Page 49 of Stay Wild Darlin’

She was breathtaking in the porch light with her lips parted slightly.

It wasn’t just the way she looked, but God, she was beautiful.

It was the quiet strength she carried. The calm in her voice when everything else was chaos. The way she stood still and steady when I was falling apart right in front of her.

She was soft but made of steel.

“I get why you do it,” she said. “The bull riding. The chaos. The danger. The freedom of it. It’s the only place where everything else disappears. Where you’re not someone expected to hold everything together. Just . . . you. Alone. Free.”

She slowly brought her hand up, warm fingers brushing against my cheek, wiping the tear I hadn’t meant to let fall. Her thumb lingered.

“You are enough, Dalton,” she whispered again. Firmer this time. Like it wasn’t a comfort—it was a truth.

She pulled away and turned to walk back toward the house, her bare feet light against the gravel, sweatshirt riding up showing another inch of skin, another reminder of everything I shouldn’t want but couldn’t stop needing.

The door creaked softly as it closed behind her, and like that, she was gone.

But she wasn’t.

She was everywhere.

In the air.

In my chest.

In the way her words echoed like truth I hadn’t let myself believe.

You are enough, Dalton.

I stood there, hands shoved deep in my pockets, eyes still pointed toward the road like they always were, but I wasn’t looking for headlights anymore.

For the first time in months, I wasn’t watching for the woman who left.

Because my mind wasn’t on the road.

It was focused behind me.

On the woman in my house.

The one who’d cracked something open inside me.

I knew.

Everything changed.

22

Poppy

“Have a good weekend, Dad,” I said, holding Cora’s hand and waving it as we followed Dalton to Beau’s truck.

“Be good for Poppy, Cora girl,” he said, reaching over and brushing his thumb across her cheek.

“Fable’s excited she’ll be around this weekend and that you girls are going to watch together,” Beau said from the driver’s seat.

Fable had texted me to let me know she was going to watch the boys on Saturday and that I should come over with Cora. She had an extra Pack ’N Play in their house so we could relax while she slept.

“It’ll be nice,” I admitted, but my eyes were on the cowboy.