in the direction of the distant room where Nathan was locked away. “What’s that man of yours up to these days? Rumor has it that you clubbed him over the head with a package of frozen shrimp and stuffed the body under the cellar stairs.”

Mallory smiled at Trish’s remark and turned the simple wedding band on her finger, so that it caught the invading spring sunshine and transformed it to golden fire. “He has been something of a hermit lately, hasn’t he?” She lowered her voice to a whisper, unable, in her pride, to keep the secret to herself.

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