Ignite (Cloverleigh Farms #6)(96)

Standing in the cone of light thrown by a streetlamp, I looked up at the dark second-story windows in front of me. None of them had opened, but I decided to go for it.

Forming a megaphone with my hands, I yelled at the top of my lungs. “I love you, Winnie MacAllister! I love you, and I’m sorry I didn’t say it before! I was stupid and scared. But nothing is right without you, and if I don’t try to get you back, I’ll regret it for the rest of my life.” Remembering Hallie’s advice for the ogre, I dropped to my knees on the grass. “Please give me another chance!”

Breathing hard, I waited for a light to come on, a door to open, a sign that she still loved me . . . but the house remained dark and silent.

Crickets chirped.

I glanced over at the girls, who seemed just as distraught as I was. They looked at each other, and then back at me.

That’s when I heard a feminine voice come out of the darkness behind me. “Hey Winnie? Yeah, it’s Audrey. There’s some guy across the street yelling at the Wilsons’ house, but I think he’s talking to you.”

Oh, fuck.

Horrified, I spun around on my knees. A teenage couple stood under a front porch light at a home across the street. The girl was talking into her phone.

“Dude,” the guy called out. “I think you’re at the wrong house.”

Fuck. Me.

Behind the couple, the front door opened and a barrel-chested man came storming out the front door wearing jeans, a USMC sweatshirt, and a scowl. “What’s going on out here? Who’s shouting?”

“That guy over there is telling Winnie that he’s sorry and he loves her, but he’s at the wrong house,” said the girl. “I feel really bad for him.”

“What?” The man’s chest puffed out further and he squinted in my direction.

Then Winnie’s mom appeared on the porch, pulling a cardigan around her. “Is everything okay?”

No. Everything was not okay.

“Who is that guy?” her dad asked, and by his tone I could tell what he meant was, Who is that fucking idiot?

“Is it Dex?” Frannie leaned forward and squinted. “Is that you, Dex?”

“Yeah. It’s me.” I’d never wanted a sinkhole to open up and swallow me as badly as I did at that moment. If my kids hadn’t been there, I might have taken off on foot.

Just then, a car pulled into their driveway, and my stomach lurched when Winnie jumped out of the passenger side. Her friend Ellie got out of the driver’s side and looked back and forth between Winnie and me. “Holy shit,” she said.

“Dex?” Winnie started walking down the drive and stopped at the sidewalk, gaping at me kneeling in the spotlight from the streetlamp above. “What on earth are you doing?”

“Hi, Winnie!” Hallie and Luna started jumping up and down and waving like mad. “Hi!”

And then, because apparently there wasn’t a big enough audience, another car pulled up in front of the MacAllisters’ house, and a second teenage girl jumped out. “Bye!” she yelled, waving as the car drove off. Then she noticed everyone outside. “Oh, crap. Did I miss curfew or something?”

“No,” the first teenage girl said, hopping down from the porch. “Omigod, Emmeline, this is amazing. Kyle was just leaving when this man pulled up, jumped out of his car, and starts shouting to Winnie that he loves her and he wants another chance—but he was yelling at the Wilsons’ house, not ours. Not that it mattered, because she wasn’t even here.”

“Audrey, be quiet!” Winnie put her hands on her head. “Dex. What is this? Why are you on your knees?”

“We told him to do that!” Hallie shouted proudly. “Because that’s what the ogre would do!”

“He was begging you for another chance, Win,” Audrey said eagerly. “Are you going to give it to him?”

“Audrey, enough.” Frannie put a hand over Audrey’s mouth from behind. But nobody else moved.

Reluctantly, I got to my feet, took both girls by the hand, and crossed the street. When we reached the sidewalk, I told them to stay put and moved closer to where Winnie stood frozen at the end of the driveway.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “This was supposed to be a big romantic gesture, but it turned into a demonstration of public humiliation.”

“Oh my God.” She wrapped one arm around her middle, bringing the other hand to her mouth.

“But I guess I’m too far in to turn back now, and you know what?” I shook my head. “I don’t want to.”

“Because he loves you,” Luna said from behind me. “Daddy, you have to say that part again, because she didn’t hear you.”

“Because I love you,” I repeated, looking her right in the eye. “I know I’m too old for you, and you could have anyone you wanted—someone with a bigger bank account, someone younger and smarter, someone with way less baggage.”

“Someone less hairy,” said Hallie.

“That doesn’t snore,” added Luna.

“As I was saying,” I went on, throwing a brief but menacing glance over my shoulder at my kids, “I know you could find someone better for you. But you won’t find someone who loves you more. Or wants to be with you the way I do.”

“But what about all the things you said before?” Winnie asked with tears in her eyes. “About how we should go our separate ways?”