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“It’s Blake, Mom,” Gina said.
“Yes, Blake, of course.” Sarah reached her hand out, and Blake helped her stand from the back seat. Gina’s dad had already gotten out, and Gina followed last. She shouldered her purse and met his eyes.
“Hey,” he said again, his voice filled with fondness. “You look amazing.” She wore a sweater with geometric patterns on it, in shades of cream, beige, tan, and brown, with one tiny patch of orange. “Very festive.” Her skinny jeans disappeared into knee-high boots, and Blake couldn’t wait to sneak away with her during nap time and kiss her. There were plenty of trees to hide behind out here in the family row.
“Thank you,” she said with a sigh. “The pies are in the trunk.”
He leaned down and kissed her quickly, keeping his face close to hers. “Everything okay?” he whispered.
“Sorry we’re late,” she murmured, keeping her eyes closed and touching the tip of her nose to his.
“You’re fine,” he said. “Plenty of time before we eat.” He put proper distance between them and went to get the pies. She’d brought six, all of them sitting in a single layer inside a huge lettuce box. He picked it up easily, and he walked after Gina, who’d started herding her parents toward the cabin.
He’d designed it for him to enter last, and Nash should be waiting right beside the door to take anything he’d carried in for Gina. Kyle, Adam, and Jesse better have their guitars out already. Mama should’ve turned down burners and gotten things out of the oven so he wouldn’t have any timers going off during his proposal. She didn’t want to miss it, and both Holly and Sierra were recording it so they could get all angles.
It was probably far too big of a show, but Blake had seven siblings and involved parents. If Gina wasn’t ready for a public spectacle for everything, she should probably tell him she didn’t want to be his wife.
His throat turned numb, and he tried to swallow past it. What if she said no?
“Gina,” he said, intending to stop her, but she’d already stepped past her father to open the door.
“You just go in, Daddy,” she said. “You don’t need to ring the doorbell.” She pushed the door open and turned back to let her parents pass first. She met Blake’s eye and said, “They’re going to be the death of me.”
Blake tried to smile, but his nerves probably made it look like a grimace. He nodded into the house and said, “My mama will take them from here. Go on. I’m right behind you.”
She entered the house, and Blake noted there was no noise. No chatter. No arguing. No laughter. The scent of roasted meat and butter hung in the air, and his mouth watered.
He followed Gina into the house, handed the huge box of pies to Nash, and nodded to Sierra.
“What’s going on?” Gina asked, turning back to him. “They’re all standing there, still and staring at me.”
He swallowed, and the sound of Kyle’s acoustic guitar filled the air. He could make the instrument sound like angels singing from heaven, and it relaxed Blake enough to keep him inside his head and inside this situation.
Jesse and Adam joined Kyle after the first several notes, and Blake noticed the lights on his sisters’ phones. They were recording.
“Blake,” Gina said, plenty of warning in her voice.
Before he could answer, his family started singing. Kyle had written the song several years ago, and he’d taught it to everyone. It was a welcome song the Stewarts sang at the lodge on special occasions, like the anniversary of when they’d opened, his mama and daddy’s birthdays, their wedding anniversary—and apparently today.
Anyone who worked at the Texas Longhorn Ranch for very long knew it, and Starla, Baby John, Lowry, and Sammy Boy knew all the words. Blake was tempted to join in on the chorus, which picked up in volume and speed and said, “Welcome, welcome, we welcome you today,” but he didn’t.
His parents’ house opened up just past the front door into a big living room that extended from wall to wall across the front of the cabin. The kitchen and dining room took up the back two-thirds, and Blake moved his eyes from Gina to his mom as she came toward him. She held a single red rose in her hand, and she handed it to him with a smile and tears in her eyes.
His daddy came next, and he carried a sunflower almost as big as a dinner plate. Anyone who wasn’t filming, holding a pie box, or playing the guitar continued to bring Blake flowers until he held over twenty of them in a huge bouquet.
Starla stepped between him and Gina, still singing, and wrapped a huge blue bow around the stems while he held all the flowers still for her. She smiled at him with such friendliness and love, and that gave him the last bit of courage he needed.
He looked at Gina, who stood six feet from him, tears running down her face and both hands pressed to her chest. Todd edged closer to Blake, and he nodded at him.
Blake took a step closer to Gina and then another one. Right in front of her, he grinned at her and waited until the singing faded. Only Kyle kept playing, a low-range tune as background music.
“I love you, Regina Barlow. I’ve loved you since I was fifteen years old. If I’d have known then I’d have to wait twenty years to ask you this question, I probably would’ve been so frustrated. But now…” He smiled, his own emotions rising up and cutting off his voice.
He cleared his throat and looked at the flowers he’d carefully chosen for this woman he loved so much. He looked back at her, everything so clear and so perfect when it was just him and her. “Now, all I see when I look at you is someone who needed an opportunity to learn and grow and fly somewhere else. I’m so glad the Lord brought you back to me, and that I didn’t mess things up too badly this time.”
She shook her head and wiped her eyes.
He smiled and chin-nodded to the flowers. “I chose each of these specifically because they mean something to me about you.” He extended them toward her, and she took them with trembling hands.
