“You love my body. My heart is just a sidebar,” she teased.
“Yeah, you’re right.” He kissed her just as the first fireworks went off. “You light up my world, Mancini.”
She laughed and kissed him again. “What would you wish for?”
“That you’d marry me.”
Fireworks burst above them, showering the sky with color, and she pressed a kiss to his chest. “You know I’d hobble into the courthouse with you tomorrow.”
“The courthouse? That’s not nearly enough fanfare for two Daredevils.”
She couldn’t stop grinning. “What are you imagining? Saying vows while we’re skydiving or something?”
“Something like that.”
“You’re crazy.”
“You know you love me.”
“More than you can ever imagine, Whiskey.”
“That’s what I’m counting on.” He reached beneath one of the pillows and withdrew a small black velvet box.
Her heart raced, and she looked from the box to him as he awkwardly shifted onto his knees and then onto one knee. Oh God. Are you…? She sat up, but he didn’t say anything. The silence magnified between them. “Dare, what are you doing?”
“I’m trying to propose, but I’m so damn nervous, I can’t remember what I wanted to say.”
She laughed, tears burning her eyes.
“Fuck it. I’m just gonna wing it.” He swallowed hard, his brows knitting, serious eyes gazing deeply into hers. “I have never known fear like when we were thrown from the bike. My only thought was Where’s Billie? I need to get to her.”
Tears slipped down her cheeks.
“Baby, you are my whole life, my entire world, and I don’t want to waste a minute of this second chance we’ve been given. I don’t want to wait for the perfect time, because every minute with you is our perfect.”
There was no stopping her rivers of tears.
“I have loved you since we were kids, and I will love you as we get wrinkled and gray, and long after the day we join Eddie on the other side. I want to wake up to your beautiful face every day and leave trails of clothes to our bedroom every night. Eventually, when we’re ready, I want to raise snarky little girls with your gorgeous eyes and sharp-witted tongues and pushy boys who won’t take no for an answer and give their hearts to one girl and one girl only. I love you, Mancini. What do you say we make this thing permanent? Will you marry me?”
She could barely see through the blur of tears. “Yes, Whiskey. Yes, I will marry you.” She grabbed his shirt with one hand, hauling him into a kiss. “I love you so much.”
“I love you too, baby. More than life itself.” He opened the box, revealing a stunning ring with a simple white-gold band with two flames outlined with white diamonds, the centers filled with dark orange stones.
She’d never seen anything so beautiful in her life. “Twin flames,” she whispered, remembering how she’d worried about her scars at first, and Dare had kissed every one of them and said, We’re twin flames, baby, and the scars in our hearts are proof of our mirrored souls.
“That’s us, baby.” He slid it onto her finger. “The stones inside the flames are cognac diamonds. I know you don’t love wearing jewelry. I hope it’s not too much.”
The diamonds were small, not flashy, and the flames didn’t sit high enough to catch on things. “It’s absolutely perfect.” Tears slid over her lips. “I’ll never take it off.”
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Mancini. You know you won’t want to wear it when you ride your bike, and that’s okay. I know you love me, and I know you’re mine.”
He pressed his lips to hers in a sweet kiss, leaned back, and shouted, “She said yes!”
Loud cheers rang out as their families and friends ran up the hill toward them. Billie couldn’t stop laughing and crying as they surrounded the wagon, calling out congratulations and popping bottles of champagne. Dare looked happier than she’d ever seen him.
“Everyone knew?” she asked.
“I was so excited, I think the whole town knew. You’re lucky I didn’t blow it and tell you, too.” He handed her a champagne glass and picked up his. “Here’s to us, baby. Daredevils for life.”
“Daredevils for life and your Wildfire forever.” While she touched her glass to his, his loving eyes were trained on her. They each took a sip, and then he kissed her, tasting of champagne, happiness, and the only future she ever really wanted.
Chapter Twenty-Three
SEPTEMBER BREEZED INTO Hope Valley like an artist, painting the hills and valleys with broad strokes of vibrant fall colors, creating a gorgeous backdrop for the kickoff of the Dark Knights Ride Clean campaign at Redemption Ranch. Billie and Dare had fully healed and completed physical therapy, and as much as they appreciated their families, they were thrilled to be able to take care of themselves and focus on building their life together. Dare’s brothers had moved Billie’s things in the week after he’d proposed, and strangely, it hadn’t felt like a milestone to Dare. It had felt more like she’d finally settled into the place she’d always been in his heart. She’d come home. Dare was glad to be working alongside his clients again, and Billie had gone back to work at the Roadhouse. As soon as she’d been able, she’d gotten back on her bike, which had thrilled Dare to no end. He’d worried fear might hold her back, but they’d talked a lot about it during their healing weeks, and Billie was determined not to close herself off again from the things she loved. While he and Billie had been going on motorcycle rides again, and they were planning to hit the slopes this winter to ski, snowboard, snowkite, and snocross, and they were excited to get back to skydiving and other fun activities together, Dare hadn’t had the urge to break any more records. Life with Billie, and enjoying activities in and out of the bedroom together, was enough for him. Sometimes he wondered if Billie had been right, and pushing the limits to the extreme had been his own self-inflicted penance for surviving Eddie. Or maybe he was just a crazy motherfucker who liked to defy death.
He had a feeling it was a little of both, and he was okay with that, as was his beautiful fiancée, who looked insanely sexy in cutoffs and a black Ride Clean/Dark Knights T-shirt, with a flannel shirt tied around her waist and the new choker he’d given her around her neck. She and their parents were cheering Kenny on as he sped around the motocross track.
Dare pulled Billie closer and kissed her cheek.
She leaned into the kiss, but her eyes remained trained on Kenny. Dare didn’t mind. She’d worked hard to help Kenny succeed, and they’d honored his hard work. The Dark Knights had opened the event with a welcome speech from Dare’s father and Manny and had kicked off the festivities with Kenny’s exhibition ride. All the club families and hundreds of others from Hope Valley and nearby towns came to support the campaign and were gathered around the track watching him.
Kenny was doing great, and his parents had a front-row seat. He’d been living at home for almost two months. He and his parents had hit a few rough patches, as was to be expected, but together, and sometimes with Dare’s help, they’d found peaceful resolutions. Kenny was back in school and keeping his grades up, and his parents were allowing him to continue working at the ranch and train with Billie two afternoons a week and one weekend day. Kenny was still excited to prospect the Dark Knights, and he was on the right path. He’d surprised Dare when he’d told him that he’d apologized to the neighbor whose car he’d taken on a joyride. He must have really made an impression, because that family had come to watch him ride today. Their daughter, Mariah, was a cute blonde with a mischievous gaze, and there was no hiding the mad crush she had on Kenny. Dare knew how much girls could influence boys Kenny’s age, and he was keeping tabs on that, too. Although he had a feeling Mariah’s urging Kenny to take her parents’ car had just been her way of getting Kenny’s attention.