She was in a dress. She felt beautiful.

“Do you want to get out of here?” he asked.

“Yes,” she responded, “I do.” They said their goodbyes, and when her other brothers exchanged confused and somewhat stony-faced glances, Wyatt stood up and shook Gabe’s hand, making it clear that the thing between them had his stamp of—if not approval—resignation. And she could only be thankful for that.

They walked outside into the cool evening, and Jamie shivered. She wasn’t used to having so much of her body exposed to the elements.

“Let’s go for a walk,” Gabe said, throwing his jacket over her shoulders.

A smile curved her lips, her heart thundering a little bit harder. “Okay. I’m not really sure how long I can walk in these heels, though.”

“Well, I can either carry them or you if it comes down to it.”

She ducked her head, her hair falling in her face, her heart so full it almost ached. She felt like a different person tonight. Like for just a moment, she wasn’t sad Jamie Dodge, or anything remotely familiar. Like she was something made completely new. And oh, she would gladly take it.

That conversation with Wyatt had felt good, and she’d made a lot of decisions to set some things aside.

But it was nice, for a while, to not have anything to set aside at all.

To be a beautiful woman walking with Gabe Dalton, with his jacket thrown over her shoulders.

And then he took her hand, his fingers laced through hers, and her heart gave a hard bump against her breastbone, feeling bruised and needy.

“You might want to take your shoes off,” he said.

“Why?”

“We’re going to go across the field.”

They came to the end of the sidewalk, where it faded out into a farmer’s field, and Jamie looked over at him. “Are you serious?”

“Yeah, I’m serious. I thought we would take a walk down by the river.”

“I bet you do this with all the girls,” she said.

“No,” he said. “But then, you’re not all the girls. You’re Jamie Dodge.”

And just like that, she was snapped back to reality, and she wasn’t sure how she felt about it. About him having her name on his lips like that. But then... Then if he felt that way, if he felt like she was special, then maybe she could be Jamie Dodge, and this woman walking with him. Or maybe they were the same woman.

Her stomach knotted up, her whole body feeling just a little bit tense. She paused, bracing herself on his shoulder and undoing the ankle strap on her shoes, then the other strap.

“If I step on a sticker I’m going to punch you in the nose,” she said. He laughed, and then she cursed herself for spoiling the illusion. Because she doubted any other woman in a beautiful dress, wandering barefoot through a field, would threaten her date with bodily injury. But Gabe didn’t seem to mind.