The important thing is, I don’t have to be afraid anymore.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Spur
I walk across the gravel from the burn pit toward the back porch of the main house with the smoke from the fire still in my hair, and the question I've been carrying sitting in my chest like a stone.
Phantom is on the porch where Dakota said he'd be.
Coffee in one hand. Bible open on the rail. He's looking out at the property the way he looks at it most evenings—like a man assessing something he built.
He doesn't look at me when I climb the porch steps.
He speaks low. "Have a seat, son."
Phantom closes the Bible, sets it on the rail, and picks up his coffee.
"I figure I know why you came over here, Spur."
I get straight to the damn point. "I want to ask for your daughter's hand."
He looks at me for a long second. His face doesn't move. Phantom's face never moves when something matters most. He lets the question sit.
Then he says, "Tell mewhy."
I take a breath. I've been working on this answer for a while and now that the moment is here, the words come easier than I thought they would.
"Because she's the only thing in this world I want to come home to. I’ve loved her since she was a teenager and I’ve been waiting her whole adult life for the moment she wanted me back. I want to put a ring on her hand and stand up in front of this club and call her my ol’ lady. I want to spend the rest of my life giving her what she chose me for."
Phantom listens without interrupting.
When I finish, he sets his coffee down, folds his hands together, and looks at me.
"What kind of life are you giving her, Spur?"
"The one she wants. She wants to ride the circuit, she gets the circuit. She wants the ranch, she gets the ranch. She wants babies someday when she's done riding, she gets babies. She wants me, she gets all of me. I don't have anything in this world I'm not putting on the table for her."
"You ready to be a father, Spur?"
"When she wants me to be."
"Even if that's tomorrow?"
"Even if that's tomorrow."
"And if she's still riding the circuit when she's pregnant?"
"Then I'm in the truck driving her to the next qualifier. Same as I was last week."
Phantom nods slowly. His hand finds his coffee and turns the mug a quarter turn on the rail. He looks out at the property again. "Love has an interesting way of turning up. There's no one way to do it. You build the marriage that fits the woman. Dakota's a Lyle. The marriage has to fit a Lyle."
"Yes, Prez."
He's quiet for a long time. The cicadas are working themselves up to full pitch in the oaks. The light goes from gold to pink across his face.
Then he takes a look around and drops his tone a bit. "What about Jolene, Spur?"
He doesn’t want anyone to hear. Not that I can blame him.
