Twenty-Nine
Dex
On the way home from the reception, the girls talked a mile a minute about everything—getting their hair done, seeing Winnie at the salon, their fancy dresses, the music and dancing, the cake . . . I was exhausted just hearing about it, but they were hopped up on so much sugar and excitement I worried they’d never fall asleep tonight. It was already after eleven, and they showed no signs of slowing down.
We’d just gotten in the house when my phone vibrated with an incoming text. I glanced at the screen and saw it was from Winnie. At first the name made me smile.
Then I read her message and panicked. “Shit!”
The girls finally stopped talking and twirling around in their dresses and looked at me. “What’s wrong?” Hallie said.
I made a split-second decision. “Come on, girls. We have to go somewhere.”
“Where?” asked Luna.
“To see Winnie.” I grabbed my keys. “And we have to hurry.”
“Yay!” Both girls cheered as we hustled back into the garage and got in the car.
“Do either of you two know where Winnie’s parents live?” I asked.
“Hmm,” said Hallie. “Somewhere by that horse barn?”
“Maybe they live at the bakery,” Luna suggested.
I pulled over and made a desperate phone call to Chip.
“Hello?”
“Thank God you answered.”
“Dex? You okay?”
“Yes, but I need a favor. I’m really sorry to bother you so late, but I need to know Winnie’s parents’ address.”
“What? Why?”
“Because I have to see her tonight. I promise to explain when I can, but I really need that address.”
“Okay. We’re at Tyler and April’s, so I can ask. Give me a minute and I’ll text it to you.”
“Thanks, man. I owe you.”
The wait seemed endless. Every fiber of my being was radiating with nervous energy. My leg bounced. My thumbs tapped the wheel. My stomach tied itself in knots.
“What’s the big emergency?” asked Hallie.
“I have to tell her I was wrong about something. But she won’t want to talk to me.”
“So how will you get her to listen?” Luna asked.
“Good question.” I looked at them in the back seat. “What would the ogre say to Princess Minnie to get her to forgive him?”
“Well, he has to rescue her cat,” Hallie pointed out. “And to do that he would have to face his fear of heights.”
“Okay, but let’s say he’s ready to do that,” I said impatiently. “Let’s say he’s ready to face his fear, climb the tree, and rescue the cat. What does he tell her?”
Hallie tapped a finger on her lips. “He’d fall to his knees and apologize for being a jerk. He’d explain that he was only scared before but he’s going to be brave for her—like a knight. Then he’d rescue the cat and ask for another chance to be her friend. Because that’s what the ogre really wants—a friend.”
“Girls,” I said. “I have to tell you something serious.”
“Is it that you’re in love with Winnie?” Hallie asked. “Because we already know that.”
I stared at them in disbelief. “You do?”
“Yes, we made it happen,” said Luna triumphantly. “With our noses.”
“What?”
“Winnie taught us how to cast magic spells,” Hallie explained.
“It worked for the cat.” Luna shrugged. “So we figured it might work on you guys. Although we weren’t supposed to say anything about it. Even Winnie doesn’t know.” She turned to Hallie. “Do you think we messed it up? What if it only worked on Daddy and not Winnie?”
Hallie shook her head. “We did it the same way for both. She has to love him.”
I was still staring at them in disbelief when my phone lit up with a text from Chip. “So you’re okay with it?”
“Duh,” Hallie said. “We love Winnie. And she makes you less grumpy.” Then she turned to Luna. “But I think we might need to cast another spell to get her to move back here.”
“I might be able to help with that.” I glanced at the address on my screen, typed it into my GPS, and hit the gas. “I’m at least going to try.”
The MacAllisters lived on a narrow side street lined with two-story brick homes and shallow front lawns. When I pulled up in their driveway, the house was dark. I took out my phone, praying she was still awake—I didn’t want to ring the doorbell, but I would.
“There aren’t any lights on, Daddy.” Luna sounded worried. “What are you going to do?”
“I’m texting her to see if she’ll come out.”
Winnie, I need to talk to you. Please.
Nothing.
I have things I need to say to you,
and I don’t want to do it over text.
Silence.
I’m parked outside your parents’ house,
and if you don’t answer, I’m going to
knock on the door and wake everyone up.
Do NOT do that.
Adrenaline surged—she was awake!
Then come out and talk to me.
I don’t want to see you, Dex.
That only makes it worse.
Give me a chance, Winnie. One chance.
Hear me out.
If I give you a chance,
you could hurt me again.
Then open your window, because I have something to say to you and
I can’t hold it in any longer.
Fueled by love and the fear of losing her, I jumped out from behind the wheel and ran onto the MacAllisters’ front lawn. Behind me, I heard the girls getting out of the car too. I glanced over my shoulder and saw them huddled against the passenger door, watching with rapt attention.
“Stay there,” I told them. Clinging to each other, they nodded.
“This is so exciting,” Luna said.
“I know,” Hallie agreed. “It’s even better than Mom’s wedding.”
Standing in the cone of light thrown by a streetlamp, I looked up at the dark second-story windows in front of me. None of them had opened, but I decided to go for it.
