Page 83 of Hard Rain Coming

“She’s not married yet. If you love her, fight for her.”

“I’ve been trying for months, and she won’t talk to me, and now she comes home with the shortstop for the goddamn Yankees? And they’re engaged? What the hell?”

“Feeling sorry for yourself isn’t going to make your situation better. Trust me, I’ve been there. But if what you feel is real, then you have to at least try. You’ll never forgive yourself if you don’t.”

“Easy for you to say. Your guy looks at you like you’re the only person in the room.”

“How do you know that?” she teased, moving back.

“He’s standing right behind you.”

“What?”

She whirled around and was instantly scooped up into arms that felt like heaven.

“Duchess,” he murmured against her throat before kissing her. They clung to each other for so long that Nora squealed, which in turn had Taz and Scarlett’s twins, Cameron and Ryan, squealing.

With a laugh, she pulled away. “Save some of that for later,” she murmured.

“I’ll do my best.” Dallas grinned and grabbed her hand. He didn’t give her a chance to say anything but led her out of the great room and back to the foyer and into the mudroom, where he closed the door behind them.

“Sweetie, if you want to make out, I’m sure we can find a better place than this.” She was teasing, of course, though the expression on his face was so damn serious, she instantly stilled and whispered, “What’s wrong?”

“When I was in Kentucky, I took a side trip to Richmond.”

“Virginia?”

He nodded. “It’s the real reason I took this trip and not your brother.”

Confused, she frowned. “I don’t follow. Does this have something to do with the mare?”

“There was no mare. Benton went to the auction while we were in Louisiana.”

“Oh.”

“I went to Richmond for this.” Dallas reached into the pocket of his coat and withdrew a small black velvet box.

“Oh.” Those butterflies were still there, but they were flying more slowly. She was able to breathe.

“I haven’t done much right when it came to us, and I wanted to do this one thing the way it should be done.” Dallas dropped to one knee and opened the box. Nestled inside was a ring. It was elegant and delicate. A round black diamond, encircled with smaller chips. It was perfect.

“My God, how did you know?” She’d followed Kirk Daniels, a designer, for years and had always admired his work with black diamonds.

“Jack.”

Of course.

“Will you marry me, Duchess?”

She answered with a kiss. And then another. And would have answered with more, but Dallas stopped her. “Keep that up and we’ll be getting naked in your brother’s mudroom.”

“When do you want to get married?” she asked, heart overflowing.

“Whenever you want.”

“Next week?”

“Fine by me.”