And then the dancing stopped and her heart fell. What was he about to confess? She took a deep breath and looked right at him, ready for anything. Almost anything.
“I won’t run,” she assured him. “And I appreciate honesty.”
“Good, ’cause I’m coming at you with a boatload of it.”
She swallowed, and waited.
“I don’t date…” he began.
Okay, well, that wasn’t good.
“Casually,” he finished, emphasizing the word. “I never have, to be real with you. It’s something my mother sort of pounded into me.”
She thought of some of the endearing stories he’d told her about his hardworking, Jesus-loving mother, Germaine.
“My mom taught me not to…I think the word she liked to use was ‘window-shop’ with women,” he told her.
Window-shop?
He took her hand in his. “‘What’s the use,’ Mom would say. ‘Don’t pluck things off the shelf and try them on for fun, Marshall.’” He used a slightly higher-pitched voice and a playful accent to imitate her.
But Gracie didn’t laugh because…what exactly was he saying?
“So I don’t,” he finished. “I don’t date around or look for the next relationship or play the field—unless it’s a gridiron and the QB just handed me the ball.” He grinned. “Once I see what I want, I…make it mine or I don’t.” One heartbeat, then two passed while he held her gaze. “Can you tell where I’m going with this?”
She could hope, but she wasn’t sure. “Maybe. Keep going.”
“Okay, well, when I look at you, I see…a future.”
She just stared at him, her pulse racing so hard she could barely hear him as he made his sweet speech, making her sock-covered toes curl around the footrest of the bar stool.
“Too much? Too soon?” he asked, squeezing her hand. “I just have to be honest.”
“No, no, it’s fine.” She almost laughed at the understatement. Fine? It was…glorious.
“And, assuming—hoping, actually—that you feel the same way,” he continued, “I’d like to spend the next few weeks right next to you.”
“I’d…like that,” she managed to say.
“I mean, I know you have Benny and a family and a business,” he added. “And things are busy this time of year. But I’d like to quite intentionally take time for us. I want to go out to dinner, and spend some full days together, put up my tree together, and take long rides into the mountains, and just sink into this relationship and see if I’m…right.”
“Right?” she echoed, still stuck imagining the canvas of romance he’d just painted for her.
“Gracie, I think this—us, we—have something special.” His thumb brushed her knuckles, steady and sure when she felt anything but. “I don’t want to rush you or scare you, but I don’t want to take two years of dating to get where I really hope we’re going.”
Her chest squeezed as she let out a soft laugh. “Well, it’s not that rushed, considering I’ve had a crush on you the size of a mountain since the day we met a year ago.”
A slow smile lit his whole face. “You have? Me, too! Like…I feel like I’ve been climbing Mount Crushmore.”
She threw her head back and laughed at that, relief and joy surging through her. “Really? I had no idea!”
“Are you kidding? Did you notice how we always seemed to bump into each other on the street in front of our shops…by chance?”
“Not by chance?” she guessed.
“I watch the front door of Sugarfall like the proverbial hawk and the minute I see you step out, I need air. Well, I need…Gracie. I didn’t think you’d be interested, since I was competing for your business. Then we made that gingerbread house, and then the night of the ice skating…”
“You weren’t sure you could trust me,” she reminded him.
