The front door closed and we all turned to see if Hailey would walk back in alone or with Mike. She came in alone.
“That was fast,” I mused.
“Well, it didn’t take me long to tell him the engagement was off, and he was free to go back and fuck—sorry, Mom and Dad—his ex-girlfriend as much as he wanted. Of course he begged for forgiveness, said it would never happen again, he had too much to drink that night, it only happened once. He did admit to talking to her on the phone since then a few times, but said that was also a mistake.”
“And you still told him the engagement was off, right?” I asked, praying to God she’d told him to take a hike.
Hailey wiped away a tear that had slipped free. “I told him to leave, that I would never be able to trust him again.”
My father stood and wrapped Hailey in his arms. “I’m so sorry, baby girl, but you did the right thing.”
Mom stood and made her way over as well. “Your father is right. You made the right decision. No matter how much he tells you it was a mistake, once you lose that trust, it’s gone forever.”
“If he loved you like he said he did, drunk or not, he wouldn’t have even entertained the idea,” I added as I joined my folks and wrapped Hailey up in a cocoon of our love and protection. Emmerson sat at the table and wiped her tears away.
Finally, we withdrew from smothering my poor sister and she smiled at each of us. “I love y’all.” Facing Emmerson, she said, “And thank you for showing me I needed to take the higher road.”
With a nod, Emmerson said, “I’ve always got your back.”
“And I’ve got yours. There is a positive to all of this.”
“What’s that, Hail?” I asked.
“I can help y’all plan your fake wedding! Oh my God, I have so many ideas for the fake engagement party.”
“We should probably stop calling it fake so we don’t slip in public,” Emmerson giggled.
And just like that, my sister launched into planning our fake—er, our engagement party. I knew it was her way of trying not to think about Mike, and so did my folks, because they didn’t make a single comment about the engagement party for a wedding that wasn’t really happening. Any other time, I would attempt to pull my sister back some with her sudden enthusiasm, but with one glance at my father, I decided to let my sister go full throttle. Even though I knew she had a hidden agenda when it came to me and Emmerson.
With the way my mother was smiling, a part of me knew she saw right through our charade of still being friends and nothing more.
“Are you sure the two of you don’t want to stay for game night?” my mother asked, making a sad attempt at pouting.
“I’ve got to get caught up on some work for a wedding this weekend,” Emmerson said as she hugged my mother and then my father goodbye.
“And I’ve got to run by the shop after I drop Emmerson off to check on a fifty-five we’re working on.”
Pulling me in for a hug and kiss, my mother said, “Rain check, then.”
“Absolutely, Mom.”
It took everything in me not to grab Emmerson by the hand and drag her to my truck.
After we both got in, shut the doors, and were heading down the driveway, Emmerson started talking. “I don’t care anymore where we do it, Landon. I can’t take it anymore. I feel like I’m going to die. Can you die from being so horny? I’m thinking yes, you can! Did you have to keep touching me so much with your leg under the table?”
“Me! You kept putting your hand on my leg! Do you know how close you were to my dick? I’m pretty sure you brushed up against my balls. I was so fucking hard I could hardly walk!”
She giggled. “Where is the closest place we can go?”
“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.