Beckett's Cinderella (12 page)

“All of it?” he pressed.

“All of what?” She lifted her face then, and he caught a glimmer of what was going on behind those whiskey-colored eyes. Satisfaction began to glow inside him like banked coals.

Emboldened, he said, “You want the full, complete translation?
Hon
and
honey
—now those can mean either one of two things, depending on who's saying it to whom. It can mean either ‘I love you,' or ‘I'm content with who I am and hope you're lucky enough to be the same.' As for the rest—
sweetheart
—that's pretty self-evident.”

“And
sugar babe?
” She was getting into the swing of things.

“Ah, yes…well now, that can mean a couple of things, too. There's the
sugar babe
that means, ‘Wow, I'd sure like to get in your pants!' Then, there's the
sugar babe
that means, ‘Me and you, hon—better or worse, thick or thin—side meat or sirloin, we stick together.'”

“I'm afraid to ask,” she said, and darned if he didn't believe her. How the hell could she still have doubts? Hadn't he just told her he loved her? Maybe
he'd circled around it a time or two, but then, he hadn't had any practice in the past couple of decades.

“Look, how about we pack up what Uncle Fred wants to keep, take it to him, then we come back here and pack up everything you need, and then we'll lock up and head south. You need to meet PawPaw, you need to meet all my folks, and then, if you'll still have me….”

Liza thought,
Oh, Lord, don't let me hyperventilate.
“I think I've just been proposed to. If not, you'd better set me straight real fast.”

“Hey, I'm down on my bended knee, aren't I?” It was hard to tell under his deep suntan, but she could almost swear he was blushing.

“If you're waiting for me to get down on mine to accept, then you're going to have to give me more time.”

“Sorry, time's up. What about we both get horizontal and continue this conversation?”

Liza had to laugh at that. So did Beckett, because they both knew there would be little conversation in the near future. “Know what? I can hardly wait to take you home to show PawPaw. If I didn't know better, I'd think he'd set this whole thing up on purpose.”