Forming a megaphone with my hands, I yelled at the top of my lungs. “I love you, Winnie MacAllister! I love you, and I’m sorry I didn’t say it before! I was stupid and scared. But nothing is right without you, and if I don’t try to get you back, I’ll regret it for the rest of my life.” Remembering Hallie’s advice for the ogre, I dropped to my knees on the grass. “Please give me another chance!”
Breathing hard, I waited for a light to come on, a door to open, a sign that she still loved me . . . but the house remained dark and silent.
Crickets chirped.
I glanced over at the girls, who seemed just as distraught as I was. They looked at each other, and then back at me.
That’s when I heard a feminine voice come out of the darkness behind me. “Hey Winnie? Yeah, it’s Audrey. There’s some guy across the street yelling at the Wilsons’ house, but I think he’s talking to you.”
Oh, fuck.
Horrified, I spun around on my knees. A teenage couple stood under a front porch light at a home across the street. The girl was talking into her phone.
“Dude,” the guy called out. “I think you’re at the wrong house.”
Fuck. Me.
Behind the couple, the front door opened and a barrel-chested man came storming out the front door wearing jeans, a USMC sweatshirt, and a scowl. “What’s going on out here? Who’s shouting?”
“That guy over there is telling Winnie that he’s sorry and he loves her, but he’s at the wrong house,” said the girl. “I feel really bad for him.”
“What?” The man’s chest puffed out further and he squinted in my direction.
Then Winnie’s mom appeared on the porch, pulling a cardigan around her. “Is everything okay?”
No. Everything was not okay.
“Who is that guy?” her dad asked, and by hi
s tone I could tell what he meant was, Who is that fucking idiot?
“Is it Dex?” Frannie leaned forward and squinted. “Is that you, Dex?”
“Yeah. It’s me.” I’d never wanted a sinkhole to open up and swallow me as badly as I did at that moment. If my kids hadn’t been there, I might have taken off on foot.
Just then, a car pulled into their driveway, and my stomach lurched when Winnie jumped out of the passenger side. Her friend Ellie got out of the driver’s side and looked back and forth between Winnie and me. “Holy shit,” she said.
“Dex?” Winnie started walking down the drive and stopped at the sidewalk, gaping at me kneeling in the spotlight from the streetlamp above. “What on earth are you doing?”
“Hi, Winnie!” Hallie and Luna started jumping up and down and waving like mad. “Hi!”
And then, because apparently there wasn’t a big enough audience, another car pulled up in front of the MacAllisters’ house, and a second teenage girl jumped out. “Bye!” she yelled, waving as the car drove off. Then she noticed everyone outside. “Oh, crap. Did I miss curfew or something?”
“No,” the first teenage girl said, hopping down from the porch. “Omigod, Emmeline, this is amazing. Kyle was just leaving when this man pulled up, jumped out of his car, and starts shouting to Winnie that he loves her and he wants another chance—but he was yelling at the Wilsons’ house, not ours. Not that it mattered, because she wasn’t even here.”
“Audrey, be quiet!” Winnie put her hands on her head. “Dex. What is this? Why are you on your knees?”
“We told him to do that!” Hallie shouted proudly. “Because that’s what the ogre would do!”
“He was begging you for another chance, Win,” Audrey said eagerly. “Are you going to give it to him?”
“Audrey, enough.” Frannie put a hand over Audrey’s mouth from behind. But nobody else moved.
Reluctantly, I got to my feet, took both girls by the hand, and crossed the street. When we reached the sidewalk, I told them to stay put and moved closer to where Winnie stood frozen at the end of the driveway.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “This was supposed to be a big romantic gesture, but it turned into a demonstration of public humiliation.”
“Oh my God.” She wrapped one arm around her middle, bringing the other hand to her mouth.
“But I guess I’m too far in to turn back now, and you know what?” I shook my head. “I don’t want to.”
“Because he loves you,” Luna said from behind me. “Daddy, you have to say that part again, because she didn’t hear you.”
“Because I love you,” I repeated, looking her right in the eye. “I know I’m too old for you, and you could have anyone you wanted—someone with a bigger bank account, someone younger and smarter, someone with way less baggage.”
“Someone less hairy,” said Hallie.
“That doesn’t snore,” added Luna.
“As I was saying,” I went on, throwing a brief but menacing glance over my shoulder at my kids, “I know you could find someone better for you. But you won’t find someone who loves you more. Or wants to be with you the way I do.”
“But what about all the things you said before?” Winnie asked with tears in her eyes. “About how we should go our separate ways?”
“I said things to push you away because I was scared,” I confessed. “You ignited a fire in me I couldn’t put out. I couldn’t control my feelings for you, and I’m someone who likes to be in control all the time. But Winnie, that fear was nothing compared to how scared I’ve been that I lost you forever. I never should have let you go without telling you that I love you, I want to be with you no matter where you are, and even though you were in fucking kindergarten when I graduated from high school, you’ve taught me something incredible.”
“What?” she whispered, tears falling freely now.
I smiled at her. “To believe in happily ever after.”
“Now you kiss her!” crowed Luna.
“And the spell will be complete!” Hallie finished.
