Fool for You (Southern Bride 7)

“I’m not making love to you in the barn or the backseat of my truck.”

“Then let’s go to our spot.”

“The north pasture?”

She chuckled. “I know for a fact you carry at least two quilts in this truck of yours at all times.”

I turned to look at her. “Those are for emergencies, Emme. We’re not that far from your place, only ten minutes away.”

“This is an emergency, Landon. If we go back to my place, or even yours, I know we’re going to get interrupted. No one can find us in the pasture. It’s dark out now. It’ll just be us.”

Before I got to the gate, I made a turn onto one of the side roads that ran across our folks’ property.

Emmerson clapped and bounced in her seat as I laughed. It only took us a few minutes to get to what she called our spot. It was under a large pecan tree—the first place we had ever had a picnic. Not alone, though, because someone was always with us back then, it seemed. Nonetheless, this was the spot we came to when we wanted to talk, sit, and stare up at the stars, or just be away from the world. It was where I often came when I was home and not racing. It was quiet and peaceful, which was something I craved desperately right at this moment, and Emmerson knew it.

I pulled up and parked the front of the truck under the large branches that extended from the tree trunk. I left the bed sticking out from under the canopy, so we could look up and see the stars. Stargazing was one of Emmerson’s favorite things to do. Ever since she was little, she would beg for us all to lie down and try to come up with shapes in the stars. While most people did it with clouds, Emmerson did it with stars.

After I got the two quilts—and one blanket that Emmerson didn’t know about—out from behind my backseat, I laid them out on the bed of my truck.

Emmerson stood a few feet away with her arms folded across her chest, simply staring out over the dark Hill Country. The light from the stars and the half-moon cast the perfect amount of illumination to still be able to make out things in the distance, like the hills and the vineyards that weren’t that far from here.

I turned on the radio to the local country station and walked over, stopping right next to her.

“Did you miss this when you were racing?” she asked, her voice so soft I hardly heard.

“I missed a lot of things when I was racing.”

Turning, she gazed up at me with that smile that made my heart want to beat right out of my chest. “Like what?”

“I missed my folks, Hailey, my horse.”

She laughed and shook her head.

“I missed my best friend.”

Her brows rose. “Oh?”

With a nod, I leaned in closer and placed my mouth against her ear. “She didn’t know it at the time, but I was madly in love with her.”

Emmerson clutched my arms as if she needed me to hold her up. Kenny Chesney’s “Me and You” came on the radio, and I drew back and met her gaze. Her smile grew bigger and she tilted her head, giving me a shy look. “Did you plan for this song to come on?”

With a wink, I asked, “Will you do me the honor and dance with me, Ms. Wallace?”

She bit into her lower lip before giving me a nod and allowing me to draw her body against mine.

Dancing with Emmerson had always been one of my favorite things. We had both learned how by dancing with each other and Noah and Hailey. But when the two of us danced together, it just worked. It was like we were made for each other in so many ways.

Emmerson rested her head on my chest as we slowly danced under the stars and let everything and everyone else slip away. The fake engagement, Hailey and Mike’s breakup, the fact that we were keeping our relationship a secret from our folks. It all seemed to disappear until it was only the two of us and the millions of stars above our heads.

“Landon,” Emmerson whispered against my chest.

I dug my fingers into her hair, my other hand rubbing against her back. “Yeah, baby?”

“Will you make love to me now?”

I let out a small chuckle. “You don’t have to ask me twice.”

Bending down, I picked her up. She slid her arms around my neck, and I walked us over to the back of the truck. I had laid down the heavy blanket first, followed by both quilts. I folded up a jacket I had in the backseat to use as a makeshift pillow for Emmerson. This wasn’t how I pictured our first time making love, but it felt right. And the way Emmerson was currently looking at me said she felt the exact same way.