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Business was slow, not unusual for this time of year. My special-order customers visited and people browsed Cassandra’s clothing line. Some bought soaps and bath salts. Every time the bell over the door announced a customer, I jumped, wondering if that woman’s sister would ambush me.
None of my customers asked for Lily-Pepper.
When Kyle came in toward the end of the day, I told him about the messages on the website portal. “What should I do?” I asked.
“Considering it’s only one customer, I wouldn’t respond to her messages,” he said.
“I already did.”
“Then tell her you can’t help her. It might be an innocent inquiry, but don’t take any chances.” He wrapped his arms around me. “And considering Cassandra won’t be here for the next couple of days, I could hang around. I’m not working tomorrow.”
“You have projects at the house to finish,” I said. “You don’t have to babysit me.”
“Bodyguarding. Not babysitting. I can have the Sheriff’s Office look into the sister Narcy was visiting in Winnsboro. Not my jurisdiction, but Deputy Becker might be willing to check.”
I sighed. “I’m not sure that’s necessary. The chance Narcy’s sister is like her are pretty slim.”
He studied me a moment, as if trying to decide what ‘like her’ meant, and must have chosen not to ask. “She still might want revenge.” He raised his gaze toward the ceiling. “What is with people who want to take their anger out on you? You didn’t do anything.”
The story of my life, starting with my aunt Theresa. “I’m an easy target.”
“Not anymore. Come on. It’s time to close up shop. I’ll walk you home.” He crossed to the door and turned the lock, then set the sign to closed. In my shop.
A frisson of irritation crept across my skin. “I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself.” The temptation to turn the sign to open, just so I could be the one to close the shop was strong, but it didn’t serve any purpose other than to assert myself. The shop was closed.
“As long as I’m around, I intend to do my part to protect you. I don’t want to lose you, Brynn.”
Okay, sometimes I appreciated when he got all macho man. His posturing might be irritating, but I wasn’t in this alone.
I secured the cash register and tended to the rest of my regular closing routine. “C’mon, Ash.” The cat rose from her rug, arched her back in a trembly stretch, and jumped into her basket for the walk home.
“And speaking of not wanting to lose you,” Kyle said as we started along the footpaths. He lowered his head and looked off in the distance. “We’ve already talked about this, and I know this isn’t the most romantic way to reintroduce the topic, but I’d like to make wedding plans.”
Why did that thought continue to send chills up my spine? I did want to marry Kyle, but not because he was flexing his protective muscles. “With who?” I teased.
He blocked my path. “You.”
“This isn’t a good time to talk about weddings.”
He raised his eyebrows, holding his ground.
“It’s cold out here. Can we at least wait until we get home?” I cringed at my whiny tone.
“Yes, but we will talk about it.” His stern look indicated I wouldn’t be able to avoid the subject for longer than the short walk.
When we left the footpath, Kyle followed me into my house. I opened the lid on the basket and Ash leapt to the floor. She went straight for her food dishes, where she munched on her remaining crunchies.
“No more excuses,” he said. “I’m not asking for a wedding tomorrow, but I do want a commitment from you.”
A commitment. “Way to sweep a girl off her feet. If I wasn’t committed to you, you wouldn’t be here now.”
Undaunted, he continued. “If you want the romantic gesture, I’ll give you one.”
“What I don’t want,” I told him, slipping off my coat, “is for you to marry me because you think that’ll somehow make me safe from the big, scary world. We agreed to revisit the topic when you finished remodeling your house. Tell me your sudden sense of urgency has nothing to do with this woman who may or may not be Narcy’s sister.”
He rubbed his face with a hand and turned away. “Whether or not that’s true, I do want to marry you, and I thought you wanted to marry me.”
I slipped my arms around his waist and turned him to face me. “I do. And you know what? A romantic gesture would be nice, but going all Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson on me isn’t romantic.”
Kyle’s voice grew quiet. “He’s a lot bigger than I am.”
I laughed and looped my arms around his neck. “Do we have to do this now?”
“It’s important to me.”
I pursed my lips. After our summer break-up, I wasn’t eager for more drama in my life. I swallowed down any residual misgivings. This was the man I wanted to marry, after all. “Well, you originally said something about a six-month timeline before an official proposal after we moved in together. Considering we’re mostly living together now, if we tacked on a few more months, and then a reasonable planning period...”
Kyle looked toward the ceiling and exhaled loudly. “Bottom line?”
“June is always a good month for weddings,” I said. “Although I’m more partial to May, myself.”
He leveled his gaze on me, humor making crinkles at the corners of his eyes. “May works for me.”
“You realize it will be a small affair. My guest list consists of Nora and her husband. And Lisa and Cassandra.”
He nodded. “I’m good with that. My dad, the guys. What about your cousins?”
I shot him an are you kidding? look and he laughed.
“Which reminds me,” I said, reaching for a change of subject. “Speaking of ‘the guys,’ is there something going on between Lucas and Cassandra? When he stopped in the shop the other day, she blushed and stammered while she was talking to him. That’s not like her. He’s a school teacher, isn’t he?”
The corner of Kyle’s mouth rose in a half-grin. “Yeah. What’s that got to do with anything?”
“Well, she’s so Gwen Stefani-ish, you know? Fashion forward and flashy, and he’s more bowtie and loafers.” I poked him in the chest. “And you haven’t answered my question.”
Kyle held up his hands to ward me off. “Don’t have an answer.”
“Do we need to help them along?” I asked.
“Lucas is a big boy. I’m sure he can manage on his own. We have more important things to focus on.” Reminding me my change of subject wasn’t working.
“Okay, okay. May. A small wedding, which means we don’t have to do a lot of planning until after Christmas. Agreed? Nora and Fletcher got married in the woods, and you know what? That was one of the best weddings I’ve ever been to. I’d like an outdoor wedding.”
“No objections here. How about the gazebo in the park? Oh, wait. May might be too chilly.”
“I’ll take my chances.”
He kissed my nose. “I’ll try not to be so overprotective, but I am going to stick close until we figure out what’s going on with this sister who’s stalking you.”
I did appreciate that I wasn’t alone in this, and having him flex muscle now would be a good indicator of how well I could deal with his overprotective streak in the future. “Understood. Now. What are we having for dinner?”