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  Once the gunfire slowed, Gideon and I climbed out of the car. Griggs and his men were being cuffed. His long reign of terror in this region was over, and Emma’s death would be avenged.

  Chapter 26

  Jackson

  I’d finished the inner wall between the bedroom and the kitchen. I stepped back and admired my work. It wasn’t bad. Ole Roy had taught me how to use a hammer and nails, but he’d always been a little sloppy in his work. I took pride in doing things precisely. I wanted this house to turn out right.

  Gideon pulled into the clearing in the car. I went back to my task and waited for him to walk up. The footsteps on the floorboards were too light. I turned around. Charli was standing in the sunlight, a light made even more golden by her unusual copper hair and glittery brown eyes. I took a deep breath. The sight of her always caused me to take a deep breath.

  There was a touch of sorrow in her face. It had been four days since the fire. She’d stayed at the site helping clean-up. Many of the workers had gone on to the train station to head back to families or places where they had job prospects. The Ringling Brother’s Circus was just a hundred miles away, and many traveled that direction hoping to join up with them. Buck had family, a sister in Texas, and he was planning on driving there with Dodie, Rose and Charli. At the time Charli told me of the plans, it’d felt like someone had smacked me. I hadn’t given enough thought to the idea that she’d leave me someday, that Harper’s Cross wasn’t her permanent home. But now looking at her in the wood frame of the house I was building with my own hands, she looked completely at home.

  I walked up to her. Mabel had found some second hand clothes for the carnival workers. Even in a faded dress two sizes too big, Charli looked breathtaking.

  “Just came to let you know that we’d be leaving in the morning.” She walked over to the place where the kitchen window would eventually be. “It’s starting to look like a real house, Jackson.”

  I looked around and nodded. “Sort of. Only, even with the walls and roof in place, it won’t be a home.”

  “What do you mean?”

  I walked over and stood next to her, gazing out the imaginary window. The blue haze was sharp and clear over the mountain range. “Growing up, I loved someone. She was— she was everything to me. When I lost her, I told myself that was it. Ella had taken my heart with her, and I would never be able to love anyone like her again.”

  Charli gazed up at me.

  “I was wrong.” I took her hand and dropped down to one knee. Her hand flew to her mouth. “Charli Starfield, will you be my wife? I know I’m just a two-bit bootlegger and I know Harper’s Cross isn’t much of a town, but—”

  “Yes,” she cried. She took hold of my face and leaned down to kiss me. “Yes, Jackson Jarrett. I will marry you.”

  I stood up and kissed her properly. Gideon blew the horn on the car. “I guess he figured out what just happened.”

  “Yes, I’m sure he did because he got down on his knee in front of Rose an hour ago.” Charli waved at the car. I saw that Rose was in the front seat with Gideon.

  “That brother of mine, he’s always got to one up me. Still, I’m the one who ended up with The Enchantress.” I kissed her.

  Other Books by Tess Oliver

  Custom Culture Series

  Freefall

  Clutch

  Dray

  Rett

  Nix & Scotlyn: The Wedding

  The Barringer Brothers

  Rain Shadow Books 1-5

  Gage

  Cash

  Seth

  Jericho

  Standalone New Adults

  Strangely Normal

  Private North

  Paradise

  Bittersweet Obsession

  That Time with Sugar

  Moonshine

  Young Adult

  Camille Series

  Vacation Romance Collection

  Safe Landing

  Blood Tide

  Bitterroot Crossing

  Years from Home Trilogy

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