He pulled up to Iris’ house, his stomach in knots. He hadn’t been this nervous since he’d first asked Iris out on a date all those weeks ago. Their pity date. He rolled his eyes at himself. How dumb he’d been back then.

But now…he had something he really thought Iris would love. It was going to be awesome. He was excited and nervous and happy and wound up tighter than an eight-day clock. If he knew his Iris – and he really thought he did – she was going to love this. Then, after he surprised her with the present, they could have a nice evening of watching movies and eating popcorn and snuggling on the couch.

Yup, tonight was gonna be a great night.

He grabbed the present off the passenger-side seat, this time wrapped by Jennifer. She’d helped him with this project, for which he was eternally grateful. If he’d been stuck on his own trying to figure it out…well, he wouldn’t have, plain and simple.

One of the outside cats came winding over, rubbing up against Declan’s legs, and he leaned down and petted it for a moment. For being an outside cat, it was in pretty good shape. The extra calories from Iris’ feedings must be helping.

He crunched through the snow, the package tucked under his arm. He raised his hand to knock on the door when it flew open and Iris sent him a huge grin. “Hey, darlin’,” she said, kissing him as he passed her and into the house. Dropping the package into her rocking chair, he pulled her up against the closed front door and snuggled her between his thighs. 

He looked down at her and smiled. “Hi there, Cookie,” he breathed, and then took his sweet time kissing her. She tasted like chocolate and coffee, and when he pulled back, he asked her teasingly, “Enjoying your new chocolate-flavored coffee creamer?”

“You know it,” she said with a laugh. “You know, you really should stop buying me presents. I’m going to get spoiled.”

“Well, that’s just the way I like my girls.” He held his breath, wondering if she’d object to the term “my girls” but she didn’t bat an eyelash, instead sinking into the rocking chair and tugging on the gold, shimmery ribbon enclosing the package. 

“It’s heavy,” she said absentmindedly, biting her lower lip in concentration as she worked to undo the wrapping. 

“Thankfully the online store had free shipping, or it would’ve cost an arm and a leg to get it here,” he admitted cheerfully. In his humble opinion, online shopping was one of the best things to hit small rural communities. No more driving 90 minutes to Boise to buy obscure items. 

And this was definitely an obscure item.

She pulled the box out and stared at it for a moment in bewilderment. “Hovr?” she asked. She tilted her head to the side, trying to figure out what she was holding. “What is this?” she finally asked, giving up and looking up at him.

“Jennifer helped me find it,” he said, pulling the strap and metal out of the box. “See this strap? It connects to the bottom side of your desk. It hangs down,” he held the strap up in the air to demonstrate, “and this metal bar with round pads on it? You put your feet on the pads and you can move them around. Basically, you’re walking without ever standing up from your desk!”

Horrifyingly, she burst into tears and threw herself into his arms. He patted her back awkwardly. Oh God, oh God, what do I do?

“I didn’t mean to upset you!” he said, patting her back furiously. Oreo was head-butting her leg, obviously upset that she was upset. “You said that you’re struggling with sitting all the time, and I thought this way, you could be sitting, but still moving. We first found those walking desks you’d talked about, but obviously that wasn’t going to work, and then we found this and we thought it’d be great and…please don’t cry!”

He was just contemplating getting down on his hands and knees and begging her to stop crying when she lifted her tear-stained face and looked at him.

“These are happy tears,” she informed him, laughing as she said it. She quickly sobered back up and said softly, “I can’t believe you did this – that you found this. Declan, it means so much to me.” 

He leaned over and kissed her again, just lightly this time, and then wiped her tears away with the pads of his thumbs. “You know, you could warn a guy sometime that you’re spilling happy tears,” he grumped, but he couldn’t pretend to be upset for long. Her dazzling smile wouldn’t let him.

“C’mon,” she said, pulling away a little and tugging at his hand. “Are you going to install it for me?” But she must’ve moved too quickly without thinking about it, because she toppled over…and landed face first against his groin.

He had to admit, if only to himself, that this had to be the first time that her screwy balance was 100% a wonderful thing, in his humble opinion.

She pushed herself back up, breathless and red in the face. He was happy to note that her face quite brilliantly matched her hair.

All thoughts of installing the Hovr, of watching a movie or snuggling with Iris on the couch, flew right out of his head. Impulsively, he scooped her up in his arms and carried her to her bedroom.

It was time to show Iris McLain just how much he loved her.