21. Three Months Later
Chapter 21
Three Months Later
Kolby
L ast month, I received a check from Deb’s father, an amount I told Ava to settle on. Even though she didn’t want to, she did as I asked. Then I asked her if she and Jade would give me an idea of what kind of ring they think Lauren would want to wear on her finger every day for the rest of her life.
I paid enough attention to know she doesn’t wear rings, but the jewelry she does wear is gold.
This morning, annulment paperwork arrived. Clean. Final. No more fine print, or tied hands, or old shadows whispering, You owe me.
It’s now being filed.
I drove straight here.
Ryan’s at his dad’s place, splitting firewood with sleeves rolled and sweat on his brow.
I park the Jeep near the barn, kill the engine, and sit there for a full minute, gripping the steering wheel, trying to breathe through the adrenaline punching up my spine.
Not game-day nerves.
Worse.
I walk up slow, gravel crunching under my boots, and Ryan turns before I reach the porch.
He raises an eyebrow. “This serious?”
I nod once. “Yeah, it is.”
He tosses the axe down, wipes his hands on his jeans, and waves me over. “Then come on.”
I follow him through the gate, past the split logs and the work gloves hanging over the fence rail, until we’re on the porch overlooking the wide stretch of pasture that rolls down into the valley. Lo’s childhood home is just visible through the trees, roofline familiar now in the way only hers could be.
“I love her,” I say, voice low. “That’s not news. But I’ve got the paperwork now. Clean slate. And I don’t want to wait.”
Ryan doesn’t speak. Just watches me.
“I want to ask her to marry me,” I continue. “But more than just a ring, I want to give her a home. One she can make her own. Not a townhouse or a place I used to crash. A house we build together. From the ground up. Here, close to both yours and Jades if it’s possible.”
He lets that settle. Then … “You come here for my blessing or my blueprints?”
“Both,” I say honestly.
That gets a small grin, the kind that says I might live through this. Stupid because I know I will, but that question will always remain: am I good enough for her, and the answer is just as clear, no but I’ll work every day to become that man.
Before he can reply, the screen door creaks open behind us, and Grandpa Daniel steps out, cane in one hand, mug in the other. “What’s all this?”
“Kolby’s asking about land,” Ryan says.
“And Lo,” I add. “Officially.”
Daniel narrows his eyes. “You knocking her up?”
I cough. “No, sir.” The truth is, we’re not doing everything to prevent it either.
He takes a sip of his coffee. “Planning on it?”
I glance at Ryan, who looks like he’s enjoying this too much , then back at Daniel. “I hope so. One day soon,” I say, steady and sure. “As many as she wants. Or none, if that’s what she decides.”
Daniel nods, like he approves of the answer. “Good. We don’t raise women around here just to be barefoot and overwhelmed. But if she does want them”—he leans in slightly—“you ready to be the man who never makes them wonder what love looks like?”
My throat tightens. “I’ll show them every day.”
He stares at me a second longer then mutters, “All right then,” and shuffles back inside.
Ryan smirks. “Congratulations. You survived.”
I breathe out a laugh.
He claps me on the back—hard. “I’ll get you the survey maps. You pick the view. She already picked you. ”
“No, you won’t.” Daniel appears again and hands me a drawing in crayon that carries age.
“This is Lauren Jane’s dream house. Loves watching the horses, skipping rocks in the pond, and comes up every spring to make sure her grandmother’s flowerbeds are ready to hold all the beauty they become. Means something to her, so do you.” He sighs as he looks off in the horizon. “I want a cabin on the edge of the property?—”
“Dad, we?—”
“Son, I know what I want. He came here, asking what she wants, and I’m telling you, your mom, she’d want those flowers tended to.”
“It’s a big house,” Ryan says.
Dan shrugs. “He works part time. Has more than half a year off. He’s got time.” He then walks back inside.
“Don’t feel obligated,” Ryan says, looking out over the field.
