Loving Dallas(80)

“Did I miss the appointment? Is the baby okay?”

In the second Katie hesitates, my confidence falters.

“You did but the baby’s fine,” Katie tells me, ending the agony. “Everything is fine. I’ll let you two talk. My car’s on level D,” she tells us, nodding to the parking garage across the street. “I’ll wait as long as you need me to until y’all are ready to go. It’s good to see you, Dallas.”

“Oh, thank God. You, too. We’ll be up in a minute.” I hold Robyn tightly until she pulls back to look at my face. I grin when she touches it like she can’t believe I’m here. “I’m sorry I missed the ultrasound. I got here as soon as I could. Are you going to tell me if we’re having a girl or a boy or leave me hanging in suspense?”

Robyn looks at me like I’m speaking Greek.

Then she squeezes me hard enough to hurt just before whacking me hard in the chest and starting to cry all over again.

“I thought you were dead, Dallas Lark. What the hell happened down there? They said you were unaccounted for after the accident.” Noticing my arm for the first time, she pales. The butterfly stitches are caked in dried blood. “Oh my God.”

“We were in an accident and I decided to come home instead of checking into a hospital in Rio. My phone was destroyed but my arm will be okay. It’s fine. I’ll be playing guitar in no time.”

Maybe. Truth is, I haven’t even stopped to think about that yet.

Right now the most important thing isn’t my arm, it’s in my arms. Both of the most important things.

“Dallas . . .” Those shining exotic-jewel eyes I love so much stare up at me.

“Yeah, baby?”

“I’m so sorry. For everything. For not telling you when my mom got sick and for getting pregnant when—”

I cut her off with a kiss, pressing my lips harder against hers until the fight goes out of her body.

“Do not apologize for giving me the greatest gift in the entire world. We’re in this together, Robyn. For always, okay?”

She nods against my chest. “For always.”

Her body trembles in my arms and I know it’s already a huge moment, but there’s more I have to say and I have to say it now.

Pulling back, I look into her beautiful face. “My luggage was already gone, except for one thing. I keep it on me almost all the time. It was in a carry-on bag that was salvaged from the car and I need to give it to you.”

I pull the ring out of my pocket, wishing I’d had time to find a nice velvet box to place it in. But it was given to me in a plastic bag with Mom’s belongings after she and my father were killed. If Dixie had wanted it, I would’ve let her have it, but some part of me wanted desperately to give it to someone someday. I just didn’t realize how soon that someday would come. But I think I knew this girl was my someone the day she yanked me up by the arm and made me listen to her favorite song in the back of a pickup truck.

“This was my mom’s, but before I ask you to accept it, I need to tell you something. Several somethings.”

Robyn swallows hard and nods eagerly for me to continue.

“I know how this looks. How it must seem and maybe even how it will be portrayed in the media. But I don’t care about that. I care about us. Because the most important thing here is us.”

She sniffles, which I take as agreement.

“And I don’t want you to say yes because you’re pregnant. I don’t want you to say yes because I was in an accident and you were worried. I don’t even want you to say yes out of pity for the poor sucker who walked away from his entire career to come ask you this very question. You with me so far?”

She nods. “Um, I-I think so.”

I pull in as much oxygen as my lungs can hold and drop to one knee. “Robyn Breeland, I love you. I have always loved you and I will always love you. I want you to marry me because I can’t lose you. Not for music, not because of crazy managers, or cocky country music singers who charm their way into your life—present company excluded—and definitely not because of my own fear of not being able to give you everything you deserve. I will do whatever it takes to make you happy because if I lost you, I’d have lost my best friend, my heart and soul, my muse, my everything.”

A small cry breaks free and Robyn gapes down at me with watery eyes.

“I want to be successful. I want to make music. I love being onstage—creating that experience for the audience—and I’ll never pretend otherwise. That is my dream. But nothing, and I mean nothing, is worth losing you. I will not walk away from my family ever again. And if you say no today, then I will keep asking. Because you are my family, baby. You’re my family forever.”

Fuck. Now I can’t keep my shit together, either.

“Dallas,” she says, surprisingly calmly. “Just give me a second.”

That wasn’t a yes. I am not moving from this spot until she says yes.

“Stand up.”

I shake my head. “Not until you say yes.”

“Please. I need you up here with me. We need to talk.”

“We will talk. After you say yes.”

She huffs out a breath. “I just spent twenty-four hours thinking you were dead. You have no idea what I’ve been through. And now there’s this. Stand up right now, Dallas Walker Lark, or I’m bringing my pregnant self down there.”