Page 35 of Ride a Cowboy

“The assistant principal at the high school?”

“Yep. He’s a super nice guy, but he has zero sense of humor.”

“Okay. And the second guy?”

“He was the previous record holder before you. I dated Marcus Milhon.”

“The guy from Maris who went on to become a rodeo star?”

“I had the biggest crush on him growing up. He came home one spring after a nasty fall to recuperate. Let’s just say he wasn’t bedridden alone for three of those weeks.”

“Why did it end?”

“He went back out on the circuit. He asked me to come along, but I’m not a buckle bunny.”

“And that’s it?”

She smiled sadly. “It is if you don’t count me proposing to Johnnie Mills.”

“Harley’s brother?” Her friend in the wheelchair. Everyone in Maris knew who Johnnie Mills was, had heard the story of him being thrown off the back of his dad’s motorcycle when he was eleven, how he’d been paralyzed from the neck down.

He was the man who had died last year around the same time as Sharon.

Her face was sad as she nodded, and Hank figured out she had lied about never being in love. Apparently, there had been one man in her past who’d broken her heart. “Yeah. I asked him to marry me once.”

“What did he say?”

“He turned me down. Said he was too much man for me.” Her eyes were far away, and Hank knew she was seeing the conversation as she replayed it for him. “We had a weekly date at the restaurant for nearly six years. He’d come in and talk as I worked behind the bar.”

“What did you talk about?”

“Everything. Johnnie was one of the smartest guys I ever knew. And funny as shit. And so damn sweet. I’ve never known anyone like him. I mean he got dealt a crappy hand, but he was never down about it. He was just this really beautiful soul.”

“So you proposed?”

“I loved him.” She blinked away tears and Hank could see she truly had. “So a couple years ago, I told him we should get hitched. He laughed at first, and then he figured out I was serious. Honestly, until I said the words, I hadn’t realized how serious I was. Once I said it, I wanted it. Badly.”

“But he said no.”

“He was really kind about it. He made the joke about being too much man for me, but when I kept pressing him, he told me he loved me too much to…” She sniffled and swallowed heavily. Hank grasped her hand and squeezed it consolingly.

“Too much to…?” he prompted.

“To condemn me to a lifetime as caregiver. We kind of got into a fight after that. No matter what I said, I couldn’t sway him. He left and didn’t come back the next week, or the week after that. Then, three weeks after the argument, he rolled back into the restaurant and we picked up like nothing had ever happened. And I let him because I’d missed him so much it hurt. I didn’t want to say anything that would make him stay away again. He died not quite a year later. Part of me has wondered since then if he knew his days were numbered. If somehow he had a sense that he wouldn’t live much longer.”

Suddenly he understood how so many years could have gone by without Macie settling down. She’d given her heart to Johnnie. Then he wondered how different things would be right now if Johnnie had said yes to her proposal.

“What’s your dream wedding, Whiskey?”

She perked up, clearly grateful for the change of subject. He was amazed by her strength, by her ability to pull herself together and keep moving.

“That’s easy. I’m eloping. In Vegas.”

Hank groaned. “You’re kidding, right?”

She raised her eyebrows and pointed at a face that was the very definition of serious as shit. “Do I look like I’m kidding?”

“Have you ever been to Vegas?”

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