“This doesn’t feel like an obligation; it feels a lot like a gift.”
“Special place.” Ryan nods.
“Special girl,” I add. “You think she’ll want to leave the silo?”
“No, but you can’t truly live in two places at one time, can you?”
That wasn’t a question; it was a statement.
“I agree.”
He wipes the sweat from his brow. “When do you plan on doing this?”
“As soon as you give me the okay.”
He nods to the driveway as a vehicle pulls up. “That would be my wife and daughter bringing more bulbs for those beds. You got the ring with you, son?”
“Yes, I do.”
He chuckles. “Then I’d take that as a sign.”
“Papers just got mailed,” I tell him, but it’s more to feel him out. I never want them to feel like I have, or ever would, disrespect their daughter.
“You sign them?”
“Of course.”
“Get on it.” He winks.
“Hey.” Lo shields her eyes from the setting sun. “You have him doing wood again?”
From the porch, I hear Daniel chuckle. “He’s gonna be doing wood here for a long time, Lauren.”
Ryan laughs. “You better propose to her now before he does it for you.”
I call to her. “Your grandpa tells me you used to like to skip rocks on the pond out back; wanna see who can make theirs go the farthest?”
“You’re gonna be asking yourself why you didn’t stay in your lane, Grimes.” She laughs as she jogs to me and calls over her shoulder, “Be right back, Grandpa.”
“You’re stuck here forever now,” he calls behind her.
Ryan whispers to me, “Give me time to prep Jade. She’s gonna wanna catch this on film, or whatever it’s called.”
“We’ll walk slow.”
I wipe my hand on my jeans before holding it out for hers.
“I have sandals on; if I get bug bites on my feet, you’re going to be hearing me complain forever.”
I step ahead of her and squat down. “Climb on.”
Once settled, I nod to the pond. “You swim in there when you were younger?”
“A few times, but we had a pool, and Grandpa and Grandma had a dozen horses back then. They didn’t treat it.”
“Pools are safer.”
“Can’t skip rocks and drink out of a pool,” she says, resting her chin on my shoulder and kissing my cheek. “You didn’t end up going golfing with Skinner and Hunt?”
“I decided I’d come here instead,” I answer as we get closer. I grab her ankle and look down. “Toes look cute as hell, Lo.”
“And thanks to my Knight, they will remain without bites.” She holds her hand out in front of me. “Matching nails. Lily picked the color.”
“Lily picked out French tips?” I ask.
“Pretty sure they were meant to have glitter, but Joy did me a solid and pretended she was out of the kind that went with my nails.”
“Can’t let you get dirt under them; let me find some rocks.” I let her slide off my back.
“You know I came up here to plant bulbs, right? And that song, and water, and a good scrubbing … there’s a perfect one. I’m calling dibs.”
While she’s grabbing the rock, I glance back and see Jade, Ryan, and Daniel a safe distance behind us, two phones aimed in our direction.
“Found another. I am going to kick your ass at this.” She laughs.
I sink to one knee and watch her smile curtained by her hair, the wind rustling the pond grass just beyond her, and a line of trees casting just enough shade to frame the sunlight catching her hair and framing her face as she turns around.
“That’s one hell of a rock, Grimes.”
I look from the ring and back up to her. “Lo, this is the only thing I’ve ever picked out without asking if I deserved it first.”
“Ohemgee,” she says, covering her mouth and stepping forward, staring down at the three-carat round diamond in the center, which is as big as Ava and Jade said I could go. It’s flanked by two pear-shaped stones, and the band is yellow gold that curves into a twisted, sculpted band . Solid roots.
“You don’t wear rings, but I’ve watched you reach for every damn thing you’ve ever wanted with those hands. And I’m asking if you’ll let me be the thing you reach for—forever. Marry me, Lo.”
Nodding, tears—just a few—trickle down her cheek as she sinks down on her knees and hugs me. “Yes.”
