The Good Luck Sister (Wildstone #1.5)(26)

“What?” Tilly asked in shock.

“Yeah.” Mick sent Dylan a head shake and a low laugh. “Do you have any idea how many T’s live in Wildstone?”

Dylan stared at him for a beat and then laughed. “Sorry. I didn’t expect it to go down like that.”

Mick glanced over at Tilly. “I’m guessing no one did.”

“Someone needs to tell me what the hell’s going on,” Quinn said. “Because I can go back to yelling. Don’t think I won’t!”

“I’ve got this,” Mick said to Dylan, referring to Quinn and the baby. “If you want some privacy—”

“No privacy!” Quinn yelled, her voice a little hoarse. “I just pushed this baby out my hoo-ha—”

“Please,” Tilly said, slapping her hands to her ears. “I’m begging you, stop saying that!”

“I’ll stop saying it when you and Dylan stand right here at my bedside and figure your shit out.”

Tilly started to shake her head but Dylan came close and took her hand. “I’m willing,” he said.

“You’re my favorite,” Quinn told him. “Keep talking.”

Dylan drew a deep breath and met Tilly’s gaze. “I had plans for today. Plans that went awry.”

There were a lot of words about to escape her, but she felt a little too fragile and exposed so she squeezed her lips together and nodded.

He nodded back and paused, clearly thinking she’d want to speak. When she didn’t, he let out a low, mirthless laugh. “Still me. Okay.” He drew a breath. “You thought it was over?”

“I . . .” She broke off and bit her lower lip.

“You did,” he said, clearly shocked. “You really thought it was over, that I’d changed my mind about you, but that I’d still take you up in the air to what . . . be a dick?”

She bit her lower lip.

He gave a disbelieving head shake. “You did. You actually believed that in the hours since I’d worshipped every single inch of your body that I’d somehow decided to walk away, that it was over.”

She closed her eyes. “In my defense, that is what happened last time.”

“Tilly,” Quinn whispered, horrified.

Dylan just inhaled a deep breath and let it out slow and controlled. “It is what happened last time. But it was a long time ago,” he said with quiet steel. “I was a stupid, reckless kid who had no idea how to hold on to what had turned out to be the very best thing in his entire life.”

“Oh,” Quinn breathed and used Mick’s shirt to blot her tears. “Don’t mind me. It’s baby hormones.”

Tilly’s eyes had filled too and she didn’t have baby hormones to blame.

Dylan pulled her into him. “Let me start over,” he said. “This is long haul stuff. Clearly, I’m not perfect. I’m going to mess up—”

“Well, you’re not alone there,” she managed.

A very small smile curved his lips. “Good to know. But I’m never going to leave you again. Ever.”

As he said it, she felt her heart click back into place as the reality washed over her. He was real, they were real, and neither of them were going anywhere.

Dylan dropped to a knee in front of her.

Quinn gasped and burst into tears. “I’m sorry! Ignore me! Carry on!”

There was a small smile on Dylan’s mouth as he looked up at Tilly. “We were supposed to be hovering in front of the billboard for this, but life with you is never going to be that predictable, is it?”

She gave a shake of her head. “I don’t think it will be,” she whispered. “Are you really asking me to marry you?”

“I’m trying.” He pulled a little black box from his pocket.

Before she could say another word, she dropped to her knees too. Mostly because hers didn’t want to hold her up anymore. “Yes.”

“But he didn’t ask yet!” Quinn said.

“Shh,” Mick told Quinn very gently and then kissed her, probably to ensure she’d stay zipped.

“Yes,” Tilly said again, in case Dylan hadn’t heard.

He smiled. “I had a speech all prepared in my head.”

“Does it go something like ‘I love you, I’ve always loved you, and I’ll never love anyone other than you’?” Tilly asked, throwing her arms around him. “Because that’s how I feel about you. I messed up your first proposal—”

“Actually, technically,” Mick said helpfully from the bed above them. “That was my wife who messed it up.”

“My point,” Tilly said, ignoring their audience, her voice shaking but her heart steady for the first time all day. “—Is that the least I can do is ask you. Dylan . . .” She smiled through her tears. “You’re it for me. And I’m it for you. Will you marry me?”

He grinned. “Yes,” he said and kissed her to seal the deal just as baby Ashlyn began to wail.

“Do you think Tilly meant it when she said she’d babysit any time?” Tilly heard her sister ask Mick. “Because now would be good.”

“I’ve got you,” Mick told Quinn and Tilly assumed he took the baby because she stopped crying. Which was good because Tilly would do anything for Ashlyn, anything but take her lips off Dylan’s anytime soon.