I watched her as she looked everywhere but at me. “Is that all?”

Her head whipped around and she narrowed her eyes at me. “Do you need more?”

I chuckled and slipped out of the truck and walked around the front end so I could pull her door open. She gave me a questioning look but didn’t pull away when I picked her up and carried her to the back end of the big 4x4. It was a little tricky getting the tailgate down one-handed but I managed and got her propped up on the surface so that I could put myself between her legs. She had an arm wrapped around my shoulders and her eyes locked on mine and I leaned forward and kissed the end of her nose.

“I told you that you deserved to come first, so I’ll be wherever you want to be. You want to stay here then we’ll stay. You want to go back to Denver then we’ll go. You want to move to Austin and be Jet and Ayden’s neighbors then we’ll go there. I want you to be happy, Dixie.”

Her eyes got wide and it was like drowning in chocolate. “Oh.”

I brushed some of her hair to the side and nuzzled along the curve of her neck. She tilted her head back to give me better access and rubbed her fingers through the short hairs on the back of my head. “Nothing needs to be decided right now. We will figure it out.”

She muttered something into the air above my head then yanked on my ear to get to me look up at her. “I’m serious about getting married and having kids, Church. I want you, but I want it all with you. You keep telling me to put my own wants and needs first, well, that’s what I want.”

I chuckled into her ear and pulled back so I could see her face. She was deadly serious and had every hope and dream she’d ever had shining out of her eyes. “I don’t have a ring, so I’m not going to drop on a knee and propose right this minute, Dixie.”

Her gaze shifted away, but I nudged her under her chin with my fingers to get her to bring it back to mine. “But that doesn’t mean it won’t happen. It needs to be right. I’ve screwed a lot up over the last few years, pretty girl, so this is something I’m determined to get right. The right time, the right place, the right everything. But you have to know that you will always be the right girl for this completely wrong guy.”

Her lips twitched a little and some of the seriousness fled. “I can wait for the right time and the right place because you are the right guy for me, Church. There is no wrong anywhere in that.”

I lifted my eyebrow up and leaned into the cradle of her hips, careful not to put any pressure on the brace around her ankle. I slid a hand up her back on the side where her good arm was wrapped around my shoulders. Her injuries were on opposite sides of her body, so I had to handle her with the utmost care. Her skin was warm and soft. So were her eyes as they melted and went liquid with lazy desire and languid passion. “So your sister digs chicks now? That’s an unexpected turn of events.”

She laughed, her teeth flashing and that glow that was so much a part of her bursting out. I knew as long as I lived I would never tire of her constant cheer. I’d been sad for so long that I don’t think I ever would have remembered how good happy felt if it wasn’t for her.

“Yeah, I don’t know if she told Wheeler yet, but she was having an affair with a woman. I mean, it’s still cheating and she still should have been honest about what she was feeling and her doubts, but I’m hoping that overall the fact that it was another girl will lessen the blow.” She let out a little sigh as I curled a hand around the side of her neck and used the side of my thumb under her jaw to tilt her head back so that I could touch my lips to hers. When I pulled back she slicked her tongue over the moisture left behind and smirked at me. “Out of all of that I just threw at you, that was the part that stuck out?”

I put my forehead against hers and moved a hand to her hip so I could pull her even closer to the edge of the tailgate. We were pelvis to pelvis, hard to soft, and my dick was achingly aware of the fact that the only thing separating it from her velvety center was my zipper and the flimsy cotton of the sundress she was wearing. Elma had procured emergency provisions for Dixie so that she wouldn’t have to struggle into her normal uniform of silly T-shirts and jeans. The gauzy material clung to all of her curves and had adjustable ties at either shoulder so she didn’t have to maneuver her damaged shoulder in and out of an armhole.

“Everything else we’ll handle as it comes. We’ll cross all those bridges together so that we’re both always standing on the same side or walking towards each other to meet in the middle. The info about your sister isn’t a problem you are required to handle or worry about. She’ll do the right thing and come clean to the grease monkey, or she won’t. That’s not your situation to set right. They gotta get there on their own. Plus, if your sister looks anything like you then the idea of girl on girl is pretty hot.” I fake grunted as she lightly head butted me with her forehead against my chin.

“Not funny.” I disagreed. I thought it was plenty funny but I wasn’t laughing when she gave her hips a little wiggle that pressed her even closer to the erection that wasn’t even trying to be discreet behind my zipper. Her breasts pressed into the center of my chest as her arm tightened around my neck where she was holding on to me. She rubbed her forehead against my chin where it was already resting and let out a whispery breath that tickled the front of my throat.

“I could have died.” Her body shuddered and I smoothed a hand down her spine to soothe her.