“I’m gonna find Eggie,” she told Janie.

Her sister didn’t argue, just nodded and smiled. It wasn’t that Janie liked Eggie any more than she had the day before, but Darla had the distinct feeling that the fact that Eggie had paid Darla’s fine without a word of complaint somehow meant something important to her sister. Like he’d passed some test neither of them had known existed.

She walked through the crowd, smiling at people who greeted her. Relatives of Eggie’s that she’d never met but who somehow knew her name. It was strange.

She sniffed the air and walked off into the woods, following Eggie’s scent. She found him sitting on a tree stump, staring off. He looked pensive. Or angry. Or pensive and angry. She really didn’t know.

Standing next to him, Darla started off, “I am so sorry about your car.”

Eggie blinked, gazed at her. “My car?”

“Remember?”

“Oh. Yeah.” He shook his head, looked off again. “Can fix that, no problem.”

“You can?”

“Can fix anything with a motor. So can my brothers. Frankie does nice body work, too. He’ll bang that little dent out.”

“Well, I’m sorry I didn’t ask.”

He gazed at her again. “Ask what?”

“About borrowing your car.”

He shrugged. “That don’t matter.”

Really? “But I just took it. I didn’t ask.”

“Wouldn’t have left the keys out if I didn’t want you driving the car.”

“Oh. Well, I’m definitely sorry about the fine.”

Still gazing at her, he asked, “What fine?”

Darla was beginning to get a little frustrated. “The fine you had to pay . . . because I was speeding . . . in your car . . . that I took without your permission?”

“Eh. Don’t really care about that.”

Throwing up her hands, Darla demanded, “Then what do you care about?”

“You.”

His simple response had Darla blushing from her face right down to her dang toes. “Oh.”

“Besides,” he added, “those cops were so impressed.” Eggie grinned. “Where did you learn to drive like that?”

She laughed a little. “Daddy. When we were young, he used to let us take turns sitting in his lap and driving the car around the parking lot of the store. Our feet couldn’t even touch the pedals.”

“And once they could?”

She shrugged. “Then there was no stopping us.” They both laughed and Darla added, “Lord, Momma has never forgiven Daddy for that either. She said it was his fault we were out-of-control heathens.”

His arm reached out and wrapped around her waist, pulling her close. “Look at me,Darla Mae.” She did. “If you need my car, you take my car. You need money, you take it. You don’t need to leave any notes. You need my gun, dammit, woman, you use my gun.”

“I’m a pacifist, Eggie,” she sniffed. “I don’t like guns.” But when Eggie kept staring at her, she added, “I may know how to use guns, but I just don’t like them.”

“You know how to use them?”

“Momma insisted. She said every Southern lady should know how to use a gun in case we have any more problems from Yankee soldiers.”

“Lot of Yankee soldiers coming around Smithville?”

“Momma likes to be prepared.”

“Smart lady, which is why I trust her daughter to do what she needs to do. You don’t need to ask.”

“I appreciate that, but . . .”

“But what?”

“If you trust me so much, why did you follow me and Mr. Van Holtz earlier today?”

Damn this woman! He honestly couldn’t get anything past her.

Eggie let out a sigh. “I followed because I don’t trust Van Holtz wolves.”

“Don’t trust Van Holtz or don’t trust me?”

“Just told you I trust you, Darla. But, ya know . . .”

“No. I don’t know. What am I supposed to know?”

He shrugged. “Fancy rich wolf with his tea-and-cakes lifestyle.”

“I think he’s more of a coffee man.”

“How am I supposed to compete with that?”

“It’s just coffee.”

Eggie rolled his eyes. “What I mean, Darla Mae, is that he’s rich and charmin’ and can buy you the kind of life you deserve.”

“You think I’d only be with someone who’s rich?”

“No. I think you deserve to only be with someone who’s rich—and the Smiths will never be rich.”

“I didn’t know I was so shallow.”

“I never said—”

“If you think money matters to me, of all people, then I’ve been making a big mistake.”

She tried to pull away but Eggie tightened his arms and pulled her closer. “I know that money doesn’t mean anything to you, Darla. But I also know you deserve to be comfortable.”

Now she looked really disgusted. “Comfortable? You think I want to be comfortable?”

Uh-oh.

“Well—”

“You just think I’m some little vapid princess who wants to be pampered?”

Eggie squinted at her and said, “Not if what you just said is considered . . . bad.”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “So I guess you heard what he said to me.”