“This isn’t funny.” Doreen walked with them. “Slamming my door in Nessa’s face isn’t going to improve my relationship with her.”
Darius swallowed an inappropriate laugh. To have seen the look on Nessa’s face . . .
“Ms. Helen’s right. Nessa wasn’t here for fellowship.” Darius escorted Ms. Helen to the kitchen table. “But we do need to know what she’s up to.”
Doreen crossed to the oven. “I’ve been racking my brain, but I can’t think of a thing.”
“We’ll all have to keep thinking about it.” Ms. Helen released Darius’s arm as she sank onto one of the blond wood chairs at the matching kitchen table. “Meanwhile, when are you and Peyton going to stop wasting time and start working on the fundraiser for the community center?”
“As soon as she returns from New York.” Darius leaned his hip against the yellow-and-white marble kitchen counter.
Ms. Helen nodded her satisfaction. “Good. It took you two long enough.”
Darius frowned. The twinkle in his elderly friend’s eyes made him uneasy. “Ms. Helen, are you the one behind the town’s matchmaking schemes?”
“Don’t you think I have better things to do?” Which wasn’t exactly an answer.
God save him from well-meaning friends. Judging by their self-satisfied expressions, you’d think working together on the fundraiser put Peyton and him one step from the altar.
But it wasn’t the fundraising committee that scared him. It was the physical attraction that intensified each time he saw the little professor that had him questioning his decision to cochair the committee.
Would he be able to resist her? Did he really want to?
CHAPTER 15
Alonzo studied the shadows moving across his bedroom ceiling Friday night. He’d spent so many years dreaming of having Doreen in his bed, her naked body pressed to his. Even after five months, he still couldn’t believe his dream had come true.
He tightened his embrace, drawing her even closer to his side. Her firm, slender limbs were sprawled across his in the aftermath of their lovemaking. Her breaths were soft against his chest. Alonzo turned his head and placed a kiss on her hair. It was like silk beneath his lips. She smelled like spring flowers.
“Am I dreaming?” His pulse had returned to normal as his body cooled. But now his heart was racing again. Nerves.
“Maybe we both are.” She whispered back with a smile in her voice.
Why was he so anxious? In his law enforcement career, he’d confronted armed sociopaths without a qualm. But the idea of asking the love of his life to marry him filled him with panic. He feared her rejection more than a bullet.
“Doreen, I’m going to retire next December, at the end of my term.” That had sounded more romantic in his mind.
Doreen untangled her limbs from his and leaned back to look up at him. “Are you sure that’s what you want to do?”
“I can afford to retire now.” He met her dark eyes in the shadows. “I’m not rich, but I have money saved and good investments. I can afford to take care of myself. And someone else.”
“You don’t think you’ll get bored?”
“Not with you.” He stroked her knitted eyebrows with the pads of his left fingers, coaxing her to relax. “Besides, this will give me more time to volunteer for community projects. And you can teach me how to run the cash register so I can help fill in for you when you need to take care of your mayoral duties.”
Doreen smiled. “You’d do that for me?”
“Of course.” Alonzo frowned at the surprise in her voice. “We’re partners, remember? In my entire life, I’ve never been happier than when I’m with you.”
“You make me happy, too.” Doreen cupped the side of his face with her small, soft hand.
Alonzo pressed a kiss into her palm. “I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”
Doreen tensed within his embrace. “Alonzo—”
“Marry me, please, Doreen. You’d make me the happiest man on the planet if you’d agree to be my wife.” Alonzo remained still, returning her gaze as Doreen searched his face.
“Is this about what Nessa said yesterday during our Thanksgiving open house?”