“You’re asking right here in public?”
“Are you kidding? They’ll find out anyway. I’d give it about ten minutes at best. Why not make it easy on them?”
He’d really gotten with the program. And he loved her.
She reached to touch his face with a hand that shook. “Yes,” she said. Love and relief clogged her throat, so only a bare thread of sound emerged. She tried again. “Oh, yes.”
“Good. I sold my house. And bought the land with Blanton’s cabins. You’re going to have your rehab center.”
She stared at him, blank with shock.
“And there’s this.” He opened the little velvet box and took out a ring as beautifully perfect and simple as the mountain town she loved. He stood and pulled her to her feet, then slid the gold band set with a diamond big enough to make her gulp on her finger. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her as though they stood alone on their mountain top.
She kissed him back, heady with the familiar taste and feel that she had thought gone forever.
When he raised his head, she realized that everyone in the café had crowded around them, and the air rang with applause and congratulations. The door jingled again, and her father’s voice rode over the happy noise. “Kissing my daughter again, Granger?”
“Oh, butt out, Lincoln,” Betty said. “And you two. Any time. Or am I supposed to stand here with this stew until it gets cold?”
“They’re getting married,” someone in the crowd shouted. “And we’ve got us a new sheriff. I’m sure gonna vote for him.”
Shouts of “Me too,” and “You’ve got that right,” and “We’ve got us a real home town hero,” filled the air.
Zeph leaned down to Allie, and she looked up at him, seeing the love in his eyes and knowing she must look totally starry-eyed with a happiness she couldn’t contain.
“Now don’t you two start again,” Betty grumbled.
“Only in Stone’s Crossing,” Zeph murmured in Allie’s ear. “But when I get you alone...”
She couldn’t wait.
A word about the author...
Jenny Andersen is the quintessential day dreamer. Writing romance was a natural thing for her to do, given her life-long fascination with stories and words. (And men.) She has an M.A. in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University in Pennsylvania; her thesis turned into Loving Luke, her first book for The Wild Rose Press.
Jenny lives in California with the world’s most wonderful husband and a herd of dust bunnies. In addition to writing, she plays the Celtic harp, sells antique jewelry, and does needlepoint in her copious spare time. She hates to go to the gym but does it anyway.
Visit Jenny at:
http://www.jennysfiction.com
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Zeph Undercover Page 26