We break apart long enough for me to slide the ring on her finger, and then she’s back to hugging me again.
I stand, bringing her with me, and she laughs when I twirl her around.
Once on her feet, she reaches into her back pocket and pulls something out. “I was gonna wait till you had those papers signed and done because I thought you needed that, but …” She holds it out.
“Signed and mailed today,” I say as I open the little envelope and pull out … “Lo?”
She nods. “Yeah. Three months.”
I lean down and kiss her.
“What’s that she gave him, Ryan?” Daniel asks, and Lo laughs into my mouth. “Better not be another drawing. I want my cabin.”
She looks up at me. “What is he talking about?”
I shake my head. “It’s a funny story that involves me coming here to ask your dad’s permission and a drawing you did when you were little. Apparently, this is your dream house.”
“Damn right it is.”
“Well, good, because Daniel said it’s yours for the price of a cabin for him.”
“Did she say yes?” Daniel asks Jade.
“We should probably go.” She nods toward them.
“Yeah.” I squat down. “Climb on.”
***
“Kolby needs a homecoming tour,” Daniel tells Ryan.
Ryan nods. “Back when a new kid came here, Mom would plan a homecoming dinner.”
“Remember Phoebe’s?” Daniel asks him, and Ryan nods.
Lauren whispers, “That’s Remington, Liam, and AJ’s mom, my aunt, uncle Alex’s wife.”
“Took her a minute to get that this was home from the minute she stepped in here.” Daniel nods to a wall of eight built-in wooden lockers, with faded name plates on them. Dan touches each name as he walks past them. “Gonna be good to have some new names up here.”
He looks over his shoulder. “Five bedrooms and two baths upstairs. Master bedroom and a nursery down here. You two better get to filling them with your own or finding your family God intended you to bring here.”
We walk through a dated kitchen with a giant island that was clearly built for a large family.
Beside the kitchen is a dining area with a table made of logs with bench seating and wildflowers in a vase on top.
I glance toward a stream of light caught in my peripheral and feel my jaw nearly drop as I look at a two-story wall of windows, with French doors overlooking a deck. Beyond it, the field and the pond I just knelt beside and asked Lo to be my wife. A huge, two-story stone fireplace is on one side of the room, the opposite side of the open area is stairs.
“You two gotta promise me that no matter how many tell you to change that over to a gas fireplace, you don’t do it.”
I shake my head. “It’s stunning.”
“And no matter how tight money got, this house was always warm because of that fireplace that Jane and I built. Always had food in the vegetable garden, too.”
“You love this house and this land, they’ll love you right back.” Her smile wraps around those words telling me it’s not just words, it’s a memory.
“That’s right, Lauren Jane, that’s right.” He smiles the same.
Lauren pulls me aside. “I can’t kick him out of here.”
“He can have his cabin and house, too,” I whisper.
“Yeah?” she asks.
“There are five rooms upstairs.”
“Hey, Grandpa?” Lauren says, smile so bright and wide it’s blinding.
“What is it?” he asks.
“The cabin, you and Dad draw up the plan, and we’ll build it, but Kolby and I would love it if you’d stay here with the house. We’re gone a lot and, you know, I don’t want it to be empty.”
He scratches his chin. “We’ll figure it out.”
I shrug. “Someone needs to teach me how to run the place.”
“Ye, ye, yep. Gonna take time, but you’ll get the lay of the land,” Daniel says as he seems to ponder that thought.
Lo takes the time to pull the picture of our child out of her pocket, walk over, and hand it to him.
“What’s this?” he asks as he pulls it out of the envelope and smiles. “You still gonna name your first girl Jane Sunflower Seed Brooks?”
She laughs. “I’m not picking this one out of the cabbage patch, so Kolby and I will discuss.”
“Jane’s a beautiful name,” I say.
“For a beautiful woman.” Daniel walks over to a huge bookshelf. “Let me show you some pictures.”