Page 100 of Something Like Sunflowers

I steer us back to the bench, and we go over the cow story. I smile at Ellie’s bravery, her ability to stand up to her bully and hold strong to her morals. I couldn’t be a prouder papa, even if she did throw the first punch. We’ll work on that.

I explain to Devyn the ins and outs of our custody issues, never realizing how freeing it would feel to have someone to share these burdens with.

And we have our fair share.

I curl my lip in disgust even thinking about the woman we’ll have to deal with at the next hearing.

“Her bio mother only wants her for her inheritance. Every one of us kids got something from Aunt Sarah when she passed last year, and since Samuel’s sentencing has been extended to life, Ellie gets twice as much. Hers and Samuel’s.”

Devyn nods in understanding, but pauses, scratching her head. “If it’s Ellie’s inheritance, how would her mother even be able to use it? Even with custody, it’s still pretty strict.”

“That won’t stop her.” I shake my head angrily. “She’ll find a way. Regardless, I can’t let her become responsible for Ellie.”

“I’ve been meaning to ask you about that.”

She stands, twisting the hair tie on her wrist in circles.

“Ellie said if we were for real married, you’d have a better shot at getting full custody. Is that true?”

I wince. This is where I was headed next, but telling her feels like it could break this new understanding we have. Still, the truth is what we need. I know that now.

“Devyn, the day after Truth or Dare, I found out that Lemon wasn’t very honest with us. She played the part of wedding officiant so well in the TikTok video because she is a wedding officiant.”

Her eyes pop open wide, but she’s not angry with me. It’s the exact opposite as her grin forms, stretching to meet her eyes.

“You’re smiling.” I shake my head in disbelief. “I thought for sure you’d be mad, but you gotta understand, Dev, I wasn’t trying to lie, I just…needed more time.”

“Time for what?” she asks, hands on her hips, every bit the sassy little cowgirl I fell in love with all those years ago.

I take a step closer. And then another. Until we’re face to face again.

“Time to make you fall in love. With both of us,” I add. “I was worried you’d run if it felt too permanent, not just with me, but with Ellie specifically.”

“Run?” She laughs. “Hunter Isaac, I’m never running from you again. There’s too much FOMO going on from the one decade apart for me to even consider ever leaving. I swear to God, if I go in one more store and see your face hung on the wall like a damn saint, I’ll barf.”

A laugh breaks free of my face and tumbles around her own as she wags a finger at me.

“No, you’ve done enough for this town. It’s my turn to be the center of everyone’s attention in Pine Forest.” She winks, twisting her lips into that duckface I love to kiss right off, and a smile spreads across my own face at that. At her ability to crack a joke and lighten even the most serious of moments.

“So, you’ll stay ‘for real married’ to me, then?”

“Do you dare me?” she teases.

“Fuck, babygirl, I’ll beg if that’s what it takes.”

She considers that for a moment, chewing her bottom lip and tapping her chin to fuck with me. And God, that part of her has always turned me on.

She leans closer, and I can smell her lip gloss. I love that I know what it tastes like already, vanilla cupcakes, but I still lick every bit of it from her face when she presses her lips to mine. I devour them, my tongue diving in when her lips part for me, claiming the spaces around her breathless moans. We pull apart, and I watch her blushing chest heave up and down as a smile curves over her lips, wet and bruised from my kiss, breathless and breathtaking all at once.

“Okay then, husband, I’ll be for real married to you.”

She grins, while happiness and relief consume me. I take my woman in my arms and swing her around before setting her back on her feet and pulling a piece of paper from my pocket.

“This is the certificate Lemon left for us. We just need to file it with the court, and it’s official. Although it hasn’t stopped me from using it as leverage against Catherine, Ellie’s bio mom. She doesn’t know it’s not filed yet.”

“I get it now, why you were worried about the fight. If Garrison wants to press this up the ladder with his uncle, that can’t be good in the family courts with Judge Owens presiding. They’re practically best friends, Mayor Presley and him. But it didn’t seem like Garrison was as concerned with Jonathan’s eyes and lip as he was with…Annabelle?”

“Yeah.” She’s right. “He needs help. He was in rehab with me, but he never stuck with it. We had a class together…grief and loss…he was my…fuck, we bonded over losing an unborn child. He was my friend, Dev.” I flick my gaze to hers and see the same sadness, a sympathy we both share with Garrison. “But he’s so twisted with his own grief he lets it out on his animals, on his farm, he resents anything to do with Pine Forest because none of it matters without her. It was her dream, his farm, and he hasn’t tended to the fire-fields since she died. Doesn’t seem he’s tended to his kid, either.” I frown. “His mentality altogether is…self-destructive.” I sigh heavily, my own realization sinking in.

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