I cradled Winnie’s face in my palms and pressed my lips to hers.
“Holy shit,” Ellie repeated.
“Dude,” said the teenage guy.
“What do you say?” I whispered. “Can I have one more chance to make you mine?” I glanced back at the girls. “Or maybe ours?”
“Yes,” Winnie said, laughing and crying at the same time. She melted into my arms, and held me tight. “I love you too, and yes.”
The girls rushed forward and circled both of us in their arms, and my heart had never felt so full. After a moment, we turned to face the stunned crowd.
“I got that whole thing on video!” shouted Emmeline, holding up her phone.
“You know,” said Winnie’s father, scratching his head, “something about this seems very familiar.”
“I thought so too,” said his wife, slipping an arm around his waist. “And I think this calls for some cookies and hot chocolate. Who wants to come in for a minute and let these two have a moment alone?”
“Me!” shouted Hallie and Luna, racing toward the porch.
“Thanks, Mom,” Winnie called. “We’ll be there in a minute.” We watched as the MacAllister family, Kyle, and the girls trooped inside the house.
“I’m going to head out,” Ellie said. She gave Winnie a hug and shook my hand. “Dex, that was . . . something else.”
My face was hot. “Yeah.”
“I’m just glad I was here to witness it. And you.” She pointed at Winnie. “Owe me the thing.”
Winnie groaned. “Shit, I guess I do. When?”
“We’ll talk. Night, you guys.”
She got into her car and drove away, leaving Winnie and me alone—finally. When I took her hands, she shivered.
“Are you cold?” I asked. “Let’s get in my car.”
“No, I’m not cold.” Laughing, she shivered a second time. “I’m just shocked and happy. Is this a dream?”
“For a while there, it felt like a nightmare.”
“You poor thing, over there on the Wilsons’ lawn.” She threw her arms around me and clung tight. “But no one has ever done anything like that for me.”
“What, made a total fool of himself?”
“Yes. It means everything! When I got out of that car and saw you there on your knees, my heart melted. I was mush.”
I kissed her nose. “But you still made me give the speech.”
“Of course I did—running through the street is only half the big romantic gesture. The guy still has to say all the things.”
“Did I say them all? I feel like I left out half the stuff I wanted to tell you. The crowd was making me nervous.”
“Tell me now that we’re alone.”
I looked down at her blissfully happy face. “I want to be with you no matter where you are. And I know asking you to leave your new job and move back here just for me is shitty and unfair.”
“But you want me to do it?”
I nodded. “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want you with me all the time. You make every single day better.” I kissed her lips. “You make me better.”
Her eyes closed, and she tucked herself against me. “I want to be with you all the time too. We’ll figure it out, Dex. I love you so much—God, it feels good to say that.”
“It feels good to hear it. Better than I even imagined.”
She leaned back at the waist again. “What made you change your mind?”
“Apart from feeling like you took a huge piece of me with you when you left and there was a gaping hole in my life?”
She smiled. “Yes.”
“Conversations with people who matter to me. My sister. My girls. Justin. Chip. Even Naomi, believe it or not.”
Her eyebrows rose. “You told Naomi about us?”
“She sort of guessed, based on things the girls have said, and I didn’t deny it.” I kissed her forehead. “I’m done hiding and pretending. I don’t care who knows I�
��m in love with you.”
Her smile warmed my entire body. “Me neither. I can’t wait to introduce you to my dad and sisters.”
I winced. “Your dad must think I’m such an asshole.”
“No way. Sometime I’ll tell you the story of the day my sisters and I made him go declare his love for my mom at her job in the middle of the day.” She smiled at the memory. “Tonight really brings that moment full circle.”
“I can’t imagine thinking anyone is good enough for my daughters, let alone some guy so much older who already has two kids.”
She laughed. “You just described my dad and Frannie—he’s ten years older than she is, and he had three kids when they met. He has no room to get weird about that.”
“Still doesn’t mean he’ll think I’m good enough for you.”
“Well, you are.” She tucked her head beneath my chin again, and I held her warm, soft body to mine. “You make me happy, and that’s all a dad can ask for.”
“I got a letter from my dad,” I said quietly.
“You did?”
“Yeah.” I cleared my throat. “I’ll show it to you. It was also part of what made me realize how stubborn I was being. How stupid it was to let my fucking ego call the shots. When I think about my life and how I want to live it, you’re there.”
She kissed my chest and held me tighter.
“I want to take care of you,” I said gruffly. “I know you don’t need it, but I do.”
“I love that you’re protective of me.” Her tone was adorably ferocious. “I love that you’re older than me. I love that you’re a dad and a firefighter and always trying to keep the people close to you safe.”
I rubbed her back. “Even though I’m a hairy ogre at heart?”
She laughed. “Even so. You’re my hairy ogre, and I’ll be your princess forever.”
My forehead rested on hers. “I wish we could spend tonight together. I want to wake up next to you.”
“I want that too, but we’ll have lots of nights together.”
“Can the girls and I still take you to breakfast in the morning?”
“You better.” She leaned back again. “What was that about a magic spell?”
Ignite: A Grumpy Single Dad Romance Page 28