King's Country (Oil Kings #4) - Marie Johnston Page 0,90

yours. I’m serious. I’m not touching it, so don’t let it go to waste. You can put it to better use than I can.”

“You mean like a sobriety ranch?” I bit my lower lip. Oh, yeah. I’d fantasized about that too.

His grin spread wider. “Exactly like a sobriety ranch.” He stepped closer. “You been thinking about how that would work?”

“Maybe.”

He dipped his head down. My chin lifted. We were painfully close but not touching. “You been thinking about me?”

“All the time,” I answered raggedly. “What about your family?”

“They’re on standby. The trip to the fair is still on if you’re willing to put up with us.” He brushed a finger down some stray strands of hair that evaded my standard ponytail. “I love you, Bristol Jane Cartwright. I don’t want to waste one more day, but I’m wasting today. Tomorrow, I’m asking you to marry me. Two weeks without you is too fucking much.”

Sinking into him and forgetting all of my questions would be too easy. “Your grandma?”

Concern rippled across his face. “I think she actually feels bad. Speaking what she’d thought all those years out loud made her face reality. You were a kid. Mama’s decisions weren’t yours, and Mama wouldn’t have changed what she did. That guy would’ve hurt you and your dad if he hadn’t broken into our house.”

He cupped my face. “But I went to talk to her. I told her my plans and said that if she interfered, that would be the end of my relationship with her. I also told her not to talk to me if she didn’t apologize.” Sorrow seeped into his gaze. “I don’t know if that’ll happen.”

“You can’t burn relationships all over town because of me.”

“If people don’t support you and me, us, then fuck ’em.”

Happiness welled inside me. Was I scared? Hell, yeah. But Dawson and I had been through too much to think that we couldn’t work. “Dawson Preston King, I love you. And when you ask me tomorrow, I’m going to say yes.”

He whooped and picked me up, whirling around as I laughed. He captured my mouth and strode toward my RV with me still in his arms. “I need to be inside of you.”

“I’m dirty and sweaty.” Would it take too long to drive to his place and jump in the shower together?

“Damn right. We’re both getting real dirty.”

I giggled. “That’s not what I meant.”

“I’m going to lick every drop of sweat off you,” he growled.

Paws scrambling on the gravel broke up the sound around us, but Dawson didn’t hesitate. “Sorry, Daisy. You’re going to have to wait out here for the rest of the afternoon. I’ve got some catching up to do.”

Dawson

The last day of July started out the opposite of how the month had begun. Two sections of chairs had been set up in the yard, just like we’d done for Aiden’s wedding and Dad’s. And like both of theirs, Bristol and I hadn’t invited a lot of people. My brothers and their wives were in attendance. Tucker and Kiernan. Emma and Taya. Jamie and the rest of the crowd that Bristol and I hung out with at Miller’s. Someone named Lizette, who had helped Bristol with her wedding gown.

Grams sat with Dad and Kendall in the first row. Her chin was lifted, proud as ever, but the hostility was gone from her expression. The rigid tension that had sat like a rod strapped across her shoulders that last couple of years was gone too.

The King–Cartwright feud was being laid to rest today. Grams’d had two choices. She could’ve missed the wedding. But she’d chosen to drive up a couple of nights ago and talk to Bristol and me privately. Her apology had been succinct, but the sincerest I’d heard from Grams. She’d said she was happy for us and she meant it, and she’d given us her blessing on what Bristol planned to do with the money. It wasn’t her choice and we hadn’t needed her permission, but Grams was Grams.

My bride walked down the makeshift aisle, alone. Any of my brothers or Dad would’ve escorted her down the aisle, but she wasn’t anyone’s girl to give away.

My grin widened as she got closer. She bit the inside of her lip but ended up grinning at me. Our unspoken exchange was about one thing. The dress.

The biggest drama about today had been what she was going to wear.

I’ve never worn a damn dress in my life had been heard several times, in several