The man continued. “Those with the little swirls on top have caramel. The dotted ones are crunchy, and the striped ones have a cookie center. Try as many as you like.”

By now his curiosity and his appetite had been whetted. Reaching out to the closest box, he picked up a dark chocolate one and bit into it.

It was like nothing he’d ever put in his mouth. It made every candy bar he’d ever eaten pale in comparison. Unaware that he was rolling his eyes, he caught himself moaning from the taste.

The salesman grinned at him. “Try the crunchy ones.”

BUBBLE BATH

Taking her purse, he gave her a gentle push toward the hallway. “Go on, enjoy yourself. I’ll let you know when dinner arrives.”

She gave him another quick kiss. “You’re too good to me. I don’t deserve you.”

He answered her with a playful swat on her rump. “Go,” he ordered her again, and watched as she slowly made her way to the bedroom.

After ordering their food, he set the small dinette table, placing the small bouquet of daisies in a tumbler in the center before double-checking the bottle of vino chilling in the fridge. With everything in place, he walked into the living room to watch a little TV while he waited for their meal to arrive.

“Chet? Chet!” She sounded…odd.

DICE

He nodded in reply as she tore open the dice he’d man-hazardly wrapped in some tissue paper he found left over from Christmas and waited for her reaction.

She turned the package around. “Smooch. Tonight. I certainly hope so.”

“I thought we could take a chance on a roll of the dice,” he quipped, earning him a snicker.

“You’ve been waiting all evening to say that, haven’t you?”

ROMANTIC MOVIE

“What have you heard about this movie?” he questioned her.

“You don’t know?”

He shrugged with one shoulder. “It looks like a chick flick to me. Not the kind I’d normally see.”

“You mean because it doesn’t have lots of blood, and people getting shot up or stabbed or ripped apart,” she drily quipped.

STRAWBERRIES AND CHAMPAGNE

“Stace, have you ever had champagne before?”

“Years ago. Many years ago. When Dad married my stepmom.” The incident was before she and Lewis became a couple.

“How come I’ve never seen you drink alcohol?”

“Because…” She left the answer hanging. He nodded, knowing she’d eventually finish what she was going to say and continued watching her as she took a tentative slurp, swirling it all around together inside her mouth before swallowing. She blinked at him. “Oh, wow.”

The man’s expression never wavered. “What kind of flowers were you thinking about getting?”

“She likes roses. I know, I know.” Tony held up a hand to stop the man before he could say anything. “I know roses are the most expensive.”

“Not necessarily. Any particular color?”

Tony stared at the man. Was it his imagination, or did the guy actually sound…interested?

“Pink. Her favorite color is pink.”

The man glanced inside the store, then looked back at Tony. “You willing to do a little grunt work for that flower?”

“I’ll get your coat,” he murmured, reluctantly detaching himself from her. She giggled and fetched her purse.

“How long will it take for us to get there?” Cheyenne asked as they left the subdivision and headed down the feeder road adjacent to the loop.

“Twenty minutes tops,” he assured her. “Our reservations are for eight o’clock, and it’s just now…” He glanced at the display on the dashboard. “Seven ten. We have plenty of time.”

“That’s not what I’m worried about at the moment,” his wife commented as they approached the intersection.

Curt returned to the first set and hoped he had enough on his credit card to pay for them. Noticing his hesitancy, the woman remarked, “We also have some very nice lab grown diamonds and cubic zirconia, if you want to see them.”

To him, lab grown equaled not real. And cubic zirconia was the poor man’s diamond. Nothing more than fancy, shiny glass, in his opinion. But these earrings were for Carla. The woman he was determined to woo and eventually win by the end of the year. If he presented her with anything other than the real thing…

“I want the real thing,” he commented. “That way, if anyone has any doubts, another jeweler could confirm they’re actual diamonds.”

Callen remained adamant. “Just tell me what you’re doing for Kiri.”

“I fix her breakfast in bed, just like I do every year.”

“For real?” He knew his brother and sister-in-law had just celebrated their seventh wedding anniversary. “Every year?”

“It didn’t start out that way,” Greeson admitted. “I did it our first year together. She enjoyed it so much, I did it the next year, too. Before I knew it, it was sort of…tradition, I guess you could call it.”

 “And you fix her the same thing every year?”

“Oh, no. One time I did the usual fried eggs and bacon. Another time I fixed pancakes. Last year I tried my hand at French toast. I try to do something different every year.” The man chuckled. “I like to challenge myself that way. Oh, and I also differ the little giftie I add to the tray.”

“Giftie?”

Grabbing a pen out of the junk drawer, he went over to the kitchen table. He opened the card, and at the bottom wrote All my love, Travis. After placing it inside the envelope, he put Lilah’s name on the front and was about get up when he stopped.

“No. This isn’t going to work. The card’s okay, but there has to be more.” Sighing, he looked around the kitchen, not searching for anything in particular. Just hoping to find some inspiration. When his eyes landed on the magnetic pad attached to the refrigerator.

And inspiration exploded like a firecracker.

“Oh, yeah. This is what I’m looking for,” Grady murmured to himself. He stepped up to the mannequin dressed in the filmy, bright red two-piece nightie to examine it more closely. He forgot about being self-conscious or worried that someone he knew might see him inside the department store. For one thing, tomorrow was Valentine’s Day. And for another, he wasn’t the only guy perusing the goods. For that matter, he wasn’t the only man thinking about the results when their woman opened their gift.

The outfit was diaphanous. Sheer and see-through, with velveteen patches in strategic locations. On the dummy, the top barely grazed the hips, and the panties were no more than a thong.

But the red color…

Grady shook his head. “The red looks a bit…sluttish. Wonder if they have this in another color?”

Gazing at all the bric-a-brac, Hale threw up his hands. None of it looked appealing, much less something he’d want to give his wife of three years.

Perching his hands on his hips, he thought of what he’d bought her in the past—past birthdays, Christmases, anniversaries, Valentine’s Days. He’d run the entire gamut of gifts he thought she’d like. And she had. She’d worn the clothes, the nighties, the perfume, the jewelry. She’d shown delight at receiving them and used them accordingly, making sure he saw her when she did. Somehow, though, he knew deep down she’d resigned herself to the fact that she’d never get what her heart truly desired. And he cursed himself for finding every excuse in the book to not fulfill it.

Kevin threw up his hands. “I give up! I didn’t have the foggiest idea what to get you. To me, all the chocolate and flowers and cutie pie nightgowns seemed… Well, they didn’t look like anything you’d like. That’s why I got you the card. I figured that way you could get what you wanted or had been wanting.”

Going over to him, she placed a soft kiss on his cheek. “Thank you. You had my happiness at heart, and that means a lot to me. Okay, I’m keeping this and using it. After all, your birthday’s next month.”

“Better not get me a damn Gazillion gift card,” he growled good-naturedly.