“One second,” I say, squeezing her hands and slipping off my seat to talk to the man sitting alone at the other end of the bar.
“Uh, okay?”
I meet her eyes briefly and point to the man, who is busy watching a game on the TV plastered above the top-shelf liquor.
“You see him, right?” I ask.
She squints a little but nods.
“Yeah, Brooks. I see the man minding his own business.” She chuckles, but sounds a bit worried.
My chest is quaking, but I’m not scared seeing him there. He’s not wearing the ragged clothing I saw him in before. And he doesn’t look like he’s tweaking out, or after me. He looks like a regular man from Sweetwater. Blue collar. Or maybe . . .a cop.
I clear my throat as I approach him, and he twists in his seat, pulling a beer bottle away from his lips. His eyes flicker with what I think is recognition. I don’t say a word. I simply stare into his eyes. He pulls his wallet from his back pocket, then unfolds it on the bar top for a brief second. The gold and blue of the badge hits me first, and I take a mental snapshot of the ATF before he closes the billfold and returns it to his pocket.
“I’m sorry. I thought you were someone else,” I say.
He nods, and I leave him behind me, and suddenly everything makes sense.
When I get back to Lindsey, she’s cashing out her tips for bigger bills, and gathering her purse to leave. I block her steps as she moves to round the bar again, and her miffed expression is the last thing I see before I run my hands into her hair and press my mouth to hers.
She hums into my kiss, and her impatience dissipates almost instantly. Daisy’s whistle draws too much attention to us, but for once, I don’t care. I lift Lindsey and she wraps her legs around me while I kiss her in front of a bunch of rookies who I will have to convince to keep their mouth shut when the season starts. If Lindsey and I are doing this, for real, I want us to do it slow and do it right.
We’ll build the story everyone else gets to think is true: a single dad and his nanny slowly falling in love. It’s nobody’s business how fast we actually fell.
EPILOGUE
Brooks
I always swore if I found someone like Lindsey, I would do things right. I would do it rightall the way.
I had no idea that my best friend would be asking his girl to marry him on the very same weekend I planned to ask mine. And Hunter’s plan has me asking Lindsey’s father, Dale, for his daughter’s hand.
I’ve been pacing in the parking lot of our crappy two-bedroom apartment for an hour waiting for him to get seated at the Texas game where Hunter plans to pop the question. He flew their parents in, and Lindsey is waiting for Hunter’s mom to call and FaceTime the entire proposal for her to see along with my sisters.
The timing formycall has to be perfect, so when Lindsey’s phone rings and she rushes in from the balcony, my heart starts to pound. I stare at the phone in my palm.
“Come on, Dale. Don’t forget about me.” My hand buzzes with a call from Lindsey’s father.
“Hi!” My breathless answer make him laugh.
“You’d think you’re the one popping the question. What’s up? What has you so frazzled?”
He has to be kidding. A few seconds pass, and I can tell he’s not.
“Well, sir,” I clear my throat, and that seems to help him get it.
“Well, shit. Are both of my girls getting married?”
“What?” Lindsey’s mom says in the distance.
“Hold on, let the boy ask me,” Dale says. “Go on.”
“I was hoping, Mr. Blackwood, that you would give me your blessing to ask your older daughter to be my wife. I promise I will treat her like a queen. And I will protect her with my own life. I love her, sir. And nothing would make me happier than to know you are okay with me doing so.”
I think I’m going to throw up. The few long seconds that pass nearly make me piss my pants, but soon, Dale is chuckling on the line.
“Never thought you’d get the balls to ask,” he teases.
