Adam cleared his throat. “Extra-large Americano, please.” He glanced over to Joey. “Didn’t you want hot chocolate?”
“I did,” she said. “But now that we’re here, the coffee smells so good.” She brought her hand up to her mouth and bit her nail, and Adam felt like doing the same, his own nerves rioting through him in an unkind way.
“You know what? I want a flat white latte,” she said. “No, no, I don’t.”
He pulled his wallet out and waited while Joey looked at the menu again. “You know what? I want the hot chocolate with marshmallow cream.”
“You got it, sweetie.” Louisa put the order in, and Adam paid. She set the pistachio croissant on a plate, and Joey picked it up and turned to face the café.
Adam didn’t care which table she picked, as the whole place held about fifteen of them, and he was planning to fill the space with people and music before too long.
“Right here by the window?” Joey asked. “Look, the sun’s come out a little bit.”
“Look at that,” Adam said, and he pulled her chair out for her before he sat down across from her.
Their drinks came quickly, including the agave packets that Adam liked, and he stirred them into his coffee, wondering how to start this conversation. He’d never proposed to a woman before, and he, Harry, and Bryce had been over several ideas before he’d landed on this one.
“Back to the site of our first date,” Joey said.
Adam looked up at her. “Oh, so you’re counting this as our first date now?”
“Yes, silly,” she said, her smile infectious and her eyes so bright. “I told you, we can’t have kissed before our first date. So that means the coffee date was our first date.”
“Coffee and cowboy hat shopping,” he grinned at her.
“It’s not a bad first date, right?” Joey asked. “So let’s make sure we get the story straight for your mom. I don’twant her thinking that I just kiss everyone who manages to make it out of a snowstorm.”
She giggled, and Adam chuckled with her. “Speaking of my mom,” he said, though that wasn’t what he wanted to talk about at all. He cleared his throat, his hand migrating to his thigh, where he felt the distinct outline of the ring in his pocket. He leaned back, because that was the first clue for those watching, and then he paused as the couple in the corner got up and started to leave. He sat forward again as Joey’s brow furrowed in confusion.
“Speaking of your mom, what?” she asked. “Is there something else I need to know not to say?”
He’d told her about how she loved steamed broccoli and made a lemon-mayo sauce to go over it. Joey had blinked and said, “Wow, I’ve never heard of that.”
“Try to act as normal as possible when you see her eat it,” Adam had advised, and that had launched a whole series of questions from Joey about what she could expect about his mother.
“No, nothing like that,” Adam said, as the couple finally finished cleaning up and walked by them. He looked up at them so as not to have to say something else. The very moment he heard the bell on the door chime, he leaned back again.
“I’ve just been thinking,” he said, raising his voice. “It would be way better if I could take home a fiancée instead of a girlfriend.”
Joey blinked, “I…what?”
Adam grinned at her and stood up. He heard footstepsbehind him, and Joey glanced that way about the same time that Harry said, “Here you go, buddy.” Adam turned and took the guitar from his best friend, the man who had literally changed his life by bringing him to Coral Canyon and introducing him to the Young family—including Joey.
Adam positioned himself next to Harry on his right, while Bryce came up on his left. The fact that Adam thought he could play the guitar as well as either one of them was a complete joke, but Joey had been asking him if he would ever play for her, and he figured a proposal was as good a time as any. He’d only been taking lessons for three months now, but he knew enough to pluck out a few chords and sing a few lyrics.
Harry had written the song for him, and it was only thirty seconds long, and Adam told himself he could do anything for thirty seconds if the prize was kissing Joey at the end with a pink diamond ring on her finger.
“We’re waiting on you, buddy,” Bryce said jovially.
Adam swallowed, took a deep breath, and looked Joey straight in the eyes—hers were wide and impossibly blue—and he reminded himself that he loved this woman and wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. That got his fingers to start moving, and he plucked through the simple notes like the novice he was.
Joey smiled, and that only encouraged him to keep going.
“Meeting you changed my life,” he sang.
“In this small town, you’re my light,
With flour-dusted hands, we bake our dreams,
