All I can do is sit here and panic, terrified that I’m going to blow his cover and blurt out my excitement. It’s been all of two seconds, I haven’t even had time to process this amazing news, let alone keep it bottled up.
I open my mouth to come up with an excuse, but Link beats me to it. Suddenly, he’s whisking her up in his arms, twirling her before planting her feet on the ground and taking her hands in his.
Hannah frowns at him, clearly confused and then, he drops to one knee, pulls out a box and literally shouts, “Hannah fucking Jensen, you’re a madwoman. You’re a pain in my ass, and the only thing in this life that holds any bloody meaning. Fucking marry me, baby!”
The entire diner erupts in cheers and the look on Hannah’s face sayseverything without her uttering a single word. She lunges for him, and I feel tears well in my eyes as the scene unfolds.
“Drink up, bitches. This is now, officially, my engagement party!” Hannah yowls before wrapping herself into her fiancé’s arms.
A hand brushes my shoulder, and I turn my head towards its owner, only to find myself, yet again, face to face with Dallas at an event I didnotexpect to see him at.
“Firefly,” he muses.
“Thought you didn’t get out much?” I quip.
He smiles, his face softening as he replies, “Colt needed a ride, and I knew you’d be here.”
“Me?”
“Yes, Annabeth, you.”
I’m speechless. Surely I’m in some weird fever dream and imagining this entire scenario, because let’s face it, that’s something I would do.
“I… uhh…” I begin, though I have no idea what words I’m even attempting to produce.
“Walk with me.” It’s not a question, but the way he says it feels more like an offer than an outright demand.
Dallas takes my hand, and before I know it, we’re out by the river that surrounds the back of the diner, sitting in the tray of his ute, sipping a beer. The stars dance in the sky, the faint echo of ‘Nutbush’ vibrates through the woodlands surrounding us. I can’t help but laugh as I picture the sheer chaos that I know is unravelling inside Maverick’s. It’s not every day the owner gets engaged, especially with half the town in attendance. A sliver of something unfamiliar washes over me as I watch Dallas sip his beer. If I thought his lips were a problem for me before, it’s athousandtimes worse now that I know what thoselips are capable of. The filthy things that those lips produce, not to mention what they feel like suctioned to my body… I quiver at the thought, shaking it off before Dallas catches wind of my sudden uhh… discomfort?
As if sensing my need for distraction, Dallas pipes up, “Bit of a surprise, hey? Never thought he’d finally ask her.” A warm smile creeps right up to those hazel eyes that have had me in a chokehold since I met him.
“I know. I was so worried I’d blown his cover,” I reply, sheepishly.
The silence lingers for a moment too long before Dallas clears his throat and asks, “Do you wanna dance?”
“I’d love to, cowboy.”
He takes my hand, our fingers entwining as he stands and lifts me from the tray. As if he already knows my body in ways I can’t describe, his free hand finds my waist instinctively, nestling perfectly against the denim.
Dallas and I slowly trace boot circles in the dirt beneath us – keep in mind, we’re currently slow-dancing to the fucking ‘Nutbush’– as he says, “I’m starting to think this is going to become a regular occurrence for us.”
“What, sneaking around in the dark?” I ask with a giggle.
“I meant dancing, but I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of sneaking around in the dark either.”
He releases his hand from my waist, twirling me in a circle and reeling me back in until we’re so close our noses almosttouch. Déjà vu washes over me, and my mind immediately takes me back to the nights we’ve spent at the lookout.
The sunsets, well, night times in general, really are spectacular here.Crickets trill off in the distance, the moonlight glistens off the water like diamonds, the faint burgundy hues of Fires Creek’s infamous sunsets slowly drift behind the mountain.
Stars scatter every inch of the skyline, making way only for the moon to shine its light down across the valley. A gentle breeze rolls in from the water as my head slowly falls to meet Dallas’s chest. I hear the steady rhythm of his heartbeat, which slows ever so slightly as I nestle into him.
“Firefly,” he says, as if he’s confirming to himself that I’m here.
His chin drops to rest against the top of my head, the roughness of his beard a quiet comfort as he presses a kiss on my crown. My arms curl around him, my fingers softly tracing the outline of the tattoo on his forearm.
“Dallas.”
I’m lost in space and time as we sway together in silence, with nothing but the sounds of nature to guide us. The music from inside the diner still thumps away, but we lose track of what’s playing. It doesn’t matter. It feels like part of me has resurfaced, or maybe it’s been resurrected. Maybe this was never here to begin with, or it was here in a past life. All I know is that nothing has, or likely ever will, feel as perfect as how it feels to be with Dallas.
