“Me too!” Shelby chirps, sliding her arm around my waist.
I drop my head back down and stare at her. “You’re not mad?”
She smiles, even as the wail of a distant siren breaks up the calm night. “No. I love how much you’re trying to protect me. It’s misguided, of course, but it’s funny as hell to watch you try to protect me from yourself.”
“This isfunny?”
Shelby looks down at the poor knight who’s writhing in agony. She winces. “Some parts more than others.” Then she spins so she’s directly in front of me, blocking out the scene on the ground, her hands fisting my T-shirt. She’s all I can see. Has been for a while, if I’m honest. “I wantyou, Dallas Beaufort Gamble. Past, present, and all of my future. Let yourself love me. Please?”
I drop my forehead to hers, too weak to fight this any longer. “I do love you, Sweetness. So much I’m scared I’ll fuck it up. I would have to kick my own ass for hurting you and ruining our relationship. I’ve been a coward, hoping you’ll come to your senses and leave me like you should.”
Shelby shakes her head, jostling us both. “True courage is facing danger when you’re afraid. Isn’t that what the Wizard told the Lion inThe Wizard of Oz?”
My eyes widen, right before my heart melts into a puddle at her feet. Of course, she remembers the months that Ryder made us readThe Wizard of Ozevery day. She’s been there for me and for him for as long as I can remember.
Terrified and hopeful, I cup her face with both hands. My throat feels like I’m being choked. “I love you, Shelby Sweet. With my whole cowardly heart.”
Her eyes fill with tears. Paramedics jump out of the ambulance and swarm Clark on the ground. “That’s all I want. Your whole heart. Because you’ve had mine since that day you accused me of stealing your cow.”
And then I put us both out of our misery and tip her over my arm to kiss her. The perfect Hollywood ending to a disaster of a breakup attempt.
The kiss also gets live-streamed to Mrs. Perkins’s Instagram account. My phone starts blowing up because, apparently, everyone else in Big Knob follows Mrs. Perkins.
I ignore the buzzing in my pocket and get lost in the woman who’s always been mine. I was just too cowardly to see it until now.
Chapter
Twenty-Nine
TIME TO BANG LIKE A SCREEN DOOR IN A WINDSTORM
Shelby
With both of our phones blowing up and everybody asking what in the holy hell that whole scene was about, I do the only thing I can think of to shut shit down. I tell Norinne to text Charlene that Dallas and I were doing a bit to try out forThe Amazing Race.
Before we even get back to the ranch, everyone in Big Knob has reached out to express their excitement and offer tips for how to get on the show. It should probably alarm me that nobody is questioning the validity of such a batshit crazy story involving a crippled knight and a cheating fiancé, but I guess when it comes down to it, the whole town knows Dallas and I can do just about anything when we do it together.
Dallas holds my hand in the truck as he drives exactly the speed limit and only lets go long enough for us to get out at the big house.
“I like it when you hold my hand.” I look up at him with a wide grin. “I think I need to add another verse to my poem.”
“Please don’t.” He snorts when I smack his arm. “What I meant to say is that I love the poem just as it is. Especially the part about my dong.”
“Not in front of Isadora!” Meemaw shouts from the porch where a telltale wisp of smoke drifts from her silhouetted figure in a porch rocker.
“Dammit, Meemaw! You’re gonna give me a heart attack one of these days, jumping out of the shadows like that.”
Isadora squawks as if defending her mistress. “If you’re looking for Ryder, he’s trying to talk your daddy into buying a pool. Says he wants to swim with Skye’s decrepit old swine.”
“Aw, crap,” Dallas mutters, and we book it inside. The last thing Pops needs is to feel guilty for not fulfilling his lone grandson’s greatest wish. God, I hope Archie can do something about this Tiff business before the family well and truly goes broke.
“I’m sorry, but since when are y’all interested in reality TV?” Skye asks the minute we step inside. She’s bent over her phone at the dining table, three notebooks and a laptop spread out in front of her. When she points the phone our way, I see Mrs. Perkins on the screen yammering on about Dallas being excellent at riding camels.
Skye and I both turn to look at him, and he throws his free hand up. “I have no idea what she’s talking about. The only camel I’ve ever seen in person was Papaw’s cigarettes.”
“It’s easier to just go with it,” I tell Skye, and, to her credit, she shrugs and lets the whole thing go.
“What are you up to?” Dallas asks, gesturing to the mess in front of her.
