Elizabeth knocked on the closed door to Nathan's office, but didn't wait for a response - Newton was tied up outside, so she knew that he was likely inside working on paperwork. She opened the door, and his attention was already on her as she walked in.

"Hey there. To what do I owe the pleasure?" He smiled as he stood up and walked around his desk to her, not even giving her the chance to answer before he wrapped one arm behind her back and pulled her in for a sweet kiss.

They parted slowly, not wanting the kiss to end - it had been a few months since that night in front of her row house and yet, his kisses still seemed to take her breath away. She slowly opened her eyes as she stepped back, sighing audibly. "Do you have a few minutes for lunch today?" she asked, breathlessly.

He chuckled watching her reaction, "Luckily, yes I do. I wasn't supposed to, but my phone call to Hargreaves went smoother than expected."

Elizabeth raised her eyebrows, knowing the call was in regards to the news Hargreaves had brought to their attention about Jack. He was quick to respond though. "Nothing new, unfortunately. But the higher ups are working on it."

Her face fell, but knowing that these things take time, nodded her head slightly and moved towards one of the chairs in front of the desk. He followed and rounded back to his side of the desk and was just about to sit down when she popped up out of her seat.

"Oh! Let me just…" And she walked over to the door and locked it. Turning back around, she noticed his confused and questioning look. "Let's just say, I know from experience that we should lock that door."

"Uh, from experience?"

Elizabeth giggled. "I was married to the previous Constable that served here, remember?"

His eyebrows rose in shock. "I get that. I'm just trying to figure out what plans you have that require a locked door." He smirked at her.

She laughed, "Don't get your hopes up too much, Constable. It's just to fend off interruptions. Jack and I quickly learned that if we ever wanted more than two minutes alone in here, we needed to lock the door and be quiet."

Nathan laughed as she continued, "There was this one time, Jack had planned a romantic dinner in here.."

"In the jail?"

She rolled her eyes in good spirits, "yes, in the jail. I was living with Abigail above the cafe, and our only options for dinner were the cafe and the saloon - and back then Tom only served chili and cornbread - so he got Abigail to make us a nice dinner and set it up in here, where we could actually be alone. But, we forgot to lock the door, and in walks Bill, looking for shoe polish or something." She shook her head at the memory and chuckled. "He stole three rolls and was completely oblivious."

Nathan laughed out loud, "Yeah, that sounds like Bill."

They laughed together for a few more moments. Soon she continued, "Shortly after that I moved into my row house, so we could have dinner alone if we wanted to, but after that, we always locked the door if we wanted a moment to be uninterrupted." She raised her eyebrows and gave him a saucy little smirk. "And seeing how it is our fate in life to be always interrupted, I figured we should at least attempt to stall anyone that tries while we eat a quiet lunch alone."

"I really did think the interruptions would ease up once we got together, but at this point we might as well just plan in advance, cause I suspect even our wedding will be interrupted by some sort of catastrophe." He smiled and bit into the sandwich she had placed in front of him.

She just stared at him with wide eyes. He looked back up to her and she could see the moment he realized what he had said as his own eyes widened and she could see him reaching for something to say. She spoke first though, with a slightly teasing tone to hide her own shock, "Wedding? Are you thinking about marrying me?"

His eyes locked with hers and she could see that he was still not sure what even to say to her. She could see the potential reactions flit over his face as he attempted to settle on something: fear and apology, teasing and joking, but he settled on resolute and serious, his eyes never leaving hers.

"Lizabeth, I think you know that I would marry you tomorrow, if you'd let me."

She drew in a quick breath, knowing that what he said was true. Her eyes softened into a sweet smile. "Tomorrow?"

He nodded. "Tomorrow."

She scoffed. "That seems awfully quick. How could we plan a wedding that fast?"

He leaned back, smiling himself now that the tension had broken, but still unsure if she was joking or serious. "Well, you know how I feel about parties, especially when they're for me."

She chuckled, thinking back to the disaster that was planning his surprise birthday party in the spring. "Yeah, but you had fun at the last party for you."

"You're right, I did."

She shook her head slightly as she continued, not sure why she was keeping this conversation going. "And you know, I've already planned two big weddings and look where it's gotten me." She waved her hands in front of her.

He looked a little confused, "Here?"

"Two weddings and currently not married." She shrugged her shoulders as she continued, "I almost eloped with Jack and suggested it to Lucas, perhaps that is the answer."

He looked at her carefully, "Really? I don't see you as the eloping type."

Elizabeth looked off to the side as if she was remembering. "Yeah, I think that's how I got convinced back into wedding planning both times. Wanting to share the day with friends and family. But the reality was that with Jack, he had been gone so long and the wedding planning was getting stressful, we just wanted to get married. Looking back, I don't regret our wedding at all - it was a beautiful day. But if we had eloped when he suggested it, I would have had six extra days with him, which at the time seemed so insignificant and shortsighted, but with the short time we were together before I left him at Ft. Clay, it seems like an eternity now."

