“Come on,” Aurora said finally. “Enough talk about Win. Everything is ready here. Let’s go get dressed.”
Vivi Ann followed her sister to the Eagles’ restroom, where they’d left their evening clothes hanging on one of the stall doors. In the hustle and bustle of getting ready, she forgot all about Winona’s hissy fit and concentrated on looking her best. She curled her long blond hair on big electric rollers and sprayed it all to stay in place. It only took a little makeup—mascara, blush, and lip gloss—to accentuate her features. Then she dressed in a flowy sleeveless polka-dot dress with a wide crystal-encrusted belt and her good boots.
For the next two hours, she was on top of the world. The banquet was a complete success. Twice the number of people she’d expected had shown up and everyone had had a great time. By the time she’d given away all of the prizes and thanked people for participating, she was already fielding requests for a fall series.
“Next time I’ll give away a saddle,” she told Luke as he swept her onto the dance floor. “We need really great prizes. And lots of cash. That’ll keep them coming back. We could do two jackpots a month instead of one.” She laughed at her own enthusiasm. It was like drinking too much champagne, this feeling she had right now, and she didn’t want it to stop.
When the banquet was finally over, and the place had been cleaned up and everyone had gone home, she still wasn’t ready to leave.
“Let’s go for a walk,” Luke said, bringing her heavy woolen coat.
“That’s a great idea.” She snagged a half-empty bottle of champagne and carried it with her. Hand in hand, they walked through town. She kept up a steady stream of conversation. Caught up in the magic of her success, she was a little surprised to find that they were at the Waves Restaurant. It was closed down for the night, but Luke led her out to the deck, where they found an empty cast-iron table with two chairs. Sitting there, in the glow from a single outdoor light, with the Canal waves moving restlessly on the beach below, she said, “Did you see my dad smiling tonight?” She’d been thinking of it for hours, replaying it in her head so she would never forget it. “I know it meant a lot to him. He’d never say anything, but I know he’s always felt that he didn’t live up to his father’s legend. If we make Water’s Edge a viable business, it will be his way of leaving his mark on this land, of being another Grey that people remember.”
“I think I know another reason your dad was smiling.”
“Really?”
“I talked to him last night.”
“And that’s smile-worthy?” she teased, pouring champagne into the glasses she’d brought with them.
He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a small box. “Marry me, Vivi Ann,” he said, opening the box to reveal a diamond ring.
It was like getting popped in the head by a fastball; you knew instantly you should have seen it coming and ducked. She tried to think of how to answer, what to say, knowing that only a yes and tears would make him happy.
“It made your dad smile,” he said.
Vivi Ann felt tears sting her eyes, but they were all wrong, not the kind he deserved at all. “It’s so early, Luke. We’ve only just started dating. We haven’t even—”
“The sex will be great. We both know that, and I respect you for wanting to wait until you’re ready.”
“Ready for sex is easy. This is . . .” She couldn’t even finish her thought. It was impossible for her to do what he wanted, to put on that ring and seal her fate. She looked up at him, feeling sadness well. She’d thought—foolishly—that not sleeping with him would slow down their relationship, but it hadn’t worked. He’d fallen in love with her anyway. “We hardly know each other.”
“Of course we do.”
“What’s my favorite ice cream?”
He drew back, frowning. She could tell that it was sinking in, that he knew this was going wrong. “Chocolate cherry. Dark and sweet.”
It was a question she asked every man who claimed to love her, a litmus test for how well they knew her. They always picked some sweet exotic flavor because that was how they saw her, but it wasn’t who she really was. Most of the men she dated—Luke included—stared endlessly at her face, declared their love in the first few months, and never thought they needed more. “Vanilla,” she said. “Inside, I’m plain old vanilla.”
“There’s nothing plain about you,” he said softly, touching her cheek with a tenderness that only made her feel worse.
“I’m not ready, Luke,” she said at last.
He looked at her for a long moment, studying her face as if it were a map he’d only just been handed, the terrain foreign. Then he leaned forward and kissed her.
“I’ll wait,” he promised.
“But what if—”
“I’ll wait,” he said again, cutting her off. “I trust you. You’ll get there.”
She wanted to say, No. I don’t think I ever will, but the words wouldn’t come.
Much later, when she stepped into the comforting quiet of the farmhouse, she looked longingly at her father’s closed bedroom door, wishing that she had a mother to talk to about this. Moving tiredly, she went upstairs and got ready for bed, but before pulling back her comforter, she walked over to her window. The ranch lay in darkness before her, lit here and there by a moon that seemed as worn-out as she. She knew that just beyond a row of evergreens lay Luke’s land, and she found herself wondering if that mattered. Not in the way her father cared, of course; in a deeper, more meaningful way of connection, of what it meant when two people grew up in the same place, knowing the same people, wanting the same things. Surely a property’s border could be a boundary, but was it also a line of common ground?
She turned away from her window and climbed into bed, unable to stop her thoughts from spinning back to his proposal.