“I said, ‘We gonna see if you’re in it for the right reasons.’ Turns out, he is,” the country singer tells PEOPLE of her relationship with Devlin “Duck” Hodges

Lainey Wilson has chosen to keep her romance with boyfriend Devlin “Duck” Hodges low-key.

After two and a half years of dating, the “Heart Like a Truck” singer, 31, revealed her relationship for the first time at the Country Music Awards

“Someone said it was funny to see him clapping for all my artist friends at the ACMs, and I was like, ‘That’s his friend!'”

“He’ll FaceTime me, and he’ll be with HARDY and Morgan [Wallen] and Luke [Combs], and I’m like, ‘Stop stealing all my friends,'” she continued. “They’ll always be out playing golf and drinking beer. I don’t have to convince anyone to like him. He’s a really lovely person.”

Lainey Wilson and boyfriend Devlin “Duck” Hodges in May 2023.John Shearer/Getty

The couple started dating in 2021 after meeting through mutual friends in Nashville.

“We went to this old place called Silverados, and it had free beer and wine from 5 to 10 p.m.,” she says. “I was like, ‘This boy likes to ball on a budget too. This is gonna work out.’”

Now that the cat’s out of the bag with her relationship, Wilson — who is the cover star of StyleWatch’s Summer Edition — says “it feels really good to talk about it.”

“Duck is the kind of dude who high-fives me on the way in the door and on the way out and says, ‘Go get it,’” she says. “He knows how important this dream is to me.”

Lainey Wilson.