“Why have I wasted so much time?”
“Because you’re crazy!” Ma called.
He and Meredith laughed. “I guess I’d better get on with this before she comes over here and does it for me.” Taking her left hand, he slipped the object Ma had given him, his grandmother’s engagement ring, onto her finger. “Meredith Guidry, will you marry me?”
She never broke eye contact with him. “On one condition.”
His heart stopped. “What’s that?”
“You’ll go back to my father and tell him you’ve changed your mind about the restaurant deal.”
“How did you—?”
She pressed her free hand to his lips. “That doesn’t matter. What matters is that I’m pretty sure your mother is the reason you turned him down. And if I agree to marry you, she’s going to be my mother, too, which means I can share in the responsibility of taking care of her while you work at the restaurant.”
“But what about your job and your hours?”
“I’m promoting Corie into a new planner position to take some of the pressure off me so that maybe I can go back to just a fifty- or sixty-hour work week.” She grinned. “So will you?”
He would never deserve her. “Will you agree to keep the puppy and name him Duke?”
“You’ll help out with training?”
“Naturally.”
“Then, yes, I’ll keep the puppy.”
“Good. Now, you haven’t answered my other question. Will you marry me?”
“Yes, she will.” Beverly’s whisper carried to them.
Meredith laughed then leaned forward and kissed him. “Yes, Chef. I’ll marry you.”
About the Author
Kaye Dacus is a graduate of Seton Hill University’s Master of Arts in Writing Popular Fiction program. She is an active member and former vice president of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW). Her novel Stand-In Groom took second place in the 2006 ACFW Genesis writing competition.