“I don’t sell those things.”
“Lizzy, I love Allie and I want to spend my life with her.”
“Don’t tell me. Tell her.”
“I need rings and I need help before I do that.”
Lizzy smiled. “I can’t believe I’m saying this but I believe you and I’m happy for you both. Now what can I do?”
Allie sat between Blake and Deke in the back pew at the church on Sunday morning. One arm around her shoulders pulled her close enough to hear the steady rhythm of his heartbeat. His fingers interlaced with hers shot delicious little tingles throughout her body. This was the man she’d fallen in love with, part dependable and the other part pure sexy pleasure.
The preacher took the podium, opened his Bible, and looked out over the congregation.
Blake squeezed her hand. “Bet he speaks from that love chapter in Corinthians. Valentine’s Day is a week from today.”
“As all you folks know, Valentine’s Day is next Sunday,” the preacher said.
“Glad I didn’t make that bet,” Allie whispered.
“And the ladies tell me that we’re having a potluck in the fellowship hall immediately after church that day. Everyone is invited and I’m sure there will be plenty of food. Nadine has said she’s not opening the café that day so y’all best plan on having dinner here with us.” He chuckled. “And now if you will open your Bibles to the love chapter in Corinthians and follow along with me while I talk to you about what all love can do in your lives, both in relationships and friendships…”
“Two for two.” Blake kissed her on the earlobe and the tingles turned into hot little sparks.
Allie wished they were anywhere but church. But then the pews were wider than the backseat of his truck and longer than the kitchen table and she was still a church pew virgin. She blushed and Blake chuckled.
“Thinking something that will bring down lightning?” Blake asked.
She brought his ear close to her mouth. “More like it would rain hellfire down through the roof. You ever had sex on a church pew?”
“Pick one out. I’m game if you are,” he said.
The preacher finished his sermon by saying something about love and then said, “Don’t forget the social potluck next Sunday and now I’m going to ask Blake Dawson to end our service with the benediction.”
Everyone stood and Blake, bless his cowboy heart, said a two-minute prayer without missing a beat. It couldn’t have been easy with the picture Allie had put in his mind, but he managed.
“That was downright mean,” he said as soon as everyone else echoed his Amen at the end of the prayer. “I bet he saw us whispering.”
“I’m just glad he didn’t ask me to do it,” Allie said.
Blake was so damn nervous that he could hardly be still during Sunday dinner at Nadine’s after church. It had more to do with the ring box in his pocket than the four women sitting around the table with him. Having it in his pocket made him want to put it on her finger. He wondered how in the world he’d ever wait six months.
“So one more week and Mitch is coming home, right?” Blake asked Lizzy.
She nodded. “The day after Valentine’s Day, less than a month from our wedding day. The church is planning a wedding shower the week after he gets home.”
“And where are you going to live?” Blake asked.
“He rents an apartment in Wichita Falls, not far from the church where he hopes to fill the preacher’s shoes in the summer when he retires. Right now he helps out when the preacher needs to be gone or wants a week off.”
Blake nodded, his mind on the ring. “And you’ll commute to work?”
“It’s a distance but…” She shrugged.
“If the weather is bad, she can always stay with us,” Katy said.
“Crazy damn notion if you ask me, which nobody did,” Irene piped up. “They could live halfway between the two places or he could commute but oh, no, not Mitch. He’s got to be in control.”
“Granny!” Lizzy exclaimed.
Allie raised an eyebrow in Blake’s direction. “Looks like you stirred up a hornets’ nest.”
“I’ll fix it,” he whispered, and then said, “Miz Irene, can you believe that it’s such a beautiful day when two weeks ago the whole area was covered in a foot of snow?”
“It’s Texas. If you don’t like the weather, stick around. It will change. And the only thing that’s dependable in this place is that in the summer it’s going to be hotter’n the blue blazes of hell. I’m hungry. Is Nadine having to wring that turkey’s neck and pick the feathers before she can make my turkey and dressin’ dinner plate?” she answered.
Katy laughed. “At least it won’t be that frozen crap that you hate, Mama. I think the waitress is bringing our dinner right now.”
“Well, I hope so. I’d like to live to see my sixtieth birthday.”
“Granny, you will be seventy-one on your birthday,” Lizzy said.
Mary Jo set their plates in front of them. “Be careful. The plates are hot.”
“I’m old, not stupid,” Irene said.
“And don’t you look beautiful today.” Mary Jo stopped to give her a hug.