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“And you love that she worships you,” Deuce starts. But I shake my head.
“No. I mean—yes, I’m sorry, Ev, plug your ears, but yes.” I look up at Deuce and shrug. “It drives me fucking wild, I’m not going to lie about that.”
He nods. “I get it.” Everly smacks him.
“But,” I continue, scratching my chest nervouslyas I find a way to say this that doesn’t make me look like a creep. “I’ve always had a thing for Dolly—” I look up, straight into my sister’s eyes— “I never acted on anything or even so much as looked at her disrespectfully until this weekend,” I say, feeling comfortable in omitting the hotel room incident in Vegas. I swallow around the nerves clogging my throat, and get the rest out. Like a Band-Aid, all in one go. “I’m gonna marry her. And if I know her, she’s gonna be living here by the end of the month.”
“Week,” Everly corrects, smirking. Her easy response gives me hope there won’t be warnings or arguments.
“You.. you don’t think it’s fucking insane?” I ask, because even I think it’s a little insane. I just… don’t care.
She nods. “Oh, it is but… I love Dolly. I always have. I love Ivy and Juniper, too. And Dolly has such a tight bond with Bear.” Everly smiles, glancing at Deuce then back to me. “She worships the ground you walk on, and you’ve been through hell, losing Tessa with a newborn and having to figure it all out on your own. I’m proud of you for keeping Gray Farms going, for creating a thriving farmers market, for everything that you’ve done. She loves you, and that’s all I want for you—to be truly loved.”
We stand and hug, uncharacteristic but momentous and needed.
“That was a lot of nice things you just said,” I tell her, blinking away the sting in my eyes. “Thank you. And thank you for not calling me crazy.”
“It’s a little crazy. But… I think you could stand to get a little crazy,” Deuce says, getting to his feet.
“Are you really gonna get married within a month?” Everly asks, peering down the hall to check on Bear.
I shrug. “Truth? I don't see a point in waiting.” I roll my lips together and scrub a hand down my face, heat flaring behind my ribs at the thought of her. “I gotta talk to Bear, though.”
“Make him part of the asking process, so he feels like the two of you decided together,” Everly says as she refolds a blanket from the back of the couch. I watch her ring sparkle as she does, and I realize, this is one of the last times she casually does something around my house.
She’s married now and… Dolly’s going to live here soon. My dick stirs at the thought. “That’s a good idea.”
Dolly’s expecting me to ask her to be my girlfriend. She’s got no idea what’s coming. For once, I’ll surprise her.
I call Bear from his room as Deuce and Ev head out, telling me they’re on standby for five more days to celebrate until they leave for their official honeymoon.
With the house quiet and my nerves gone, I sit with Bear on the couch and have an open talk about our life, and things I want for us. He’s four, so I keep it simple. Love and happiness, and lots of good times. I ask him if he would like Dolly to be a part of that, if he would like a brother or a sister one day, if he would like to spend more time with me and Dolly at the same time and finally, how he’d feel about Dolly marrying me and living here.
“As long as you don’t hog her,” he says. We hug, then I ask Bear the next most important question.
“Do you have any black paint?”
twenty-nine
WE NEED YOU.
Dolly
“And that he’s had feelings for me he’s been trying to ignore for a while,” I tell my sisters, spilling the pertinent details the moment I step inside the door.
Juni, wearing a sweat- and jam-stained white tank top and cutoff jean shorts, paired with cowboy boots, wags a Merlot-stained wooden spoon at me. “I always thought he seemed… shamefully interested.”
Ivy nods, her dark hair styled into a singular braid, thickly knotted down the center of her head. “Same.”
I stomp my foot. “Seriously? You guys really thought at some point he started, like… actually liking me? Why didn’t you say anything?”
Ivy clamps her hand down on my shoulder. “Iwas a little busy being the lookout while you broke into his house.”
“She didn’t want to get your hopes up,” Juni says instead, smiling as she wraps her arms around me. “I’m so happy for you. I’m glad you finally got him. You deserve it.”
I snuggle against my older sister for a moment, soaking her in. Though I’ll only live just over twenty three and a half feet away, still, knowing we won’t live together anymore very soon… It's bittersweet.
“Thank you guys for believing in me and not calling me crazy,” I tell them, holding the corrugated box out to Juniper as she slips her hand into a heat-resistant glove, ready to pluck jars from the heated pot on the stove. Ivy passes her tongs.
