“They aren’t your debts,” Cal was quick to remind him. “The bills have Richard’s signature on them.”

“But he put them on the family accounts.”

Cal sighed in resignation. “You paid them, didn’t you?”

“I didn’t have any choice.” It was the Weston name that stood to be tarnished. Grady knew he wouldn’t be able to look his friends and neighbors in the eye when his own brother had bilked them, unless he himself made good on the debts. Which he had. That eight thousand had nearly wiped out his savings, but he’d get by, just as he always had.

Earlier in the week he’d checked out engagement rings in the jeweler’s window, and he’d realized he wouldn’t be able to buy as big a diamond as he wanted for Caroline; he also realized it was more important to be debt-free.

Cal was about to ask him something else when Frank Hennessey abruptly pulled out a chair and joined them. He cast them a grateful look. “I’m safe for now,” he said in a low voice.

“Safe from who?” Grady asked, puzzled. Frank normally didn’t run from anything or anyone.

Frank threw back his head with a groan. “Dovie. The woman’s got that look in her eye again.”

Cal and Grady exchanged glances. “What look?” Cal ventured.

“Marriage. I…I’ve been telling her for the last ten years that one day I’d marry her. I meant it at the time, but I tell you, boys, the mere thought is enough to make my blood run cold. I can see now I’m not the marrying kind—I’m just not! I’ve got to get her to see that.” He hunched forward. “But I don’t want to upset her, either.”

“I thought—assumed that you and Dovie had, you know, an understanding,” Grady whispered.

“We do,” Frank said. “But every once in a while she reminds me of that stupid promise and I find an excuse to delay it, and she’s satisfied for another few months. Then we attend a wedding or one of her friends has an anniversary, and she brings the subject up again. You’d think after this length of time, she’d figure we’ve got a pretty good arrangement. You’d think she’d be willing to leave well enough alone.” He gave a long-suffering sigh. “I’m crazy about Dovie, but marriage isn’t for me.”

Grady began to speak, but Frank cut him off. “Weddings are dangerous things, boys. Dovie took one whiff of those orange blossoms, and next thing I knew she had that look.”

“Why does she want to get married?” Cal asked, voicing Grady’s own thoughts. If she’d been content for ten years without a ring on her finger, she obviously wasn’t as keen on marriage as she let on.

“Dovie says a ten-year courtship is long enough. Either I follow through or this is it.” Frank shook his head sadly. “I should never have said anything to her about marriage,” he muttered, “but I couldn’t help myself. I thought I’d lose her if I didn’t propose, so I…sort of…did. At the time I actually believed we could make a go of it. Now I know marriage just wouldn’t work. Not for me, anyway.”

“Give her time to accept reality,” Grady suggested.

Frank shook his head in despair. “You don’t know Dovie like I do.”

“You’re sure you don’t want to marry her?” The question came from Cal. Cal’s mother and Dovie were good friends.

“It isn’t that at all,” Frank said. “I don’t want to get married, period. It has nothing to do with Dovie. She’s the best thing that ever happened to me.”

“But you told her you would.”

“I know,” Frank admitted. “The thing is, most of the time she’s as happy with our arrangement as I am. We live separate lives. She has her shop and her interests, and I have mine, and we both like it that way. We see each other just about every day and, hell, she knows how I feel about her.”

“But you won’t marry her, no matter what?”

“I told you, marriage and I aren’t compatible.” Frank looked at them mournfully. “I like my life just the way it is.” The sheriff slowly exhaled. “The two of you understand, don’t you, seeing that neither one of you is married, either?”

Cal glanced quickly at Grady, eyebrows raised. “This isn’t a good time to be asking Grady that,” he said.

“What?” Frank said with a moan. “You aren’t thinking about getting married, are you?”

“As a matter of fact, I am.”

Frank swore under his breath. “Caroline, isn’t it?”

Grady nodded, not hiding his grin.

“She’s a fine woman, but damn it all, this is going to send Dovie into wedding overdrive.”

“I haven’t asked Caroline yet,” Grady said.

“Thank God, because once Dovie learns you two got engaged, I won’t hear the end of it.”

“I can’t guarantee Caroline’s answer.”

“Do you honestly think she’ll refuse?” Frank asked in a way that said he knew the answer. “It’s fairly obvious how you feel about each other.”

“Naturally I’m hoping….”

“Why borrow trouble?” Cal asked. “Of course she’ll say yes. Why shouldn’t she?”

* * *

TEN YEARS, DOVIE MUSED DARKLY. She’d wasted ten years of her life on that ungrateful lawman. Arms folded, she paced her living room, back and forth, back and forth, trying to walk off her anger.

It wasn’t working.

By the time they left Ellie and Glen’s wedding reception, Dovie was barely speaking to Frank. He didn’t have a lot to say, either—which was just as well. He’d proposed to her shortly after they’d met, and all these years she’d waited. All these years she’d believed in him and hoped and loved him.

Well, she’d better smarten up and accept the truth. Frank never intended to marry her and, really, why should he? He enjoyed all the delights of married life with none of the responsibilities. Twice a week he spent the night, and in the morning she made him breakfast and handed him his clean laundry and sent him on his way with a kiss.

No more.

There’d been only one other man in Dovie’s life, and that was her husband. But Marvin had been dead thirteen years now. And for ten of those years she’d pined after a lawman who claimed to love her, but apparently not enough to marry her.

A light knock sounded on her back door. It had to be Frank Hennessey—the only person in the entire world who came to her in the dark of night. And Dovie knew why he’d come. Well, he could forget it. She had a thing or two to say to him.

She marched through the house and threw open the door, startling Frank.

“If you’re here for the reason I think you are, then you can turn around and go right back home.” She pointed in the direction of his parked car.

He blinked. “Dovie, sweetheart, you don’t mean that.” He removed his hat and wore the anguished look of a misunderstood and badly maligned male.

“I certainly do mean it, Franklin Hennessey.” She would have slammed the door on him, but he’d stuck his foot in.

“We have a good life just the way it is,” he said enticingly.

“If I’m so happy about our lives, then why do I feel this ache in my heart? Why can’t I sit through a wedding without dissolving in tears? I want you to marry me, Frank.”

The pained expression returned. “Oh, Dovie, I can’t do that.”

“Can’t or won’t, Frank?”

He didn’t answer and she knew why.

“I love you, Dovie.” The words were a low purr.

“You say you love me, but you won’t do anything to prove it,” she spit, folding her arms and refusing to look at him.

“I can’t tell you how sorry I am. I always thought…I believed one day I’d be able to…to take the plunge. But I realize now that marriage would never work for someone like me.”

“Then we’re at an impasse. I guess the reality is that you won’t marry me. Not now and not ever.”

“But it’s not because I don’t love you!”

“So either I accept you the way you are or—”

“Our arrangement has worked so far, hasn’t it, my love?” he asked, his eyes pleading.

“Or I break off this dead-end relationship,” she continued, ignoring his words.

Frank went pale. “Oh, Dovie, you wouldn’t do that.”