We get out and Wes reaches into the truck bed. He comes away with a green and black Mexican blanket.
“Do you carry that with you?”
He winks at me. “Never know when a pretty lady might want to sit by the pond at night.”
My eyes narrow playfully. “Like Jericho?”
He scoffs as we get closer to the water’s edge. “Hardly.”
“Don’t tell me you didn’t notice she was into you.”
“I was preoccupied with someone else that day.” He gives me a meaningful look as he shakes out the blanket and lays it on the ground. We sit down, and Wes leans back on his forearm, but I stay upright, legs criss-crossed and facing him.
He traces the length of my leg with his fingertip. “I want to tell you my version of the night we met.”
My eyebrows lift. “You have a different version than mine?”
He nods, grasping a long strand of my wayward hair between his fingers. “I know you think you saw me first—”
“I did,” I insist. “I literally watched you walk in the front door.”
Slowly he shakes his head. He releases my hair and palms my shoulder, his fingers running down my upper arm. “I was sitting in my car, parked down the street from Jason’s house. I’d told him I’d come and visit, but I couldn’t make myself get out of my car. Jason served with me, and I hadn’t seen him since he got out eight months before. I thought he’d take one look at me and know how fucked-up I was. My hand was on the key in the ignition, I was a quarter of a second from turning it, when I saw this girl. She was with two other people, but they could’ve been purple coyotes and I wouldn’t have noticed. All I could see was the girl on the left, the one with gorgeous hair and a smile that made it seem like everything would be alright. Her step was light, and her hips swayed.” Wes takes a breath. “Your gaze swept over my car when you passed. I didn’t think you’d seen me, but it felt like an arrow had pierced my chest and pinned me to that exact moment. I watched you walk into Jason’s house, and I knew I had to cowboy up. At first I thought I was being courageous and doing the hard thing by facing Jason so I could meet you, but later on I realized how it was more cowardly than anything else. Leaving without meeting you, Dakota?Thatwould have been the hardest thing, the most impossible, the most painful.”
“It turns out I was right, too. The first time you were in my arms, there was this odd sensation in my chest, and it was something I’d never felt before. I still can’t describe it, except to say it felt like my soul was being called up, because another soul had called out to it.”
He sits up, and now we’re face to face. “I never meant to leave you that morning. You were sleeping, your face looked so sweet and innocent. I was mortified that I cried in front of you, but also, I realized you were the reason I’d cried. You made me want to heal, to talk about what happened, but it was the last thing I wanted to do. Everything was raw, and I couldn’t bear to revisit it. I thought that to survive, I needed to push it down.” He cringes. “I took a picture of you. Just your face,” he hurries to add when he sees my eyes widen. “But I felt like a creep, so I deleted it two days later.” He shakes his head, like he’s trying to get back on track. “Anyway, I’m telling you all this because I have something to give you, and I want you to know that even though we’re going through with our plan, I’m not taking it lightly.” Wes reaches into his pocket and pulls out a ring.
He holds it up, and in the moonlight I notice the simple gold band has a floral design cut into it. “Can I put this on your finger?”
“Of course.” I offer him my ring finger. As sweet as this is, there is a small part of me that feels disappointed, but what did I expect? It’s a marriage of convenience, whether we’re developing feelings for each other or not. No grandiose proposals necessary.
Even through my disappointment, a tremor of excitement shakes me deep inside. I twist the ring a few times, familiarizing myself with its feel.
Wes cups my face, kisses me tenderly. Eventually he lays me on my back and the moon rises higher until it’s directly behind his head.
We both drift off, and I wake up to Wes gently shaking my shoulders. He presses one finger to his mouth and motions with his hand. When my eyes adjust, I see what he’s pointing to. A bobcat and two kittens sit across the pond, lapping at the water. I watch in awe, not sure if we should be scared or if Wes has anything to protect us. They continue to drink until there’s a sound in the distance, something like a tree branch falling. The mother and her kittens bolt into the trees and disappear from sight.
Wes stands and reaches out a hand to help me up.
“Were we in danger?” I ask in a whisper.
Wes shakes his head. “Bobcats are more afraid of us than we should ever be of them. They’re like large house cats. If you ever get close to one, just stomp. It’ll run.”
“Or just hope a tree branch falls nearby and scares it away.”
He glances out into the trees. There’s nothing out there that I can see, and yet he has the hard look on his face of a man who’s facing down a problem. “Right.”
He grabs a fistful of blanket and plucks it off the ground, then we climb in his truck and head for his cabin.
I fall asleep the second my head hits Wes’s pillow. This has been the best night of my life so far, and not even the memory of Dixon can taint it.
33
Dakota
I’mbreathless from taking the stairs two at a time at the hotel. The elevator was busy and I’m running late for the video meeting I’m supposed to have with my dad and Brandt. I’d meant to leave Wes’s bed when my alarm went off, and I kind of managed it, but when I came back from the bathroom… well, just like every other morning this week, Wes persuaded me to come back to bed. This morning, however, we fell back to sleep. Oops. Maybe I should rethink staying the night at his place during the week. Weekends, however, are a different story. Last weekend, after the near-brawl at The Chute, Wes and I stayed in bed the next two days. Tearing myself away from him on Monday morning had been difficult, and so far it hasn’t become any easier.
I tear into my room, change from last night’s comfy clothes into a sensible lavender blouse and black pants, and run a brush through my hair.
