Phew. She was quite a bit older than them, then. Samantha relaxed a little. “Brent, I can’t believe that no one else has scooped you up. You’re quite a catch.”
He laughed uncomfortably. “Well, not to toot my own horn, but a few women have tried. I think it might be my job. When they’re cold, and then I’m the hero, well, they flirt pretty heavily.” He stopped walking and turned to face her. “Full disclosure, I have gone out with a few women, but nothing even close to serious.” He was standing so close to her that she could feel the heat coming off his body. The wind off the water blew her hair into her face, and he scooped it away with one finger, tucking it behind her ear.
He looked away abruptly. “Let’s go sit for a minute.”
He led her to a metal bench. She braced herself for the cold and tried not to shiver. She was freezing, but she didn’t want to go back to her car. She’d rather get frostbite. He sat down beside her, put his arm around her, and pulled her into him. “Wow, that’s quite a view.”
The moon reflected off the water, making the scene twice as bright. “Yes, it is.” She reached up with one hand and wrapped her fingers around his.
“Your hand is freezing. You okay?”
“Definitely.”
He kissed her on the top of the head. “How about you? I don’t really want to know, but I guess we should get it out of the way. Have you dated anyone?”
“No, I have not. Despite lots and lots of attempts from my friend Cindy.”
He hesitated. “Cindy? The friend you confessed to?”
“Yeah. She’s like the official church matchmaker. She can’t stand it if one of us is single and she kept trying to set me up with people, but I wasn’t interested.”
He hesitated again. What was he thinking about? “How many Cindys are there in your church?”
“Just one, I think.”
He laughed. “Oh boy.”
“What? Do you know her?”
“Not really. But I think she got what she wanted after all.”
“Well yeah, I am out on a date. And I did tell her about it. She was very excited.”
“I’ll bet.”
She pulled away a little so she could get a look at his face. “What? Do you know her?”
The moonlight reflected off his eyes, and she considered kissing him. Should she wait for him to kiss her, or should she just go for it? His lips were like magnets—soft, warm, beautiful magnets. Her face drifted closer to his.
“Yeah,” he said, “sort of. Uh ... the truth is that I went to see your pastor.”
“What?” she screeched. “Why?”
He laughed again. “Please don’t make me feel like more of a stalker. Look, I was nervous, okay? I thought maybe you hated me. So I wanted to check with him to make sure you weren’t engaged to someone else and to see if you might even be receptive to me. And he had no clue, but he said he knew someone who did. And together, we called Cindy—”
“What?” she screeched again. She didn’t know whether to marvel at God’s orchestration or feel betrayed by Cindy’s secret keeping.
“The chocolates, the flowers, Cindy’s idea. I mean, I probably could have thought of the flowers on my own, and I did pick out the specific chocolates, but she’s the one who said chocolates.”
Samantha’s mind flashed back to watching Cindy translate the poem. “Was Shakespeare Cindy’s idea too?”
He shook his head. “No, no, that part came from Mom.”
“What?” What was going on?
“Sorry, Sammy. You know me, I’m not a very creative guy!”
She felt bad then and leaned into him, nestling her head into his chest. His arm pulled her in tight. “That’s okay. It’s awesome that you did your research.” Her hand rested on his knee. “You did a good job.”