Donuts and Handcuffs

Before I even realized it was happening, Daniel had pulled me to the dance floor and into his arms. “I’ll never forgive myself if I don’t dance with you in that gorgeous dress,” he said gently, kissing the tip of my nose.

“Remember you said I should tell you when you’re being pushy?” I grinned up at him. “Once in a while, I like it.”

He spun me around the dance floor dramatically, until I didn’t even care that some people were staring. I realized with absolute delight that I didn’t have to play the part of starry-eyed girlfriend. It was the truth.

EPILOGUE

*** Six Months Later ***

My quiet, steady, regulated life now had the sparkle of a magical, adorable girlfriend. But I was greedy, and that just wasn’t enough for me.

I was terrified to let the excitement leave our relationship, so at least once a month I planned some sort of surprise. It wasn’t always something big, like a lovely dinner with all of her favorite foods in the private room of a fancy restaurant.

Once I rented a fun sports car and took her on a tour of several different local bakeries. She was already incredibly creative, but everyone needs inspiration sometimes. And I think it was good for her to see that her shop was already one of the best in the city.

Another time I took her bowling, even surprising her with loud old-fashioned bowling league shirts I found at the second-hand store. I knew she didn’t like me spending a lot of money on her, but an elephant coffee mug was only seven dollars. Every little thing, from flowers to chocolates to specialty tea seemed to delight her.

In return, she made me a fabulous packed lunch every time I stayed at her place. Which had been several times a week, these days. She had even taken to packing a gourmet sandwich for my partner Dave so that he wouldn’t be jealous.

We fit together perfectly. We planned to buy one of the adorable quaint houses a block away from her shop as soon as the next one came up for sale. Even the few times we’d had a tiny disagreement, we listened to the other person until we sorted it out.

One of the things I absolutely adored about Bailey was that she was a responsible adult, who was completely giving in to her whimsical second childhood. She was a brilliant businesswoman who happened to have purple sparkle star clips in her hair and a weird frog wristwatch.

Seeing her face light up every time someone came into her bakery flooded my heart with an amount of love that could barely be contained.

I decided that my next little surprise should be in her shop so that she would never see it coming. It was her personal space, but she had been wonderful about letting me into the kitchen to sit on a stool in the corner, chatting while she concocted an endless array of treats.

There was a pretty good chance that she would let me take over her kitchen just once, for just a second.

This time, I was watching the ebb and flow of customers until I knew the shop would be packed. Just before I was fairly certain a few small groups would arrive, I dashed in.

“Bailey, I know you’re busy, so I can do this myself.”

“What are you talking about?” she asked, surprised but smiling.

I pointed to one of her small birthday cakes in the display case, waiting to have someone’s name iced cross the top. “Can I grab this cake, and stick a donut on top of it? It’s someone’s birthday at the station, and I know he’ll crack up.”

“Sure, but I can–”

The bell rang over the door as four police officers came in. “You’re busy,” I said. “Just let me do it.”

“All right,” she shrugged.

As I took the cake and the donut back to the kitchen, I heard the officers mulling over every single sandwich option as if it were the most important decision they’d ever make.

Luckily, Bailey always left a couple of icing bags ready for quick birthday cake decorations. Holding the donut on top of the cake, I ran a couple of loops of frosting around it so it was stuck in place. Then I drew an empty circle in front of it, adding my own decoration to the center.

I could hear my colleagues still holding up the line, and it sounded like the bakery was packed.

I took a deep breath, holding up the cake so it was facing outward, slowly walking out to the front of the shop. The twenty people crowded in the small store, half of them cops, all became silent.

Bailey turned to look at me as I said, “What do you think?”

Her eyes dropped to see my donut cake, with a large diamond ring stuck in the center of a slightly off-kilter pink icing circle. Dropping to one knee, I held it up to her.

“Bailey, I adore you. Every time I see your smile, I feel like I’ve been hit by lightning. Will you please make me the happiest little policeman in town, and be my wife?”

She froze, her lovely blue eyes wide. It felt like every single person in the room had stopped breathing.