It was too soon to bring that up to Ellie, but one way or another I was determined to make it happen.
Three Months Later
I stared down at the address Colton sent in a text.
Colton: Meet me here in 30 minutes.
Me: Oookay. Why?
Colton: Just do it.
Although he couldn’t see it, I rolled my eyes and shook my head.
So bossy.
Twenty-five minutes later, I was pulling up to an old white farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. The surrounding cornfields were filled with spring crops, the green rows seeming to stretch for miles. At the back of the property, there was an older-looking metal machine shed along with a two-car garage.
Since it was such a nice day my window was rolled down, and the air breezing through smelled clean and almost sweet. Nothing like the air I was used to in town. Out here, with no other houses or buildings in the way, I could see the whole expanse of the sky. Bright blue and decorated with a few fluffy clouds. It made the scene even more beautiful.
Parking my car next to Colton’s truck, I got out and he met me by my door.
“Hey,” I said. “What’s going on?”
“Come on.” He linked his fingers with mine. “I want to show you something.”
Tugging on my hand, he led me over to a patch of tulips and daffodils next to a garden with big leafy plants. “There’s a rhubarb patch here.” He pointed to one section before motioning toward another. “And that’s asparagus.”
Confused, I continued to stay silent, letting him drag me around while being my tour guide.
“And back there—those are fruit trees. Two apple and a peach.”
“Well, it’s beautiful,” I told him. “But why are you showing me this?”
“Because the house is for sale and I want to buy it. Travis and Angel are moving out of the apartment next month…” Nervously tapping his fingers on his jeans, he took a deep breath, then blew it out. “And I want you and Ava to move in with me.” He didn’t wait for me to say anything before continuing. “I know it hasn’t been that long, but I know what I want. I think you’d be happy here. Ava, too. The house is old, but I don’t mind fixing it up. You can even pick out the color when I redo the siding.”
“Yellow?” I asked, my heart pounding with excitement.
“Any color you want.”
“And we’re in the town of Daywood?” I spun in a circle, searching the horizon for a town.
“About a mile outside of it actually,” Colton replied. “It’s about 10 minutes to Tolson, and 15 minutes to your parents’ house. Daywood has a grocery store and a couple restaurants. And if you’re still not convinced, the shed has a horse stall.”
I gasped. “You can’t buy Ava a horse.”
“Well, she can ride it, too, but it’s for you. Didn’t you tell me when we were kids that every girl wants a horse? If you want it, then I want to give it to you.”
“Colton,” I breathed out, feeling my eyes sting with happy tears.
“But that’s not all,” he said, dropping down to one knee, and my breath caught in my throat. He opened his hand. In the middle of his palm sat a white-gold ring with a princess-cut solitaire diamond. “Marry me.”
All the air left me with a whoosh and I blinked rapidly. I refused to be one of those people who cried on their engagement day.
“Are you asking me or telling me?” I joked, unable to resist giving him a hard time.
He gave me a cocky grin. “Telling you.”
There was only one word that popped up in my mind. “Yes.”
A brilliant smile spread over Colton’s face, crooked bottom teeth and all. Grabbing my hand, he started to put the ring onto my finger but paused. “So that’s a yes, you’ll move in with me? Or yes, you’ll marry me…? Because you only get the ring if you agree to all of it.”
I laughed. “Yes to both.”
“Good.” He finished sliding the sparkling object on. I sighed as I looked at it, wondering how much it cost him.
Speaking of cost… “We should probably talk about the price of the house.”
“I’m getting a good deal on it,” he replied, aloof.
“Colton, you’re going to have to let me help with the payments.”
“That’s not what I was going for when I asked you to move in. All you have to do is live here.”
“And I will live here, while making payments,” I said stubbornly.
His lips quirked up and he ran his thumb over my chin. “We’ll talk about it later.”
