I got down on the asphalt of the parking lot of the Indigo Valley Park. At least this time it was daylight and she wasn’t on the side of the road. “In the same damn place. What are the odds?”
“Yeah, really weird, isn’t it?”
I stopped cranking and looked down at the tire. There was no shredding, no nicks on the white walls. “What’s today’s date?”
“June first.” She grinned down at me.
I got up off the ground and brushed off my hands on my pants.
She pushed off the van and grabbed me by the wrist.
“Are you scheming, Mercy Hart?”
“Maybe.” She pulled me across the parking lot into the pavilion and past the rows of picnic tables into a clearing.
“What are you up to?”
“Well, we’ve both been so busy.” She threw a grin over her shoulder.
“We have.”
“And it’s wedding season so that means I’m going to be absolutely insane with all the cakes.”
I caught up to her and curled my hand around her hip. “I know. You’ve barely come to bed in weeks.” I stopped her and dragged her back against me. I dropped a kiss on her shoulder. Then I noticed the picnic blanket and basket.
She turned in my arms. “I know.”
“You didn’t have to make a fake emergency call to get me here.”
“I know, but since it’s our six-month anniversary, I figured it fit.” She linked her fingers at the back of my neck. She smelled like summer lemons and vanilla.
An echo to that first day in the bakery when I’d finally made her mine.
“Does this mean you’ll finally say yes?”
She tipped her head back with a throaty laugh. “How about you ask me?” She met my gaze. “Ask me.”
“Do you love me?”
“You already know that answer.” She went on her toes and kissed me. “I love you madly.”
My stomach dropped. The question I’d wanted to ask had been on the tip of my tongue since the first full week we’d been together.
The question that I hadn’t dared to bring up.
But she knew me.
Knew me better than anyone at this point.
“I love you, Mercy Hart.”
She sighed. “I’m never going to tire of hearing that.”
“You know I had a whole plan for proposing to you, right?”
She grinned. “Things don’t ever really go to plan with us, right?”
And she was getting better with dealing with that. To be spontaneous. To accept help. To be a partner.
