Tangle (Dogwood Lane 2)

We all turn to see Penn walking in. His swagger is on point tonight as he pops an invisible collar with his large, tattooed arms. And then he sees Grace. His jaw hangs open for a half of a second before he recovers.

“And yet again, no one called me.” Penn saunters up, a short-sleeved shirt over his chest despite the cold. “It’s like you guys hate me or something.”

Grace smiles, batting her lashes. “I don’t know you, so I don’t hate you. Yet.”

Penn grins a killer smile. “Let’s fix that. I’m Penn Etling.”

“And I’m Grace.”

“No last name?” he asks, cocking a brow.

“Not until the third date.”

Neely laughs. “Seriously. Stop while you’re ahead. You two would kill each other.”

“It might be fun.” Grace winks at Penn, and we watch Penn almost melt on the spot.

Our attention is redirected by the sound of a bell. We turn to see Trevor at the checkout desk.

The patrons quiet down, sipping their hot chocolate and coffee and waiting on Trevor’s speech. My body tingles as I watch him look around at the faces of Dogwood Lane that came to support our project.

“On behalf of Kelly Construction, Incorporated, I’d like to thank everyone for coming tonight,” he says. “I’d like to personally thank everyone that contributed to this night’s success, specifically my father and stepmother, Branson and Meredith Kelly. They couldn’t be with us tonight because a poodle was sick.”

The crowd laughs.

“And the biggest thank-you of all to the love of my life, Haley Raynor. You, pretty girl, are an inspiration.”

The crowd oohs and aahs at Trevor’s sweet words. Lorene gets to her feet and claps, beaming as her favorite person in the world heads my way.

My eyes leak as the handsomest man I’ve ever seen smiles at me. I leave my circle of friends and wrap my arms around Trevor’s neck.

“You just stole from me again, you thief.”

He flinches. “What did I do now?”

“You stole my heart.”

“I thought I already had it?”

I shrug. “There was a little part holding out. Just in case. Don’t worry—you have me so tangled up in you now, you’ll never get away.”

He studies me, his eyes narrowing. “When I saw you in the café, I was scared to touch you.”

“But you did.”

“Then I touched you and I was scared to have you.”

“You did that too.”

“Then I had you and I was scared to love you. And now I love you and it’s like winning the best prize in the entire universe.” He rests his forehead on mine. “No, the best prize will be when I finally convince you to have my baby.”

I bury my head in his chest and try not to swoon. I couldn’t love him more if I tried.

“Love me forever, will you?” he asks.

I pull back and look him in his gorgeous blue eyes. “Says the man afraid he won’t feel the same way twenty years from now.”

“That was before.”

“Before what?”

He looks at me and grins. “Before you. Before I knew what love was.”

I melt into his arms, the frenzy of the room fading out. In this moment, in this man’s arms, I realize what true love really, truly means. It involves trusting in the person to hold your heart close to theirs and never tire of that job. It involves sacrifices too. And we all know that basically means that if your girl wants the doughnut, then your girl gets the doughnut. Now that’s true love.