Hillbilly Girlie Marries a Billionaire – Episode 38
Lucas drove Emily beyond the city at sunrise. She recognized the route toward her hometown before he admitted their destination. The skyline disappeared behind fields washed gold by morning light.
They stopped at the Davis farm. Her mother’s neighbors had cared for it during the hospital stay, keeping the fences repaired and fields planted. Emily stepped from the car and breathed air that smelled of soil rather than traffic.
Lucas wore boots far too clean for the muddy yard. Emily warned him about the geese. He said he had faced armed kidnappers and hostile boards; a bird could not intimidate him.
The largest gander chased him across the yard within minutes. Emily laughed against the fence while Lucas preserved dignity by calling the retreat tactical. The sound brought neighbors from nearby houses, delighted to see her home.
Lucas greeted everyone without assistants or ceremony. He listened as they described Emily working three jobs, caring for her mother, and sending nearly every spare dollar to Kevin. The stories deepened his understanding of sacrifices she rarely mentioned.
Inside the farmhouse, little had changed. Photographs covered the mantel, and pencil marks recorded Emily’s height along a kitchen doorframe. Lucas traced the highest mark and imagined the child she had been.
Emily showed him the oak tree where Kevin once promised repayment and forever. The memory no longer hurt as it had. Betrayal had brought her to the city, but Kevin did not deserve credit for the life she built afterward.
Lucas said surviving a wrong road did not make the person who misled her a guide. Emily appreciated the distinction. Her choices after betrayal belonged to her alone.
They walked toward the cornfield. Fresh green leaves moved in the wind, and a narrow path had been cleared between the rows. Small photographs hung from twine, showing their story without wealth or publicity.
The first image was a simple ear of corn. Others showed the hotel handkerchief, their marriage certificate, the honey cake, and the hospital ultrasound. Each object marked a choice rather than a spectacle.
At the center of the field stood no crowd. Only two wooden chairs waited beneath the oak tree, with Officer Bunny seated on one of them as witness.
Emily asked whether Lucas had truly planned a proposal supervised by a stuffed animal. He said the rabbit had demonstrated more loyalty than several relatives and deserved the honor.
Humor steadied him, but his hands still trembled when he took hers. Lucas admitted that his first marriage proposal had been a contract, the second interrupted, and every attempt since complicated by danger.
This time he wanted nothing except her free answer. He loved her courage, stubbornness, laughter, and refusal to let wealth decide anyone’s worth. He loved the home they had created before either understood they were building one.
Lucas knelt in the soil. He held the same corn-leaf ring she already wore, asking her to accept it again as a promise rather than evidence of an unfinished question.
“Emily, will you marry me because you want me—not because either of us needs a contract?” His voice carried no command, only hope.
Emily let him wait long enough to repay every time he had made her nervous. Then she said yes. Lucas rose, kissed her, and forgot entirely about the mud staining his tailored trousers.
Neighbors cheered from beyond the field, revealing they had not remained as distant as promised. Emily accused him of lying about privacy. Lucas argued that hidden witnesses did not count as an audience.
Mrs. Davis appeared in a car at the edge of the field, smiling through tears. Grandfather Anderson sat beside her, while Noah drove and Victoria waited respectfully in the second vehicle.
Lucas asked whether Emily wanted them closer. The choice remained hers. She looked at both families, imperfect and learning, then opened the gate—inviting them into the celebration on the condition that no one frightened the geese.