If The Shoe Fits by Laurie LeClair Page A

personally?”
    “Both.” He liked the way her scent drifted to
him, soft and feminine yet all Charlie.
    She giggled. His heart jumped. “How did I
know you were going to say that?”
    Was she poking fun at him? He smiled, not
caring.
    “Got any cards around here?”
    He stilled for a moment. Then, trying to keep
a relaxed attitude, he waved to the small table between them. “In
there. Why?”
    “We’ll let the cards decide our fate.”
    “New Age stuff?” He couldn’t disguise the
mixture of surprise and disappointment.
    “No, silly.”
    No one had ever called him silly before
either.
    “I’ll draw a card. High card wins. Aces
high.”
    “Wins what?”
    “You, of course.”
    He coughed a couple of times. “Me?”
    “And you win me. High card, win, win.
Marriage, eventually the baby carriage.”
    His chest tightened. “And if we don’t
win?”
    “Poof! We go our separate ways. Me to restore
King’s back to the grand store it once was and you to your dinner
parties, blind dates, and whatever else you do to find yourself a
wife.”
    It sounded as dreadful as what he’d been
through the last few months. Nodding toward the cards she now held,
he said, “Go for it.” In the back of his mind, he prayed.
    Mesmerized, he watched her expertly shuffle
the new deck. “You’ve done this before.”
    “Drawing for marriage, no way. Cards and
Dolly on a Saturday night, definitely.”
    He chuckled at the image that sprang to his
mind. Hopefully Dolly would come through for both of them.
    Charlie handed him the deck. “Your turn.”
    At his quizzical look, she went on, “Hold
them up facing you and fan them out.”
    Alex quickly completed the task, but he had a
difficult time looking away from the vision of each card duplicated
by the next. He refused to look over at her; he knew she’d see the
truth in his eyes. Perspiration trickled down the back of his neck.
Would she call him out?
    Luckily for him, she reached over and plucked
the middle card. She turned it around to read it.
    “Ace of hearts,” she murmured. “Go
figure.”
    He swallowed hard again. Alex quickly folded
the rest of the ace of hearts back into a deck and stuffed them in
his shirt pocket, joining her silky nylons he’d tucked in there
earlier.
    “I win,” he said, trying to block the elation
from bubbling up inside of him.
    “Correction, we win.” Her conviction brought
a wide smile to his lips and warmth through his middle.
    “Yes, we do win.” The knot of anxiety in his
chest at duping her with the cards eased. He took a deep breath.
“So I guess this means yes to my proposal.” Late, but still a
yes .
    She winked. “You’ll do.”
    He laughed outright at that.
    She rose quickly, gathering her things.
    He tensed. “Wait. Shouldn’t we discuss
details, rings, and all of that?” He stopped from ending with and all that nonsense .
    “No ring.” Her firm voice said it all.
    “You’re kidding me?” He’d never heard of such
a thing.
    “No engagement ring. I hate the competition
and the flashy rocks. Wedding rings, yes. Plain. Simple.
Meaningful.”
    She robbed him of speech. Never in his life
had he met a woman who’d turn down a rock, as she so succinctly put
it.
    “The wedding. We’ll keep it secret for now.
Small, yet lovely. Private. Only family and a few close friends.
And soon. Dolly and I will work it all out.”
    Was she always this decisive? He could get to
like it very much.
    When she remained silent, he asked with a
grin in his voice, “Anything else I should know about?”
    She crossed the room with long, confident
strides. At the door, she turned fully to him, flashing a wide,
easy smile that reached all the way to her sparkling eyes. Tingles
swept through his body straight to his toes.
    Tapping a finger on her lips as if in
thought, she said, “Oh yes! You have to court me.”
    “Court you!” He couldn’t disguise the shock
reverberating through him.
    She chuckled, opened the study door, and then
turned