Page 109 of Daybreak

Holly heard the last of her father’s words as she walked up and slid her arm around Gunner’s waist.

Gunner looked down at her and frowned. “I thought you would have told your dad by now about the—”

Holly shook her head. “That’s your story to tell, honey.”

Garrett looked from one to the other, then back again. “Tell me what?”

“I’m the guy who won the Mega Millions lottery. Just shy of eight hundred million dollars,” Gunner said.

Garrett’s eyes widened. His mouth opened and then closed, and then opened again in pure shock. “My sweet lord!” he mumbled.

“You can’t imagine how I felt when I found out. It was a random thing. I bought a ticket as I was paying for gas. I took a cash payout of a little over half of that. Holly didn’t even know for weeks. I had some shit going on in Homicide I had to deal with, and it got in the way of a whole lot of plans. But that’s finally solved, and the money gave us both the freedom to come home. I’d really appreciate it if you kept that to yourself, though. I don’t intend to turn myself into everybody’s banker. Holly can fill you in on stuff later.”

Garrett nodded, still speechless, still trying to wrap his mind around the fact that Gunner Kingston was a multi-millionaire.

“Dad, which one of you is driving me home? Travis is ready to go.”

Garrett made himself refocus. “I’m driving you in your car. Tell Travis to take the truck and we’ll be right behind him.” Then he looked back at Gunner. “Blessings abound,” he said, shook his hand, and winked at his daughter before heading out the door.

Gunner wrapped his arms around her. “Lord, I am going to miss you. I know we’ll see each other constantly, but it’s not the same thing, is it?”

“No, it’s not,” she said. There were tears in her eyes.

“Damn it, you’re gonna make me cry, too,” Gunner muttered, then kissed her hard and fast. “Your dad’s waiting. Expect a call from me every night. I will not be able to sleep until I hear your voice before I close my eyes.”

“I love you. So much,” she said.

“Love you more.”

And then she was gone, and so were the people who’d gathered earlier. Gunner got in his car, circled the bar to get to the house, and unloaded the last of his things.

* * *

On the Monday after they came home, Gunner and Holly were together in his Jeep, driving to the building site of their new house.

“This is so exciting. Our first official act together, our own little groundbreaking ceremony,” she said.

“Actually, making love with you for the first time was number one on my list, but we can put shoveling dirt as number two,” Gunner said.

She gave him the side-eye and grinned. “Well, okay… Yes. That was epic.”

He winked. “You’re welcome.”

They parked and waved at the driver sitting on a bulldozer, who was waiting for them to proceed. Then they retrieved a shovel from the back of the Jeep as they got out.

Gunner took Holly’s hand as they walked up to the pile of rocks that he’d left weeks ago to mark the spot.

“You first,” Holly said.

Gunner stabbed the shovel into the ground, then stepped onto the rim to drive it deeper and lifted away the first shovel of dirt.

“The ground is hard, but we’re in West Texas. Life is hard here, too,” Gunner said, then stabbed the shovel into the ground several times to soften it up for her and handed the shovel to her.

“Here you go, Hollyberry.”

She gripped it firmly and shoved it into the softened dirt, shoveled up a decent scoop, and tossed it aside.

“Done and done,” Gunner said. “There comes the contractor. I’m going to talk to him a bit before we leave. Go ahead and get in out of the heat, honey. I’ll be right there.”