She took a deep breath, and then turned back to face Nathan. "And with Lucas, I think I had just gotten another letter from my family with more people to invite - it too was starting to spiral into something bigger than I hoped for." She looked down at her hands as she continued, "It was probably the first crack in our relationship that I didn't notice, and if we had gone through with it…well…"

"...You would be married to him right now."

She looked up, and nodded slightly. "I needed a lot more time to figure out my feelings. About both of you."

He hesitated, and she could see that he wanted to ask something. She tilted her head in "what?" motion. "Do you think you would have been happy?"

She wasn't suspecting that. "Oh."

He shook his head, realizing what he had actually asked, reaching across the table to grab her hand. "No, never mind. You don't have to answer…"

"I think I would have been content." She stated simply. Despite the fact that over a year had passed, they hadn't really dove into the specifics of her break up with Lucas. "I did love Lucas, and I saw a future for us - it was just different from the path he chose in the end." She paused, and squeezed his hand as she continued, "I think I chose Lucas all those years ago because deep down, I knew he wouldn't break my heart. I think about that day by the pond with you, and how scared I was by your declaration, and I knew I had to protect myself. I wasn't ready to let someone in that could break me the way losing Jack did. And in the end, I was right. Ending things with Lucas didn't break my heart. It ended up being easy to choose between him and my home, except then, I thought home was Hope Valley. But I've come to realize that home is with you."

He nodded once, content with the answer to his question.

After that, they settled into a shortened lunch, talking quietly about their children and their antics, the current gossip in town, and how delicious Minnie's food was.

Elizabeth gathered the remnants of lunch into her basket as both of them rose to say goodbye. "Will you come by tonight?"

He grabbed the basket from her hands and placed it on his desk, then took both hands in his. "No, not tonight, I have to ride to Benson Hills here in a bit and I might have to stay over. So I'll likely see you tomorrow."

He kissed her softly, and pulled back after a few moments.

Her eyes locked on his, "So, tomorrow?"

He cocked his head, trying to get a read on her tone. "Tomorrow?"

She raised her eyebrows at him, trying to determine if she should take the plunge. His crooked smile emerged as she quietly asked, "Marry me, tomorrow?"

His smile brightened, "When and where?"

Beaming she answered, "Bill's office? Whenever he can fit us in? And get Joseph there, too?"

"I can take care of that." He pulled her in for a passionate kiss, one in which the fire burned brighter than it ever had before.

She pulled back breathlessly. "I can take care of the children, make sure they are there with us. And the other small things here."

"Witnesses?" he asked, also catching his own breath from their kiss.

Together they replied, "Lee and Rosemary."

And with that there was a loud knock on the door. Both of them froze for a minute and then dissolved into laughter, knowing their moment had ended. Elizabeth looked to the door and could see Rosemary through the window. "Speak of the devil…"

She walked over and unlocked the door, "Hello, Rosemary."

Rosemary, as oblivious as Bill was all those years ago, charged into the jail. "Why was the door locked? Oh well, anyway, Nathan - aren't you headed to Benson Hills? I wanted to update you before you left, nothing from my source." She pursed her lips into a pout.

Both completely used to the tempest that was Rosemary, they followed her train of thoughts with no issue. Nathan shook his head, annoyed that they couldn't make progress on Jack's case. But it was Elizabeth who knew how to distract Rosemary from her pouting. "Um, Rosemary. What are you doing tomorrow afternoon?"

Elizabeth's non-sequitur shocked Rosemary out of her pout, "What? Tomorrow afternoon? Nothing I think, especially not now."

"How would you and Lee like to be witnesses at a wedding?" Elizabeth treaded carefully knowing the outburst that was soon to come.

"A wedding? Whose wedding?" Rosemary shook her head, and then noticed the matching smiles on both their faces. "Oh my goodness, YOUR WEDDING? Yes! Of course, yes!" Rosemary reached for Elizabeth's left hand to look for a ring. "Wait, no ring?" She looked skeptically over to Nathan.

Elizabeth was about to confirm that, no, there wasn't a ring, but Nathan spoke first. "There is a ring." Elizabeth's head whipped around to stare open-mouthed at him. He looked at her teasingly and shrugged his shoulders. "I wasn't the one who asked."

Elizabeth continued to stare at him for a few moments. "How long have you had a ring?"

He took a deep breath and rolled his eyes, "That's a story for another day - don't you have a wedding to plan?" He wasn't really looking forward to telling her that his grandmother's ring had been given to him by his mother several years back, the time he went to pick up Allie in Rock Creek, in hopes he would give it to 'that Elizabeth he talked about all the time.'

And with the mention of a wedding to plan, Rosemary was off to the races, pulling Elizabeth out of the jail, talking a mile a minute about her sudden to-do list.

But Elizabeth pulled back for a second and turned back to Nathan, smiling. "See you, tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow."