Page 49 of His Pickle Her Jam

“Exactly. It’s really big, and there are a lot of possibilities,” I said.

“Like pickled ones?” he jokingly referred to the name of his brand.

“Oh my God, stop,” I said, grinning and rolling my eyes playfully at him.

“Jan, what’s on your mind?”

“Well, I was thinking, what if we didn’t get the results of the contest?”

“What do you mean?” he asked, his face serious but unreadable.

I swallowed. I really hoped he wasn’t going to take this the wrong way.

“Well, I mean,” I began, twisting my apron in my hands. “What if we both buy the store? We could make it like a trendy specialty goods food store featuring offerings that are locally made or grown? There was this place near my college that made custom gift baskets with all sorts of goodies, and we could offer that sort of thing, too.”

“Gift baskets?”

“As part of what we offered,” I blurted. “Like, customers could purchase themed baskets in store or online. We could do savory or sweet, or summer or winter veggie, stuff like that.”

“That is interesting,” he replied, but he didn’t look enthused.

Shit.

I was doing this wrong.

“David, what I mean is, it’s just, what if we try to work together? I know that isn’t what you meant when you said you wanted us to be together, but David, I-I, this just feels right.”

“Are you saying you want to be with me?” he asked quietly.

I nodded.

I did want to be with him.

So damn much.

“Jan, are you saying you want to turn this place into our store with my pickles and your jam?”

I nodded again.

Stress had me trembling, and I was about two seconds away from sweating through my outfit. I almost blurted that he should forget I said anything, but then he smiled, and everything went still.

Holding my breath, I clasped my hands together.

“Then I just have one more question,” David said, dropping to one knee.

“Oh my God,” I whispered, letting go of that breath I was holding and covering my mouth with my hand.

“Jan Morrow, will you marry me?”

“Are you serious?”

“I have never been more serious. I want you to tie your life to mine. But now I am also asking, will you build this place with me, Jan Baby?”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. Go on, say yes, make all my dreams a reality. And no misunderstandings, I am talking about forever here. So, Pretty Girl, what do you say?”

I froze in place for one split second before I allowed pure joy to ripple through me. Then I let the words erupt from my lips.

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