Sadie laughed and felt a little easier. Sure, her situation with Rick was up in the air and more confusing than ever. But at least she wasn’t alone in her confusion.
Before she could so much as start in on her salad again, Sadie sensed a subtle shift in the club’s atmosphere. The conversations around them were still going on, but there was more of a hush to them now. As if everyone was suddenly interested in the same thing.
“Oh, my,” Abby whispered and tapped Sadie’s hand.
When she looked up, she turned her gaze to where Abby was pointing and Sadie actually felt her stomach drop. Rick was standing in the entryway, dressed in his uniform, an expression of steely determination carved into his face.
In spite of everything, Sadie’s stomach did a quick lurch and spin as adrenaline-spiked excitement dropped into the pit of her belly. She hadn’t seen him in days. And now that he was here, right in front of her, her body was lighting up like a Christmas tree.
Darn it.
His gaze locked with hers, Rick strode across the crowded dining room like a man on a mission. As he came closer and closer, Sadie’s heart began to pound in anticipation, even as she fought to keep her emotions off her face.
The crowd around them seemed to sense that something special was up. Conversations dwindled away, and as Rick crossed the room, even the wait staff froze in place. It was like the whole room had taken a breath and held it.
He stopped beside their table and spared a quick look at Abby. “Nice to see you,” he said.
“You, too,” Abby murmured, her gaze shifting to Sadie.
“Sadie,” Rick announced, his voice easily carrying across the crowd. “I’ve got something to say to you.”
“Oh God,” she mumbled, trying not to notice the dozens of curious stares directed at her.
“And I don’t care if the whole world hears me,” Rick continued. “Hell, I want them to hear me.”
“Don’t do this,” Sadie whispered, her eyes on him.
“I have to,” Rick said.
He’d finally figured out that the one sure way to get Sadie to agree to marry him was to ask her in front of people. The way she was raised, the woman she was, wouldn’t allow her to embarrass either him or herself by refusing him.
So he’d spent the last few days finding the perfect ring and waiting for his best opportunity. When he’d discovered she was going to be here at the club having lunch with Abby, Rick made his move.
She was stunned. He could see it on her face, despite how hard she was trying to hide it. Just like that time when she was a girl in the diner, she wouldn’t let anyone know what she was feeling or thinking. She would be a lady and do the only thing she could do.
She would finally say yes.
Keeping his gaze locked with hers, he made an elaborate show of dropping to one knee. Then he opened up the small, navy-blue jeweler’s box and showed her the enormous diamond he’d picked out for her, making sure the rest of the crowd got a good look, too.
Their audience took a breath and the sound was audible. Sadie just blinked at him. When he had everyone’s attention, he spoke, in a loud, clear voice, “Sadie Price, will you marry me? Will you let me be a father to our children?”
Then he waited for her quiet acceptance.
“You son of a—” Sadie bit off the last word, but no one in the room had any doubt of what she meant.
Rick slowly stood up and watched as glints of raw, gut-deep anger erupted in her usually placid blue eyes. Okay, maybe he might have made a tactical error here.
Abby was chuckling, covering her mouth with one hand to hide her smile. The rest of the room was blistering with questions and comments. He only caught a handful.
“What’ll she say?”
“That’s Sadie Price. She’ll do the right thing.”
“If I was her, I’d slap him for embarrassing me like that.”
“Well,” another woman mused aloud, “if she doesn’t want him, I’ll take him.”
He didn’t care what any of them had to say. The only opinion he was interested in was Sadie’s. And it didn’t look to him that he was going to get the answer he wanted.
Rick scowled as Sadie pushed herself out of the maroon leather booth seat, grabbed her purse and flung a look back at Abby. “Thanks for lunch but I have to go now.”
“I can see that. I’ll call you later.”
She jerked a fast nod, then fired another look at Rick. “You, I want to talk to. Outside.”
Then she marched across the crowded dining room like a young queen. People’s heads turned to watch her pass and a few of the men shot Rick sympathetic glances.
He wasn’t interested in sympathy. Snapping the ring box closed, he stuffed it into his pocket and followed his woman out of the club.
The door hardly had a chance to swing shut behind them when she turned on him like a snake.
“What were you thinking?”
The summer sun hammered them both the minute they stepped outside. It was like trying to draw a breath through a wet electric blanket. But the vicious heat had nothing on the fury stamped on Sadie’s face.
Gritting his teeth, Rick scrubbed one hand across his face. “I was thinking that I want to marry you. Just like I’ve been thinking for more than two weeks now.”
She threw her hands high then let them fall to her sides again in complete exasperation. “And the fact that I’ve turned you down countless times didn’t enter your head?”
“No,” he snapped, irritated as all hell that his plan had fallen so flat. He would have bet cold, hard cash on Sadie Price coming down on the side of decorum. It had never occurred to him that she might not leap into his arms for the sake of the watching crowds.
He could see now, it should have.
“I can’t believe you did that in front of half the town.”
“Seemed like a good idea at the time,” he muttered and flashed a glare at a man who stopped to stare at them. Quickly, the bystander hurried on down the sidewalk.
“And I can guess why,” she said, stepping close enough that she could poke her index finger into his chest. “Now that the word’s out around town and everyone knows that you’re the girls’ father, you figured they’d all be on your side. And you thought that I’d say yes to avoid making a scene.”
His mouth worked as he fought to keep back the words that would damn him.
“You’re a worm for trying to use that against me.”
“Darlin’, I’m gonna use every weapon I’ve got when I’m facing down a hardheaded opponent.”
“I am not hardheaded just because I don’t want the same thing you do.”
“You are if you refuse to see sense just to prove a point.”
She sucked in a gulp of air and stared at him as if he’d just sprouted two heads. “Do you really think I’m that small and petty?” she demanded.
A couple of people strolled past, caught a whiff of their argument and picked up speed.
“I didn’t say that,” Rick told her.
“You might as well