My breath caught. I spun around and there he was. Dallas’s boots hit the ground as he came off the last step, coming straight to me. I met him halfway, seeing the light in his eyes, reaching for him.
His arms circled me and he lifted.He’s here. Oh god, he’s here.He held me tight, and a wave of relief hit me. All my nerves melted away.
“You’re here,” I cried, holding him tighter.
“Of course I am,” he said. “I wouldn’t miss this for the world. I’m sorry I didn’t text back today. I had to see June.”
I drew back enough to meet his eyes. “June?”
His eyes crinkled as he smiled. “Yeah.”
“Where is she? Is she?—”
There she is.
My knees felt weak as Dallas put me down. He kept me standing as June ran down the bleachers in front ofeveryone.I choked back a sob the second she made it to us, her arms wrapping around us together. We lifted her with ease, the three of us hugging.
“I’m so sorry,” she cried. “Madi, I’m so sorry. I was such an idiot. Iaman idiot. I’ve been so scared?—”
“It’s okay,” I said quickly. “It’s okay. I know you’re scared?—”
“I’m falling for you. For both of you. It scares me, god it scares me, but I want this,” she said. “I want this. Please stay. Please stay with us.”
Dallas’s hold on us tightened, his eyes turning glassy. I opened my mouth to speak, but she kept going, her words spilling out.
“I said really terrible things yesterday, trying to push you both away, and I shouldn’t have done that. I should have talked to you, and I’m sorry. But I’m?—”
I need to kiss her.
“I’m sorry that I was being so stubborn and?—”
“Shut up, June,” I demanded.
Then I kissed her hard enough to steal whatever words were about to come out next. She laughed against me, her arms pulling us tighter until I finally released her. Dallas pushed hisfingers through her hair and gripped hard, kissing her next. Then he was kissing me, and then she was kissing me, and everything finally clicked into place.
This was right.
This was home.
It was only then that I realized people were cheering for us.
June looked back, completely dazed. “Oh god,” she rasped. “I didn’t even think about the fact that we have an audience.”
“We’re gonna be the talk of the town,” Dallas said.
We were.
“Hey, the three of you are really cute,” Mateo called. “But we have to start the show.”
June ignored him. “Are you staying?” she asked, her gaze searching mine.
Tears rolled down my cheeks. “Just watch the animation.”
The screen flashed. I exhaled slowly as the sound started, my voice echoing across the field.
“As a girl who grew up in the city, coming to a town like Whynot felt like a wild idea.” A tumbleweed blew across a desert scene, a bird swooping down. “What could possibly be in a town like this for someone like me? It’s small. It’s in the middle of nowhere. But . . .”
The screen changed and June sucked in a breath as the animation of her shop bloomed to life. Flowers opened up as it moved on to Evie’s bakery. Snippets from all of my favorite places, things that I’d spent time carefully pulling together rolling into each other, until the bird from the beginning came back.
