Finding Solace

Although my heart feels full—of love, welling emotion, and him, his sweet dream should come in a trade-off. “I don’t want to marry you to stop gossip.”

“Then marry me to start it. I’ll walk down Main with you on my arm, proud as the day is long. You’re my girl. You always were. And you always will be. Let me be your man long past forever. Will you marry me, Delilah Rae Noelle?”

Jason, Billy, Paul, and my daddy are the only men who’ve never used my married name, which surprisingly the town refuses to drop. There’s a lot to be said for men with manners. Besides manners, Jason’s the man I was always meant to be with. I may be newly divorced, but I was never truly married. Not in my heart anyway. The answer is easy, coming forthright just like Jason is now. “Yes.”

Leaning together with our hands trapped behind our backs, we meet in the middle, but words aren’t necessary. Our kiss confirms the promises we’re not afraid to voice, but don’t need to be said.

The deep and steadfast love we have for each other is felt in this kiss. A million yeses exchanged. An eternity of I love yous whispered through caresses.

The driver’s door opens, and Deputy Whaley folds inside. “Geesh, stop that or I’m gonna have to hold you in separate cars.”

Jason’s laughing, and then he licks his bottom lip, making me wish I was the one licking it. He then bites that bottom lip as if the secret he’s keeping from Whaley might escape.

Whaley says, “I don’t know what’s gotten into you, Delilah. Dragging my wife and her blue ribbons into your mess can land you in a cell for the night. You can’t blow that low and not expect to pay the price. What if my wife finds out?”

“What if the women’s auxiliary club finds out she’s been stealing blue-ribbon recipes long before last year? Isn’t she up for re-election of the Fourth of July Extravaganza Director this year?”

“Is that a threat, Ms. Noelle?”

Jason stares at me wide-eyed, and mouths, “You’re such a badass.”

But Whaley ruins the moment by adding, “Your father is probably rollin’ in his grave right now. What would he say if he saw you cuffed in the back of my car?”

Angling my chin up in defiance, I reply, “He’d be proud I stood up for what was right.”

His dissatisfaction comes in a huff before he turns his attention to my partner in crime. “I blame you, Koster. When you weren’t on that football field, you were causin’ trouble. If my vote mattered, I’d have that billboard down by the highway demoed and burned for the homecoming bonfire.”

“Well, Deputy,” Jason starts, “I actually wasn’t in trouble much, but you did go to Kerbyville High, so maybe it’s the rivalry that makes you hate me so much.”

“I do not hate you.” Whaley’s voice rises. Looking at us in the rearview mirror, he says, “I’m gonna let you go with a warnin’, but you better be leaving Mr. Cutler alone and mindin’ your own damn business. Do you both hear me?”

Jason replies, “Loud and clear.”

“Did ya hear me, Ms. Noelle?”

“I heard you.”

“Good,” Whaley says. “Just head on home and stop causin’ trouble where there is none.”

When I look at Jason, he’s already looking at me. A small smile is seen as the flashing lights drift across his face. “Even though I didn’t win the money, I totally won the grand prize,” he whispers.

I’m about to tell him the money doesn’t matter, but the doors open, and we’re helped out of the vehicle. Facing each other over the roof of the car, he smiles at me, and I smile back. This is not the way I expected him to ask me to marry him, but now that we’re on the other side of it, it was perfect for us.

We don’t talk until we’re out of eavesdropping distance. As I rub my wrists, his hand lands on my lower back, and he guides me away from the cops. His lips are near my ear when he says, “I had that shooting contest in the bag. How about a consolation prize on the way home?”

Sneaking a peek of him, I see the confidence embedded in that grin. “What’d you have in mind?”

The windows are down, and Blake Shelton’s “Every Time I Hear That Song” is playing through the speakers, floating into the night. With a palm on each thigh, he slowly spreads my legs apart. We’ve had a lot of sex since he’s been back, but it’s hard to get used to how he looks at me—my whole body under deep inspection as he studies every inch in the moonlight. In awe.

I lift up, my eyes meeting his briefly before his gaze lowers again, and he kisses that spot where my most private parts meet the top of my thigh. My head drops back on the blanketed bed of the truck, and I happily sigh while closing my eyes.