“Dunn and I…” Broke up? No. Shit. We did not. “We had a fight.”
Cindy Ann nodded. “A lovers’ quarrel.”
“Those are the worst,” Red piped up sympathetically. “Especially when you’re at the beginning like you two are. Thank goodness we grew out of that. Remember, Cindy Ann?”
“I remember two weeks ago when I wouldn’t let you eat a third helping of Lurleen’s bread-and-butter custard for breakfast, and you didn’t speak to me for the whole day,” she said wryly. “I don’t know if we’ve grown out of it, Red. We’re just too old and settled to storm off when we know we’re gonna end up back where we belong in the end anyway.”
Red chuckled. “True enough.”
“Now, you and Dunn on the other hand, Tucker—”
“Wait.” I sniffed and looked around the table from Cindy Ann, to Red, to Brooks, and then Mal. “You… Y’all know? About me and Dunn?”
“Was it supposed to be a secret?” Brooks winced. “’Cause honestly, anyone who’s seen you together in the last half year knows the score.” He tucked Mal more closely against him. “Truth is, when you’re in love, it’s not as easy to hide as you think.”
“Ugh.” I buried my head in my hands. “So the hiding was all for nothing? I let the cat out of the bag anyway?”
“Not you, honey. Both of you,” Cindy Ann said. “Dunn looks at you with so much love it just… pours right off him.”
I lifted my head. “It does?”
“Yep. It’s kinda gross,” Mal said happily, cuddling closer to Brooks.
“It’s so severe that a concerned citizen might’ve figured it was his duty to google whether high levels of human pheromones were harmful to cattle, just in case.” Red shrugged sheepishly. “And they’re not,” he added, glancing around the table. “If anyone else was curious.”
“But… this only started a week ago. For Dunn, I mean. He just jumped in, and… and you know how Dunn looks before he leaps…” I broke off with a sigh.
Cindy Ann and Brooks burst into laughter, and Mal quickly followed. Red just watched me patiently.
“Tuck,” he said, “you two might’ve only noticed it a week ago, but you’ve been it for each other since…” He shook his head. “Months ago, I guess.”
“Years,” Cindy Ann corrected matter-of-factly. “That’s how I knew you’d be the one my boy ended up entwined with.”
“Wait, me?” I blurted.
“Who else, honey?” She shook her head. “Dunn’s not the quickest mind on the planet, but that boy is steadfast. You must know that.”
I nodded, because I did. He was dependable as the day was long.
“He recognized how special you were long before he recognized what y’all could be to each other, but I’d swear he was in love with you even then. And I couldn’t be more pleased.”
“But… it might be hard—harder—for him, being with me. You know.” I nodded at Mal and then Brooks.
Mal frowned and nodded. “Maybe. Maybe not. But I wouldn’t change who I love, even if I could, Tuck. Would you?”
I blinked. No. No, I wouldn’t.
“And his life would be an awful lot harder without you,” Brooks pointed out. “Nobody else in their right mind would understand why he lets his pig sleep in the dining room.”
“One day when Dunn was eight,” Cindy Ann said, holding my hand tightly, “Dunn asked me where ice cream came from. So I explained how farmers like Ava’s daddy, our next-door neighbor, raised cows for milk, and the milk was turned into ice cream and other dairy products. And that was that. Dunn never said another word about it. I figured he’d forgotten. Then, a year and a bit later, he came to me out of a clear blue sky and said he wanted to buy Mac Riner’s farm when Mac retired, but he was gonna turn the cow-calf operation into a dairy farm, and he’d raise cows that made ice cream and only ice cream.”
Mal snorted. “That’s so Dunn.”
“It surely is.” Cindy Ann lifted an eyebrow at me significantly. “And that’s just what he did, Tucker. Even though there were lots of other, easier, less messy choices. And he’s never regretted it.”
I pressed a hand to my stomach.
God, that was true.
So, so true.
And not only did Dunn never complain about the mess or the physical strain or the occasional heartbreak of the life he’d chosen, he reveled in it. All of it. Even the hard bits.
Shit. Shit. What had I done?
Dunn Johnson was the person I loved best in the whole wide world… and I’d practically shooed him away because I was so scared the two of us being together wouldn’t be enough for him, when the truth was, life was all about choices. Loving Dunn meant living in the Thicket and turning down the fellowship with Dr. Petersmith, and I hadn’t hesitated for a minute to do that, right? Why couldn’t I imagine Dunn would do the same?