The moment they entered the store, Lydia knew something was off, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. Nothing about the small space looked amiss. The trays of chocolates were mostly picked over, but that was to be expected with it being minutes before closing time. The owner’s face had lit up, and she’d perhaps seemed a little too excited to see them, but maybe she’d been lonely. Abraham and Lydia quickly made their selections, and the woman placed them into a box with a bow attached to the top.
Once Abraham paid, he handed Lydia the box. “Which one should we eat first?”
His twitching lips and failure to stay nonchalant immediately made her suspicious.
She pulled off the lid, and in the center of their eight pieces of chocolate was a gold band with a small garnet in it. In her periphery, Abraham dropped to one knee.
The triumph on his face at having caught her by surprise was clear. “Well, Lydia, this is the second time you’ve had me drop to one knee today, but this time, I’m asking the question I think—or at least hope—you were wanting to hear. Will you marry me?”
She laughed. She couldn’t help it. The man had gone to such extreme lengths to twist her expectations.
“Did you have this planned the whole time?”
“Do you have an answer for me?”
“Of course, you daft man. Yes, I’ll marry you.”
“We’ve already got the details planned out. All we need is a date.” Theresa came out of the back room. Nora, Flossie, Papa, Momma, Madelyn, Clara, Jake, and Abraham’s parents trailed behind.
Evidently Abraham wasn’t the only one capable of surprising her. “How on earth did you all fit back there?”
“We didn’t. It was awful,” Madelyn complained. “Can you kiss him so we can go home now?”
Abraham arched a brow at Lydia. “Should we, with such an audience?”
“Absolutely.”
Abraham’s arms wrapped around Lydia’s waist as he leaned down and gave her a kiss that made her weak-kneed and dizzy.
She lifted her feet, forcing Abraham to hold her up. “I believe you’ve done it. You’ve finally knocked me off my feet.”
Making it literal might have required a little dramatics on her part, but what good was a whirlwind romance without a bit of theatrics? After all, he had to know what he’d gotten himself into: a lifetime of practicing kiss scenes for her next romance novels, featuring none other than Detective Darcy.
