Page 58 of Apple of My Eye

“It’d make me proud to serve another term here. With your support and your vote, we can make that happen,” the sheriff finished.

The quiet lasted one beat longer, and then the crowd responded with a roar. I stood there with them and cheered. Our father’s work hadn’t been in vain. He’d have been proud of this moment. I pressed my fingers to my lips and breathed deeply until the burning behind my eyes retreated to somewhere manageable.

Applauding continued for several minutes. He left the stage, and Nicoletta stepped up to the mic with her country band behind her. “Alright, Forest Grove, it’s time to dance.Everyone grab a partner, and let’s go,” she shouted with an energy that would keep the crowd going all night.

“Where’s Carter?” I asked Sage.

“He’s getting us some drinks. Isn’t he cute? And that accent?” She fanned herself with her hand, a dreamy look on her face, and I knew she was hooked.

Across the way and the small sea of people, somehow, my eyes fell on Knox and couldn’t look away.

“Look at our lives right now, Daisy. How far we’ve come? Especially, open your eyes and see what’s there right in front of you. Don’t look back; don’t worry about the future. Live for right now.” She turned me by the shoulders and eyed me with those clear, perceptive orbs of hers that missed nothing and never had. “Ivy has Colt. Poppy has school, and her whole life ahead of her. I’m figuring things out, on my own terms, maybe.”

“What's your point?”

“We are not your responsibility anymore. We haven’t been for a while. You took care of all of us at first, and you did it without ever asking for anything back, and I love you for it. But it’s time to stop making yourself last on the list of people to care for.”

“Sage—”

“Stop. Knox is right over there, at your two o’clock. Go to him. He hasn’t stopped checking on you all night. He thinks he’s subtle.”

“He is never subtle,” I chuckled, perhaps grateful for it.

“Not when it comes to you. In your own words… Just have fun.” She gave me a gentle nudge in the right direction. If Mom were here, Sage’s words would probably be hers, too.

I locked eyes with him, and I put one foot in front of theother. His grin spread beneath that dark beard and mustache, capped off with sweet eyes crinkling at the edges, just under the brim of his good black hat. He drew me to him until I was face to face, or face to chest, since he was taller than me.

“I hoped you’d give me the first dance, since I amyourcowboy,” he murmured so only I could hear. He held out his hand, and I took it, staring where we connected and the sparks there, enamored with the way our skin tones blended as one.

He led me onto the floor and pulled me in close, one hand at my waist, the other holding mine. We moved into the slow two-step the band was playing with Nicoletta’s melodies, the ease of two people who had been figuring each other out for a while and had mostly worked it out.

“You came to find me.” He winked.

“Don’t gloat.” I chuckled.

“Simply noting it.”

We danced. The lights overhead twinkled. Around the floor, other couples turned in their own orbits. Ivy had Colt, Ash had Willow, and the sheriff danced with Harper. Oh, and Sage looked lovely in the arms of the new cowboy Carter—although awkward since he apparently didn’t know how to two-step. Interesting.

Knox drew me closer. I focused back on us.Us.I pulled him closer still.

His eyes dropped briefly to my wrist and the bracelet I wore there. “That’s pretty. I don’t think I’ve seen you wear much jewelry before.”

I glanced down at the silver chain with tiny daisy charms, delicate and old and slightly tarnished in the way of something that I’d worn and loved for a long time. “It was my mother’sgift to me one Christmas. We each received a bracelet. I save it for special occasions,” I explained.

His thumb moved across it once, gently, giving it the reverence it deserved, and then back to my hand. That small gesture undid me more completely than anything could have.

We turned through the end of the song and into the next, and somewhere in the space between them I stopped tracking the room, stopped cataloging who was watching or what they would say tomorrow or what the next issue of the Gossip Gal might make of it.

None of it mattered anymore, but being in his arms.

What had changed? Me? My sisters? The realization that the only person I had to live up to was myself?

Whatever it was, this was mine. He was my cowboy. And maybe I was done pretending otherwise.

When the song almost ended, Knox reached up and took his hat from his head and settled it onto mine with the deliberateness of a man who had been waiting for the right moment and had recognized it without announcement.

Somewhere nearby, someone whooped. I didn’t care to look to see who it was.