Kara chuckled. “Does it happen to you a lot?”
Candy frowned and then started counting off on her fingers. “Four times so far,” she stated proudly before leaning toward Kara and lowering her voice. “But I’m hoping the third guy will also be the fifth one to ask me. And the first one to ask me twice,” she crowed, her eyes sparkling in delight as she took the tray from Kara and carried it over to the side counter.
“You want to be engaged to the same guy again?” Kara asked, curious. “Isn’t that kind of boring?”
“Oh no, not with this guy. He’s not only loaded, but he’s going places, and it’s such fun being with a famous guy. They get to go to all the best places and do things that no one else can.”
“So, it’s not about the guy, it’s about what you can do with him?” Kara asked, raising an eyebrow but keeping her tone nonjudgmental. “That’s an interesting way to look at it.” She shrugged. “But considering how long most love matches last, perhaps it’s a smarter way to head into a marriage than just falling in love with someone.”
“Oh, I love him too. But it’s easy to fall in love. It’s just tough to find the right guy with all the right connections to fall in love with. You can love anyone if you try hard enough. Everyone has some good qualities—some people just display them clearer than others.”
Kara blinked and set the dishes she was carrying onto the counter beside the tray. “Well, that’s hard to argue with,” she said, shaking her head as she smiled at the other woman. “But I still think you might want to try falling in love with a guy and see if it’s any different. Who knows, you might find all the stuff he can give you and places he can take you just don’t matter all that much if you’re truly in love with him.”
Candy tilted her head and stared at Kara. “I’ll think about it,” she replied, and Kara’s eyes widened as she noticed Candy glancing over behind the bar where Mark was working.
Kara stifled a laugh.
Oh no. Does Candy have a thing for my brother?
“Now, let me see the ring,” Candy demanded. “I know all of Tiffany’s styles, so I can tell you if it’s the real thing or not.” She then added in a conspiring, lowered tone, “Guys sometimes try to pass rings off as being from Tiffany just by switching out the box, you know.”
Kara smiled at Candy with amusement. “I don’t have it,” she replied, holding up her left hand to show no rings were adorning her fingers. “I just took the ring while I was on stage so I didn’t embarrass Jamie in front of the whole town.”
“Oh?” Candy blinked in surprise.
“Yeah, I’m still mulling the whole marriage idea over. His proposal was very sudden—he just returned to town and a few days later popped the question. It was all rushed, so I’m not wearing the ring until I have more time to consider everything more carefully.”
Candy nodded. “But you will keep the ring, right? I mean, if it really is from Tiffany, it’s worth a fortune, and that’s worth at least a brief engagement so you can hang on to it even if you do plan to say buh-bye to him.”
Kara laughed. “I hadn’t thought about it that way,” she admitted cheerfully. “But thanks for the idea. It seems kind of mercenary, but I’ll keep it in mind.”
“Keep what in mind?” asked Mark from behind the bar.
“Candy thinks I should accept Jamie’s proposal, at least for a while so that I can keep the ring he gave me,” Kara told him. “She’s telling me that Tiffany’s rings are expensive and worth hanging on to, even if I decide not to hang on to Jamie.”
“You said that?” asked Mark, looking shocked. His jaw tightened slightly as he looked over at Candy.
“I did,” Candy answered, flipping her lush hair over one shoulder and flashing a brilliant smile at Mark. “A girl has to look after herself and her future, and a big fat diamond sitting in her safety-deposit box is a nice insurance policy.”
Mark stared at Candy for a long moment, and then threw his head back and laughed loudly. “You are something else,” he said to her.
“Thank you. I get told that a lot,” Candy replied, giving him a slow wink before taking a beer from him and moving her hips suggestively under her short skirt as she sashayed toward an empty table.
Candy had barely settled into a booth before two men, who had both been headed out of the bar, made a U-turn and introduced themselves to her. Less than a minute later, Kara and Mark watched as Candy invited them to sit down, and they hurriedly took seats across from her.
Kara chuckled and went about her work while Mark watched in slack-jawed disbelief as Candy’s booth filled with more admirers, all vying to buy her a drink.
“She’s unbelievable,” he sputtered.
“Yep,” Kara agreed, “but she’s fun too. She holds nothing back, and she’s as honest as she is artificially enhanced. Honestly, I think I’m beginning to like her.”
Mark shot her a smile and chuckled under his breath as he went to deliver another tray of drinks while Kara returned to her cleaning.
A few minutes later, Mark returned to the bar. “Everyone here is asking about you today,” he informed Kara with a frown.
“I’m not surprised,” she replied, her tone amused. “It’s not every day you see a local pregnant girl get dumped then proposed to by the same guy in public a few years later.”
“Did you know Jamie was going to propose?” Mark asked her.
Kara snorted. “Are you kidding me? Absolutely not! I’ve only seen him a total of three times since he’s been back in town, and that’s after he’s been telling everyone for years that he wants nothing to do with Maeve or me.” She glared up at her twin. “You, of all people, know I was only civil to him over the years because he is Maeve’s biological father and his parents have been so good to us.”
“True.”
“It seems like I just got over hating the guy, and then he gets up in front of the whole town and proposes to me. The whole thing is ridiculous.”
“So why didn’t you throw the ring back at him?” asked Mark.
“I don’t know,” mumbled Kara. She crouched down behind the bar, hiding her guilty expression behind the beer steins she was straightening. She knew if her brother saw her face, he would instantly know she was lying and demand to know what was going on. And Kara was too embarrassed to admit that the only reason she had accepted Jamie’s proposal was because a certain ex–baseball player had just locked lips with the delightful Candy when only a few hours before, he’d been kissing her.
Kara was hurt that Scott would play around with her affections, and with him standing in the audience watching Jamie’s proposal, she’d be damned if she was going to turn him down. Scott might have thought the kiss he gave her that afternoon meant nothing, but Kara hadn’t. And she’d quickly decided that there could be nothing better to help soothe her hurting heart than to have Scott see someone else offering to put a sparkly diamond solitaire on her ring finger. Although Kara knew this was a terrible reason to accept Jamie’s marriage proposal, she wasn’t ready to share this miserable reality with Mark, at least not just yet.
“So do you know why he did it?” Mark asked her a short time later after he had returned from serving more customers.
“Why who did what?” Kara asked, looking at him in confusion.
“Why did Jamie ask you to marry him?”
“I don’t know. Maybe because he loves me? Because I’m the mother of his child?” Kara’s voice rose.
