Total pages in book: 14
Estimated words: 13485 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 67(@200wpm)___ 54(@250wpm)___ 45(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 13485 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 67(@200wpm)___ 54(@250wpm)___ 45(@300wpm)
“I love you, Quinn Marie,” he says. “And I really, really like you too.”
Quinn smiles. “You’d better.”
Everyone laughs. I look out over the gathered guests, my breath catching for the hundredth time at just how beautiful the setup is. I’d call the style elegant rustic, with wooden benches set out in a semicircle in front of the arbor of white roses the wedding party currently stands beneath. Behind everyone, Hill Country undulates in shades of emerald, ivory, and amber as far as I can see.
I don’t have to run anymore.
I don’t have to avoid anyone or anything. I get to come back to Hartsville as often as I’d like.
Ride through those hills as often as I damn please.
Grady pulls Quinn in for an indecently deep kiss the second I pronounce them man and wife. The crowd erupts. I wipe away tears.
Weston offers me his arm, and we process back down the aisle behind the newly married couple.
“So I do inspire you,” Weston murmurs in my ear later, when we’re dancing cheek to cheek to an especially swoony cover of “Love Story.”
I feather my lips over his cheek. “Are you kidding? Most of my songs are about you, Weston Jessup. Of course you inspire me.”
“That was the heartbreak talking. You ain’t writing any more bluesy songs about me, Jo. Only love songs like this one from now on.”
My face splits into a smile. “I like the sound of that.”
We dance until we’re covered in sweat and our feet hurt. Grady and Quinn have an absolute ball celebrating with their loved ones.
We see them off with sparklers later that night.
Quinn pulls me in for a tight hug before she leaves. “I’m so excited we get to live out our love stories together. See you soon?”
“Don’t rush back from your honeymoon on my account,” I say with a laugh.
Releasing me, she grabs Wes’s hand too. Beams at us like a proud mother hen. “To be honest, Wes, if you told me you were hell-bent on winning Josie back this weekend, I would’ve punched you in the throat.”
“That’s fair,” Wes replies with a nod.
“But now that it’s happening . . . y’all, I’m just so happy for us all.”
Then she promptly bursts into tears.
We’re all crying as we go in for a group hug. Grady joins in, then whisks his bride away in a white vintage Chevy with the words Just Married written on the back window.
Wes curls his hand around my nape as he leads me to his truck. “I bought not one but two swimsuits.”
“What?” I ask.
“Figure people at those fancy hotels we’ll be staying at might not appreciate my makeshift swimwear. So I bought the real thing.”
“For me?” I bat my eyes.
Grinning, he leans in to kiss my mouth. “Everything I do is for you.”
“Can I do you as a token of my appreciation?”
He laughs, opening the door for me. “Long as you let me do you first.”
“Deal.”
“Is this what happily ever after feels like?” He holds my hand as I climb into the passenger seat. “’Cause I like it. A lot.”
“I think so.”
“I know so.”
He kisses me one last time before hustling to his side of the truck.
Then we drive to his place and begin writing my next album. The one that’s all love songs.