“It’s already on the stove.”
Audra smiled. “I’ll be right there.”
Doreen’s doorbell chimed Monday evening. She turned from the refrigerator, where she’d been contemplating a lonely dinner. Was it Leonard? She shut the fridge and made her way to her front door. What if it was? How should she react? Should she offer him dinner or ask why he wasn’t mooching a meal from Yvette? A glance at the security peephole only raised more questions.
“Alonzo?” Doreen stepped back, pulling the door wider. Leonard must be having dinner with Yvette. Her heart dropped.
“Evening, Doreen. Is this a bad time?” The sheriff’s warm, slow drawl preceded him across her threshold.
“Not at all.” She found a smile. “I didn’t think you knew where I lived.”
“I knew.”
Doreen locked the door before leading him to her living room. “Can I get you anything? I have iced tea, lemonade, and, of course, plenty of water.”
“Iced tea would be good.” Alonzo seemed awkward, standing in the center of her living room. His black T-shirt stretched wide across his broad chest. His cream khaki shorts hugged his hips before falling loosely to his knees.
Doreen excused herself. Within minutes, she’d returned to the living room with two glasses of iced tea and lemon. Alonzo hadn’t moved from the center of the room.
She handed him one of the glasses, then settled onto the sofa behind her. “Have a seat. What brings you by tonight?”
Alonzo dropped onto the love seat to the right of the sofa. He took a long drink of iced tea. “Sorry to stop by uninvited. I should’ve called first.”
He seemed nervous. Doreen studied him closely. The smile lines bracketing his mouth and creasing the corners of his eyes, and the gray strands weaving through his raven hair, were his only signs of aging. Otherwise, Alonzo looked the same as he had in high school—tall, dark, and exotically handsome. At sixty-six years old, he had the physique of a man thirty years younger.
Doreen met his coffee brown eyes. “You don’t need to check with me before you come over. You’re always welcome. Although I’m surprised it’s taken you this long to find me.”
Alonzo held his glass suspended by both palms. “I’ve known which house was yours, Doreen, ever since I moved back to Trinity Falls. But I didn’t think it was right for me to come by.”
“Why not?” Doreen took one last sip of her iced tea before placing her glass on a coaster on the coffee table.
Alonzo’s nervous laughter shook his shoulders. “I’m surprised you never realized this.”
“What?”
Alonzo met her puzzled gaze. “You really don’t know?”
“Why are you being so myster—”
“I’ve been in love with you since high school.”
Doreen’s jaw dropped. Had she heard him correctly? “What did you say?”
Alonzo rose from the love seat and crossed the room. He stood with his back to her. “You and Paul were right for each other. You made each other happy. That’s the reason I never tried to come between you.”
Doreen struggled to keep up with Alonzo’s words. He spoke so fast. “You and Paul were friends.”
His shoulders slumped. “We were best friends . . . before I fell in love with you.”
Doreen’s hand pressed against her chest. A chill went through her. “Did he know how you felt?”
Alonzo faced her. “No. I never told him. But you’re the reason I never returned to town after college. You’re the reason I never married. How could I promise before God to love another woman when I was already in love with you?”
“Alonzo, I never knew.” Doreen’s head was spinning.
“You weren’t supposed to.”
“It’s been more than forty years.”