Page 123 of The Auction
“Never really fell in love either. Would have told you itwas a bunch of nonsense and sappy movies. My life, since the day I was born, has been grounded firmly in reality. And love…well, that was about as unreal as a thing could get to me. But there you are, right in front of me. I had a couple of scary moments when I didn’t think I would ever see you again. I let you in my head then. Remembered how fucking stubborn you are. How angry you made me sometimes. How much fun you are.”
He took another step closer.
“I told myself…if I live through this, I’m going back to Jules. She wants to sell the farm, we’ll sell it. She wants to raise six kids on this land, we’ll do that, instead. But, no matter what happens, I’m never leaving her again. Not if she’ll take me back.”
“Wow. That’s the most you’ve ever said to me.”
“Probably,” he admitted. “Most I’ve ever said to anyone.”
I gave it a second. After all, I didn’t want him to think I was too easy.
“I guess I believe you then.”
He let out a big sigh first. Then he moved closer and wrapped his arms around me. I didn’t squeeze him too hard.
“I love you,” I whispered into his ear.
“I love you, too,” he said, and he wouldn’t admit it, but his voice cracked a little.
“Now tell me they paid you a shit ton of money.”
He laughed into my neck and brought me as close as he could. “Yeah, baby, they paid me a shit ton of money.”
EPILOGUE
CREED
“Didyou consider what would happen if the tractor rolled over on my leg and I was pinned underneath it all by myself out here on the farm?”
There was no point in answering. Apparently, she had about twenty more of these questions, all noted in her phone, to get off her chest. I just kept my eyes on the road and nodded every so often with a, “No, I didn’t think about that.”
My wound was healing up to the point where I felt like I could fuck her without splitting the stitches open. A fact I’d shared with my wife that morning. She said before we got down to any funny business that she still had to settle all her beefs with me.
What she didn’t know was that I would gladly sit in this truck and listen to her questions all the way into town and back home again.
Today was grocery day, and we needed something more in the cabinets besides Kraft and ice cream in the freezer. The truck bed was filled with our groceries, including extra apples and carrots for Peasy.
It was funny, but I didn’t think I would ever understand what it was in that moment, when I first spotted her up on that stage in the middle of town, surrounded by all those cowboys, something that hit me inside my chest and pulled me in her direction.
I remembered when I smiled at her the first time and she gave me the finger.
I’d thought HER.
Up until that moment, I’d never been a spiritual man, but if I had ever believed in anything outside of my control, I believed that we were supposed to be a team.
Partners. Together in life.
“Did you think about what might happen if Patch ran away and I had to chase him down and I accidentally got hit by a car?” she continued.
“That could happen even with me here,” I said, looking over at her as she was reading off her phone the list of questions she’d written down in my absence.
“No, because if you were home, Patch wouldn’t run away.”
“Fair enough,” I sighed.
“Did you think about the fact that if you never came back, I would probably never have sex again?”
“That just makes me happy, baby. I want to be the only man who makes you come so hard you roll your eyes back into your head.”