I huffed because that was Colton’s code-talk for ‘end of discussion’. My irritation didn’t last long, though, because the sun peeked around the clouds, causing an almost blinding light from my ring. I went back to admiring it.
“One last thing,” Colton told me, looking even more nervous than before.
“You’re very demanding today,” I teased, knowing my answer was going to be yes.
Yes to everything.
“When you take my last name I want Ava to have it, too. I want to legally adopt her, if she’ll have me.”
Crap.
Maybe I really was going to cry.
I tried to hold it back, but the tears welled up and ran down my cheeks anyway. Drawing my lip between my teeth, I tried to keep it from trembling. My throat was so tight that all I could do was nod, and he wrapped his arms around me. I returned the embrace, running my hands down the muscles of his back.
“Thank you,” I whispered shakily.
“Thank you for saying yes.” He huffed out a laugh as he squeezed me tighter.
“As if you would’ve taken no for answer,” I retorted with a smile, then the reality set in. “Oh, my God,” I gasped, pulling back to look at his face. “We’re getting married!”
Smiling, he leaned down to give me a kiss.
“And we’re going to do those traditional engagement photos. You know, by a meadow with wild flowers or some shit,” he said, repeating my words from months before about the maternity pics I’d wanted so badly.
I launched myself at Colton, wrapping my legs around his waist. He laughed as I rested my forehead against his.
“How do you feel about a little outdoor sex?” he asked, eyeing the shady area under a nearby maple tree. “I fucking love this dress.” His hand traveled up the back of my thigh until it reached the edge of my panties.
Giggling, I released my hold on his body and shook my head. “We’re going to be late to the picnic. My parents are already there with Ava.”
“You’re right,” he agreed with a sigh. “My dad and everyone else is there, too.”
“I’ll follow you there,” I told him because I had never been to Elmer Lake before.
Colton gave me another toe-curling kiss before hopping into his truck.
My family and friends had unknowingly ruined my plans. I’d wanted to bring both Ellie and Ava to the house, then I was going to ask them to move in with me along with the proposal.
But then Travis sent me a text letting me know that we were having a spontaneous picnic at Elmer Lake. He’d already gotten the plans hashed out with my dad and his mom. Angel invited her friends, Beverly and Ernie. She also told Ellie, then Ellie invited her parents.
So before I knew it, I was scrambling to change the agenda and asked her to meet me at the house beforehand.
After getting Ellie to accept my proposal, you’d think it would be smooth sailing.
Nope.
As I touched the second, much smaller ring in my pocket, I felt like I had to remind myself to breathe. The thought of asking Ava to let me be her dad was scary as fuck.
What if she didn’t want that?
Sometimes Ava was brutally honest, and I’d learned over the past few months that it was pretty fucking difficult to make a little kid do something they were hell-bent on not doing. Plus, I didn’t want to make her accept me as her dad—I wanted her to want that on her own.
As I stood there, heart racing, I tried to distract mys
elf from my anxiety by listening to the conversations happening around us.
Beverly, the elderly woman Angel had befriended when she first came to Tolson, was cheerfully talking about her summer plans. “My grandson, Jimmy—he’s such a sweetheart. You remember him, right?”
“Of course,” Travis replied, and I gave an absentminded nod.
We’d all met him at Christmas last year, although I wouldn’t have described the guy as sweet. Jimmy was a tattooed, whiskey-drinking hellion.
“Anyway,” Beverly went on, “He’s going to be staying with me for two months, and I’m going to play matchmaker.”
“With who?” Angel asked, confused, because Tolson wasn’t exactly overrun with single women.
A mischievous grin spread over the old woman’s face. “A lovely young lady from Daywood just moved in next door. She’s skittish as all get out. I’m trying to make friends with her, but the poor thing is scared of her own shadow.” Her smile turned confident. “Jimmy will know how to bring her out of her shell.”
Well, that sounded like a disaster waiting to happen. But Beverly was almost four times my age and probably four times as wise, so what did I know?
