"Y'all have a great day at school! See you in a couple hours when we pick you up. Love y'all!" Lacey called out her window to her two brothers like a helicopter mom watching her babies walk into their first day of kindergarten. 

      Hearing a quiet chuckle from her left, Lacey pulled her head back into the truck, giving Slade a teasing glare. "Why are you laughing at me?" She questioned.

     "Darlin', I'm not laughing at you. I'm just thinkin' about how dadgum adorable you are and how good of a mother you will be when the time comes." Slade reached his hand over to grab Lacey's, weaving his fingers through hers. 

      "That's ironic because earlier I was just thinkin' about how great a father you would be. Honestly, the way that you comforted Ryder when he was upset earlier just made me fall in love with you even more." 

       Slade didn't respond, well, with words that is. With that cockeyed smile on his lips, he leaned across the center console, silently asking Lacey for a kiss. Just before their lips could meet, a car behind them noisily blared their horn. 

      Looking in front of him, Slade saw the reason that he was being honked at. Dropping the truck into drive, he waved to the parent behind him, as he moved forward in the drop off line so he was no longer blocking the cars behind him. 

     As Slade made his way to the auto parts store to pick up the new starter for Willie's truck, Slade held onto Lacey's hand, the only sound in the cab coming from the quiet music filtering out of the speakers from the radio.

      Watching the scenery pass by out her window, a thought came to Lacey's mind. "The other day, when you proposed to me, you said that you had talked to my dad. Are you goin' to tell me what he said?" 

      "That's been botherin' you all day, hasn't it? You've been dyin' to ask me, haven't you?" Slade took his eyes off the road momentarily to ask. 

       "Maybe." Lacey shrugged, probing Slade on to answer her question by pushing her eyebrows up, silently telling him to tell her the story.

        Letting out a sigh, a slight smile rose to Slade's lips as he looked back to the road. "Well, I'll be honest with ya, darlin'. I wasn't fixin' to propose to you when I did. I was fixin' to wait until I talked to your dad first, and bought a ring, but I couldn't wait any longer, which is why I proposed when I did. The moment was far too perfect to pass up. So, I talked to your dad after church on Sunday, and asked for his permission." 

     "Okay." Lacey drew out. "And what was his response?" 

      "The usual." He grinned over at Lacey, knowing he would start to get all sentimental if he replayed the conversation he had with Zane.

       "Oh, come on, you have to tell me now." Lacey rested her head back against the head rest, giving Slade a look. 

       Clearing his throat and changing his posture in his chair as he drove, Slade focused on the road, his grip tightening around the wheel. "He told me to never break your heart. He said, 'take care of my baby girl. She deserves nuthin' short of the best.'" Slade mimicked Zane's voice perfectly. Letting out a slight chuckle, Slade added, "He told me he would tan my hide if I ever mistreated you. But then after that, the conversation turned more serious." Slade cleared his throat again, swallowing the lump rising in his throat. It was crazy how emotional the engagement made him; he was never really the sentimental type, but for some reason, marrying the woman of his dreams, made him become an emotional teddy bear.

      "What happened?" Lacey watched Slade's eyes closing and shutting quickly, blinking rapidly, as if to try cleaning them from something that was blocking his vision.

      "He just said that he knows I'm a good man and that he couldn't picture anyone better for his little girl to spend the rest of her life with." Slade clenched his jaw. Now wasn't the time or place to fully let his guard down. In a short time, they would be going in to the jewelry store to buy an engagement ring; that was the time he knew he would struggle to keep it together. Never once in his whole life did he ever believe that he would actually get married, but here it was happening to him, with the one woman he knew, without a doubt, he could not live his life without. "Now, I wasn't fixin' to tell you all of that since it was a very personal and serious conversation between your dad and I, but I knew you would get it out of me one way or the other." Slade let out an airy chuckle, sniffling as he felt tears begin rising to the brink of his eyes. 

        "Slade..." Lacey sniffled herself at the sight of Slade starting to get emotional. 

       Just then, Slade pulled into the auto parts store, taking a deep breath to get his emotions under control. After backing the truck into a parking spot, Slade let go of Lacey's hand. "Well, I should probably stop gettin' so sappy otherwise the guys in the store are gonna think I am cryin' over buyin' a starter for the truck."

      Lacey couldn't help but chuckle, loving Slade's funny side. "That is true. Do you want me to wait out here while you run in and grab the part?" She understood that the part had been ordered online, so Slade would just have to pay for it, and pick it up. To her, it didn't make any sense to put her wheelchair together just to be in a store for less than five minutes.

     "Well, I will miss ya, darlin', but I reckon that will be alright since I will only be a few minutes." 

      "Alright. Hurry back, we have a ring to pick out." Lacey played.

       "Oh, we do?" Slade pushed his eyebrows together. "Why would we need to pick out a ring? Did we just get engaged or something?" He dramatically tapped his fingers against his chin. "Hmm, you're right. I almost forgot." 

       "Oh, you go and get the truck part so we can get out of here, you goofball." Lacey teasingly slugged Slade's arm, making Slade laugh a giddy chuckle. 

      "Yes ma'am." Grinning at Lacey, he asked, "Do I get a kiss first?" He leaned closer to her, but was surprised when she pulled back. 

      "After that stunt you pulled, I don't think so." She played, watching Slade act like a sad puppy dog, puffing out his bottom lip in discontent. 

      "Please?" He drug out, pleading. 

      "Nope." Lacey shook her head, popping the 'p' for emphasis.

      "Fine." Turning, Slade opened the truck door about to hop out, but he quickly turned back around. "How about now?" He gave his fiance a look.

      "The answer is still no." Lacey stood firm, attempting to hold back a smile.

       "Oh, alright." Slade said, defeated, hopping out of the cab.

        "But," Lacey added a disclaimer, making Slade stop shutting the truck door to give her his full attention. "If you can buy the starter and get back to the truck within five minutes, that answer might change." She added a wink. "Your time starts...." She looked down at her phone for the time, but looked back up when she heard the truck door shut. Glancing through the dashboard window, Lacey watched Slade sprint into the auto parts store as if he was running a race, and the prize for first place was a million dollars.

      Laughing out loud, Lacey looked after Slade, shaking her head. He certainly was goofy, and that only made her love him more.

        "Time." Slade jumped back into the cab, almost short of breath, putting both of his hands in the air as if he was a calf roper that just hog tied his calf. 

       Lacey sucked in a breath through her teeth as she checked the time on her phone. "I don't know...it was awfully close..." 

      "Oh, come on." Slade dropped his hands down. "There was no way I was in there for more than five minutes. It's impossible." 

       "You were close, but you still made it back in time." Holding up her phone, she showed Slade the time. "One more minute and you woulda been out of luck, cowboy." She grinned.

       "So does this mean I get my kiss now?" Slade said, overly excited. 

       "Oh, I guess so." Lacey leaned across the center console, smiling into the kiss.

       Pulling back from the kiss, Slade held Lacey's face in his. "Now, what do you say we go buy you an engagement ring?"

                                                                 ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

A/N: Phew! Two updates in two days? Man, y'all are lucky. ;) I felt so bad for not being able to update these past couple of weeks so I decided to, hopefully, sweeten y'alls day just a little bit with another update today. Please let me know what y'all think! Thanks, and God bless.