Southern Chance (Southern 1)

“Gramps Billy said he’s going to take me fishing,” he says with a huge smile on his face. With all this shit around us, my boy finally got himself a grandfather who would die for him without batting an eye. If it’s the weekend, you know that Ethan is going to be with Billy any day he can. The two are thicker than thieves.

“Did he?” I ask him as I pull up to the house and see that Charlotte is sitting on one of the rocking chairs she put outside with Billy next to her. The both of them are smiling when they see my truck. Billy is the first one to get up and walk down the two steps toward the truck.

Ethan opens the door as soon as I put it in park and turn off the engine. “Gramps,” he calls him, “I’m here.”

“That you are, my boy,” he says, leaning down and kissing him on the head. Charlotte is coming down now.

“Now, don’t you give him all the love,” she says, and Ethan walks over to her and hugs her around her waist and looks up at her. “I think you’ve gotten taller,” she says, and he nods his head. “It’s a good thing I just put the pie in the oven.”

His eyes light up. “Is it apple?”

She looks at him. “Is there any other kind of pie?”

“Nope,” he says, and she kisses him. I grab his bag and hand it to him. “Bye, Dad,” he says to me and comes to give me a kiss before running back to Billy, who takes his hand and walks inside.

“Is everything set?” Charlotte asks, and I nod.

“I think so,” I say, and she smiles at me, coming to kiss my cheek.

“It’s a long time coming,” she says, and I nod to her as she turns to walk into the house after Ethan.

When I walk into the house, I yell for Kallie right away. “I’m in the kitchen!” she yells, and I find her putting away the groceries. “Well, hello there.” She smiles when she sees me, and I walk over to her and take her in my arms.

“Hello there,” I say, and my lips find hers. Since the first day she came over, she hasn’t left. I mean, she tried to, and well, she lost that battle.

“Did you drop off Ethan?” she asks, always wondering about him, just another reason to love her.

“I did,” I say. “Your father is taking him fishing.”

“Oh, he’s going to love that,” she says. “What did you want to do for dinner?”

“I was thinking that we can lay low.” I push her hair away from her face and kiss her neck. “And then maybe just …”

She looks at me, and her eyes squint as though she’s not sure about something. “What are you up to?”

“Me?” I avoid her eyes. “Nothing.”

“Jacob McIntyre.” She calls me by my full name, and now I know she’s going to get it out of me.

“Okay, fine,” I say, turning and grabbing her hand and pulling her out the door.

“Wait,” she says, trying to keep up with me. “You didn’t lock the door.”

“I’m the sheriff,” I say over my shoulder. “No one will actually break into my house.” I open the door and pick her up, putting her in it and grabbing the seat belt. “You are going to have to do me a favor and not ask me anything and just go with it.”

“What in the heck?” she says, and I make her stop talking by kissing her.

“Please,” I whisper, and she looks at me.

“Okay,” she says softly, and I kiss her one more time before closing the door and getting in the truck. The whole way toward the creek, I go over my speech in my head. When I pull up to the clearing, she looks over at me, and I just shake my head. When I get out of the truck and walk around to her side, I grab her hand. My hand suddenly starts to get sweaty, my heart starts to speed up just a touch, and I’m suddenly so nervous, which is crazy since this is Kallie. It’s me and Kallie; it’s always been me and Kallie.

We walk hand in hand while the sun starts to set, and when we get to the rock, she looks up and sees everything I’ve prepared. “What in the …?” The lights that I strung up on the trees hang at different lengths, and the lace hanging looks like a canopy. I look at her and look back at the lanterns around the tree illuminating the tree.

I walk her to the tree and turn to look at her, and all she does is look around while tears fall down her cheeks. “Jacob,” she says to me when I get down on one knee.