Ava’s voice pulled my attention away.
“…Four, five, six.” She counted the pieces of bologna on the wooden dock by the tackle box. “That means we’ll catch six fish?” she asked, glancing up at my dad.
“Don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched—that’s what I always say. Or, in this case, don’t count your fish before they’re caught.” He chuckled, seeming proud of himself, like he’d just given Ava the greatest words of wisdom ever, but she just looked downright confused. From the baffled expression on her face, it was obvious she had no idea what he was talking about.
“Don’t mind him,” I told her, sending a smirk in my dad’s direction. “He’s getting senile in his old age.”
Dad guffawed and went back to digging around in the tackle box.
Still feeling jittery, I went over to Ellie and whispered by her ear, “I’m really nervous.”
She scraped her fingernails over the scruff on my jaw in a comforting gesture, and I was momentarily distracted by how good she looked in her sundress. The yellow cotton stretched over her breasts and the hem fell to about mid-thigh. It was pretty innocent-looking, but I knew what was under that dress.
“You weren’t this nervous when you asked me,” she pointed out.
“That’s because I knew you wouldn’t turn me down,” I said, causing her to smile and roll her eyes. I wasn’t wrong, though. And if she’d said no, I was fully prepared to pester her until I turned it into a yes.
“Do you want me to talk to her about it first?” she asked, concern etched on her face.
I shook my head. “I want to do it. Hey, Bug,” I called over to Ava. “Want to go exploring?”
Nodding, she wiped her dirty hands on her own sundress—white with pink flowers—and ran over to me.
After placing her on my shoulders, I started walking around the lake. I held onto her ankles while she lovingly rubbed my earlobes. As the warm breeze caused ripples over the water, I remembered a tall tale my dad used to tell me.
“Have I ever told you the story of Elmer the fish?” I asked Ava, knowing that I hadn’t.
“No,” she responded, her interest piqued.
“He was the biggest bass ever caught from this lake. He was so magnificent that no one could bear the thought of eating him, so they threw him back. More people started catching him, and each time they would tag him with a mark, then let him go back home.” Ava’s silence let me know that she was listening intently, so I continued. “He just kept getting bigger and bigger until no one could catch him anymore. Every time someone’s fishing line breaks, they say it’s Elmer. He’s a legend in these parts. Some people think he’s named after the lake and others say the lake was named after him.”
Finishing the story and reaching our destination, I set Ava down on a big rock slab.
“Where is he now?” she asked.
I shrugged. “No one knows. He’s probably swimming around out there, eating everyone’s fishing hooks.”
I took a seat on the rock and Ava plopped down onto my lap.
“If we catch Elmer, can we let him live with Goober?”
The fish currently living in my room was Goober the 3rd, but Ava didn’t know that. Ellie hadn’t been wrong about the fish dying. Or the fact that they were gateway pets. I was seriously tempted to give up and just get a ferret or something.
“I don’t think Elmer would fit in that tank.”
“Oh. Well, maybe we could just put him in the bathtub at my house,” Ava said, looking out at the water.
Snickering, I ruffled her hair and I took a few seconds to gather my courage. Taking a deep breath, I decided to just bite the bullet before I chickened out.
“Ava… What would you think about me marrying your mom?” I started, going for direct.
Her eyes got wide as she glanced my way. “Would she get to wear a princess dress?”
I laughed. “Yeah, she could wear any dress she wanted to.”
“What about me? Can I wear a princess dress?”
There it was. My opening.
I took the tiny ring from my pocket and held it up for her to see. “You’d get to wear a dress, too. And if you want…” I swallowed hard. “I could be your dad.”
“Like a real dad? A really really dad?” she asked, her voice full of hope and her eyes shining with happiness.
I felt my own eyes start to get misty. “Yeah, Bug. A really really dad. Do you want that?”
“Yeah!” She nodded and hugged me around the neck.
