A small cry breaks free and Robyn gapes down at me with watery eyes.

“I want to be successful. I want to make music. I love being onstage—creating that experience for the audience—and I’ll never pretend otherwise. That is my dream. But nothing, and I mean nothing, is worth losing you. I will not walk away from my family ever again. And if you say no today, then I will keep asking. Because you are my family, baby. You’re my family forever.”

Fuck. Now I can’t keep my shit together, either.

“Dallas,” she says, surprisingly calmly. “Just give me a second.”

That wasn’t a yes. I am not moving from this spot until she says yes.

“Stand up.”

I shake my head. “Not until you say yes.”

“Please. I need you up here with me. We need to talk.”

“We will talk. After you say yes.”

She huffs out a breath. “I just spent twenty-four hours thinking you were dead. You have no idea what I’ve been through. And now there’s this. Stand up right now, Dallas Walker Lark, or I’m bringing my pregnant self down there.”

I do as I’m told.

“I love you,” she says, clutching my hands tightly. “And I want you. Only you. I want us. Always. But I don’t want to be the reason you miss out on your dreams, Dallas. I don’t want you to look at me and our child in a few years—or even sooner—and wish you weren’t stuck with us and that you’d stayed on that tour. I love you enough not to cost you your dream. So I will say yes, on one condition.”

“Name it.” I want to tell her I will never feel that way, that I know this because I had the fame and when I had it without her it didn’t matter. But right now I just want to get this ring on her damn finger so I can breathe again.

“Promise me you will not give up on your dreams. Promise me you won’t pass up opportunities to succeed even if it means upsetting me. Promise on everything that you will be honest with me always. None of that sissy sparing each other’s feelings stuff for us, okay?”

I nod. Then I reach for her hand.

“Now you promise me something.”

Robyn smiles. “Yes, the baby is yours.”

I bump my forehead to hers. “Damn straight it is.” She kisses me softly, but I won’t be distracted so easily. “Promise me you won’t give up on your dreams, either. You are damn good at your job and you don’t have to give that up unless you want to.”

She nods. “I’m going to talk to my boss about less travel and more behind-the-scenes event coordination. It will all work out however it’s meant to. Katie has volunteered to step in when needed.”

“So are we good now?” I ask, holding the ring at her fingertip before slipping it all the way on.

Robyn pulls back once more. “You sure this is what you want? It’s not just the concussion talking?”

I laugh low against her lips. “Do you want to know what I saw when we were about to hit that truck? What flashed before my eyes?”

She nods and her body trembles against mine at the mention of the accident.

“I saw you. I saw us. I didn’t see my life as it was because there wasn’t much to see. Hotel rooms, tour buses, and audiences full of strangers—none of that came to mind. I saw the life I wouldn’t get to have if I died, or if I lived and walked away from you. I saw you holding our child in your arms and smiling up at me with those beautiful eyes of yours. I saw birthday cakes and toy guitars and God help us, the drum set Gavin will buy this child to bang on all hours of the day. I saw you in a white dress becoming my wife. I saw my family.” I hold her close and kiss her hair. “Be my family, baby.”

“Yes, Dallas,” she says through her tears. “A million times yes.”

Once we both pull it together and my ring is on her finger, where it will damn well stay, I nod to the envelope she’s still holding.

“Are you going to do the honors?”

She hands it to me. “I think you should. I mean, you came all this way.”

As we make our way across the street I slide my finger into the seam. A small black-and-white square sits inside. Taking it out gently once we’ve reached the parking garage, I stare at it, feeling the sunshine on my face and wondering if my parents and grandparents are smiling down on me.

There’s a song here somewhere, but I’ll write it later.

“Congratulations, Daddy,” Robyn says softly, taking the picture from my fingers. “It’s a boy.”

“You have a name picked out yet?” If I know Robyn, she has an entire list.

She leans against my arm. “I was thinking . . . Denver.”

I can’t help it. I laugh. I want to pick her up and spin her around and shout from the top of the parking garage that I am officially the luckiest man in the universe.

“So what now?”

My girl always has a plan.

“Now we go get you some real stitches in that arm. Then we go get some pancakes because I am seriously starving.”

“Sounds good. Then what? We just wing it?”

Robyn scoffs at me. My girl doesn’t wing it.

“Then we live happily ever after.”

Epilogue | Robyn

“DIXIE SAID YOU’D BETTER CALL HER YOURSELF SO SHE CAN HEAR your voice. I think there was one heck of a vigil going on over there. Sounded like she had a house full,” I tell my fiancé as he pulls me onto his lap. “Did you talk to Gavin?”

Dallas kisses me on the tip of my nose and places his palm on my protruding belly. “I will. And yeah, I did. He had some news, too, actually.”

“He finally talked to Dixie and they’re getting married, too?”

“Uh, no. Why? What did she say to you about him?”

“Not much. Just that she saw him with some chick she plans to back over with your truck and that he acted like an asshole.”

Dallas makes a growly noise of discontent in the back of his throat. “Remind me to hide my truck keys when we go to Amarillo.”

I rest my head on his shoulder and close my eyes, savoring the clean wood-infused scent of him. “Okay.”

“Speaking of Amarillo,” Dallas says, shifting me so that I lift my head. “We need to finalize the wedding plans because I have another proposal for you, but I don’t want to add any additional stress on the mother of my baby.”

I roll my eyes. I basically thrive on stress and Dallas knows this. “Tell me what’s going on, Lark.”

“Gavin works at that huge new bar downtown—the Tavern.”

I vaguely remember Dixie mentioning that that’s where she saw him. “Okay,” I say slowly. “And . . .”

“And Rock the Republic Records is hosting a Battle of the Bands there in a few weeks. First prize is twenty-five thousand dollars and a one-year recording contract.”

I sit up so fast I nearly head-butt him. “Are you serious?”

Dallas grins and nods. “Yeah. Since Capitol is probably already drawing up the paperwork to drop me like a bad habit, I’m thinking it’s time for the band to get back together and give it another shot.”

I can’t even contain my squeal of joy. “I can get y’all a fan site set up right now. We can do a Facebook promo to get people to come out and—”

“Babe, slow down.” Dallas tightens his grip before I can jump up out of his lap. “I was hoping you’d help out with that stuff. But there’s plenty of time for that. First I have to make sure Dixie is on board and that those two can put their drama aside to do this. Then maybe Leaving Amarillo will get a second chance. Think we can convince my sister to give Gavin one?”

“Well . . . you know how I feel about second chances.” I place kisses along the edge of his jawline when he reaches over to place a protective hand on my slightly protruding belly bump—something he does often and I’m not even sure he’s conscious of.

He rests his forehead on mine and I am swept away by the overwhelming love and adoration in his gaze.

“That I do, sweetheart. That I do.”

Loving Dallas Playlist

“Crazy Town,” Jason Aldean

“Ho Hey,” Lumineers

“Smoke,” A Thousand Horses