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CHAPTERTWENTY-NINE
Lee’s nerves fled at the first sight of Rose. His beautiful, talented, smart Rose. He couldn’t believe he’d let his temper and his tongue get between them. Guilt and anger at himself simmered in the background, but he wasn’t going to allow his pride to keep this barrier between them.
“Ford,” he said, finally tilting his head to the side and tearing his eyes from Rose. His son came forward, his guitar already strapped around his shoulder. His fingers plucked through a few chords while Lee threw his strap over his shoulder and positioned his fingers on the strings.
He met his son’s eye, and they nodded in tandem. Since Ford was just a beginner, and Lee would have to say everything in his heart, he hadn’t planned to play a particularly romantic love song. Instead, he and Ford strummed out a harmony, and he prayed that everything they’d just practiced down the street would happen flawlessly.
“Rose,” he said, clearing his throat so his voice could travel easier and farther. “You once said I’d have to come play my guitar for you, so here I am.” He heard footsteps behind him, and his heartbeat dive-bombed to the toes of his boots. His fingers nearly stumbled, but he knew these chords like he knew his own face, and he steadied everything inside him.
“I asked my whole family to come with me,” he said. “Because they’re important to me, and I’m important to them.” He swallowed and continued with, “I know how very important family is to you as well, and I can promise you that our family will be first for me. Always.”
His chest caved, but he breathed in deeply as Cherry arrived at his side, and then Will stood next to Ford. They didn’t have any lines. They could leave as soon as it looked remotely like Rose would forgive him.
She reached up and brushed at her eyes, and Lee’s hopes soared.
“I went and met your parents,” he said next, and he knew the moment she caught sight of her parents and sister. “Because I know how very much you miss them and need them and love them. They are important to you, and therefore important to me.”
“Lee,” she said, and she started to step over the gate keeping Thumper in the house. He didn’t see Autumn, and he had more to say anyway.
“Stay there, dear,” her mother said, and Rose did what she said. Her eyes filled with tears now, and she didn’t try to clear them. She looked at Lee again, and his heart squeezed with love and compassion for her.
“I gathered everyone together,” he said. “So they’d all know how much I love you. I can’t live another day without talking to you. I just can’t. I made a stupid mistake—a lot of them, actually. I was selfish, and I was proud, and I just wanted everything to be perfect for you in a world where that’s pretty impossible.”
“Lee.” She shook her head and said nothing else.
“My life is a bit crazy at the farm,” he said. “Maybe I am selfish for wanting you out there with me. Maybe I am proud enough to think you could possibly love me and help me and work at my side out there. I will work as hard as I can to be the man you deserve, to take care of you and Autumn, and to be the husband and father you want me to be.”
He looked at Ford, and they wrapped up the harmony. In the silence that suddenly arrived on the porch, Lee drew a deep breath, and said, “I’m sorry, Rose. Please forgive me. I love you.” He looked over to Will, and his brother stepped forward with a bouquet of flowers. Cherry moved with him, a giant bag of sour cherry candy for Rose.
“Mama?” Lee asked, twisting to look over his shoulder. He couldn’t believe she and Daddy had come, but when Lee had told them his plan, they said they wouldn’t miss it. Mama hadn’t left the farm for more than a doctor’s appointment or to go to the hospital in over a year.
Now, she stepped through the crowd holding two pizza boxes. Daddy came right behind her with three more. Rose’s mom, Carla, lifted the three bags of salad Lee had bought that morning, and her dad, Roger, carried the garlic bread.
“I brought dinner,” he said. “In the hopes that you’d take me back and we could all stay and eat with you and Autumn.” He met Rose’s eyes again, and the next thing he knew, Travis had taken his guitar.
“Go on,” his youngest brother said, plenty loud enough for everyone to hear. “She’s dyin’ for you to kiss her.”
Lee wanted to tell him to shush and grin at Rose at the same time. He moved toward the gate and right over it, careful not to step on the white rabbit lurking nearby. “Is that true?” he whispered, taking Rose into his arms.
She positively melted into him, her hands coming up to cradle his face and push up his glasses. “I don’t need flowers,” she said in the intimate space between them. “Or candy or dinner, though they are nice to have. Thank you.” She touched her lips to his cheek, and Lee closed his eyes in bliss.
“What do you need, my rose?”
“Just you, Handsome.”
He opened his eyes, sure he’d heard her wrong. She smiled at him, the gesture wobbly and somewhat timid. “You drove to Dallas and got my family?”
“They’re so great,” he whispered. “Just like you. I wanted everyone to know that you’re my priority.”
She searched his eyes for a breath, and said, “I love you too.”
Lee dipped his head then and kissed her, his heartbeat finally settling into a rhythm he could live with.
Behind him, the crowd he’d brought with him could’ve brought the house down with their raucous applause and cheering. Because of that, he kept the kiss short and sweet, pulling away as he started to laugh.
He held Rose tight and asked, “You haven’t eaten, have you? And where’s Autumn?” He wished he’d have made Rose get her before he’d done all the strumming and confessing, because he’d wanted everyone important to him and Rose there, and Autumn was a huge part of both of those.
“We haven’t eaten,” she said. Looking past him, she said, “Come on in, everyone. Autumn’s in the back yard.”