Just then, a yellow butterfly fluttered around us and landed on a nearby dandelion. I watched it as I held my daughter—my daughter—and the bright wings flapped a few times before it flew away.
“Can I have my ring now?” Ava asked, her words muffled because her face was still pressed against my shirt.
I barked out a laugh. “Sure.”
After she pulled back, I put the ring her on right pointer finger. Just like her mom’s, it was white-gold, but hers had a pink heart-shaped diamond framed by smaller white gems. Okay, they were actually cubic zirconia, but she was four and the possibility that she would lose it at some point was highly likely.
“Let’s go show Mom!” she said before climbing my body like a jungle gym and taking a seat upon my shoulders once again.
As we got closer to our gathering, Ava’s excitement couldn’t be contained. Scrambling down, she practically jumped to the ground, then broke out in a sprint toward an anxious-looking Ellie, who was worrying the skin on her left thumb.
“Mom!” Ava squealed. “We’re getting married!”
All eyes swung to us as I reached my girls, expressions ranging from shocked to ecstatic. The cat was out of the bag. Now that everyone knew, I took Ellie’s ring out of my pocket and slipped it onto her finger.
With a laugh, she held her hand out for everyone to see and Ava did the same.
A chorus of “Oohs” and “Congratulations” came from our family and friends. The men clapped me on the back and the women flocked around Ellie.
Angel started chattering about wedding details at 100 miles a minute and Travis sent me a knowing smirk. I didn’t know anything about wedding shit, but I had a feeling Ellie would have tons of help in that department.
Dave sent me a wink because he’d already known about my plan. I might’ve been a demanding guy, but I was still a gentleman. I wouldn’t have dared to ask Ellie to marry me without her dad’s permission.
Ellie glanced over at me and we locked eyes. I’d seen her happy before but through all the memories, I had never seen her look like this.
Elated. Glowing. Stunning.
I’d had to jump through so many hoops for this moment, which only made it better. As I looked back on our relationship, I realized there was no limit to the things I would do for Ellie.
I wou
ld’ve paid more to learn her name.
I would’ve chased her down at Caged night after night.
And I would spend the rest of my life proving to her that she could count on me over and over again.
The End
“Vacation” by The Go-Go’s
“Girls Just Want to Have Fun” by Cyndi Lauper
“Thunderstruck” by AC/DC
“S&M” by Rihanna
“Don’t Let Me Down” by The Chainsmokers
“She’s Like the Wind” by Patrick Swayze
“Head Over Boots” by Jon Pardi
“Why Don’t We Just Dance” by Josh Turner
“Middle of a Memory” by Cole Swindell
“Pretty Tied Up” by Guns N’ Roses
“Unchained Melody” by The Righteous Brothers
“Whip It” by Devo
“Boot Scootin’ Boogie” by Brooks & Dunn
“Good For You” by Selena Gomez
“H.O.L.Y.” by Florida Georgia Line
“Shameless” by Garth Brooks
“Tiny Dancer” by Elton John
First, I want to give a huge thank-you to my entire support system. I couldn’t do this without my family and friends who have been my cheerleaders every step of the way. Drew—Thanks for being Super Dad to our crazy kids. Kim—He’s not a yeti! Brittaney—Tits giggled. Melissa—Thanks for being my day drinking partner and listening to me talk about my characters for hours.
To the wonderful bloggers who have reviewed and/or promoted my books—I appreciate you so much! Book world wouldn’t be the same without romance-lovers like you.
To my betas Kate, Brittaney, Liz, Allison E., Allison M., and Carole. You ladies rock!
My Newbs—Thank you for never judging me when I have a really stupid question, and for offering your knowledge and support when I need it most.
And to my readers, the lovers of the good guys of romance—YOU have made my dream come true. Your reviews mean the world to me and your kind messages motivate me to keep writing. Thank you!
The Good Guys Box Set: TRUCKER, DANCER, DROPOUT, and A Trucker Wedding Page 47