“Have you ever been in love? Like really in love? Not in lust? And not infatuated?”
“Hmmmm…”
“Come on, humor me. You can ask me anything you want after you answer my question.”
“I had two steady girlfriends in high school. They both were used to a way of life that I knew I didn't want. I grew up a certain way, and I knew from a pretty young age that wasn't how I wanted to live my life. I had one serious girlfriend in my early twenties, who I thought would be the one. I wanted her to be the one. She thought she felt that way about me too, but turns out she didn’t. But to answer your question, I think I was in love. It felt like love.”
I watched as his eyes looked right into mine. The green was putting me in a trance and I had to look away for a brief moment. When I returned to his eyes, he was still looking at me.
“How about you?”
“I have only been in love once. But the feeling was not mutual. I wanted to make a life with him, and he had decided what he wanted wasn't me. End of story. But truthfully, it was the best thing that happened to me. I wasn't ready to be married, or be a wife. I still wasn't sure about what I wanted. I wanted what my grandparents had…. a perfect love…a fairy tale.”
“And you think you can’t have that? A fairy tale? I know I would like to give that to a woman one day.”
I smiled. I wanted to reach for his hand. Instead, he took mine. Now we were both lying back on the hay bales looking at the stars, not caring where we were or what time it was.
He leaned over me with a smile. “My turn.”
“You already asked a question.”
“No, I didn’t.”
I laughed. “Okay…what is it?”
“Can I kiss you?” he asked sweetly. I had never heard words so sweet out of a voice so deep.
“I was wondering what was taking you so long.” I smiled as his lips kissed mine softly. It was a kiss that gave me butterflies but also made me realize the feelings I could have for this man may not be feelings I could control at my own will. He was going to be a force to be reckoned with.
When his lips parted from mine, I ached for the pressure again. The tingles that shot through my body when he kissed me brought out a want in me I wasn't familiar with.
Was I missing this previously? Yes, yes, I was.
I apparently hadn't been properly kissed before.
Oh sweet Baby Jesus.
We had spent time together several times now, and my feelings were getting more intense, I wanted to fight them, but it wasn’t as easy as it seemed.
It wasn't just the trance of Kellye Joe’s lights, or the rodeo heat, or the starlight from the sky, it was because Wyatt Galloway was a man who was winning my heart.
12
BREIGH
Falling in love was something I had no intention of doing again, at least for a long time, but that changed after spending time with Wyatt. I loved how he checked so many boxes of what I wanted for a future with a man. Not only did he have a great career he was passionate about, but he also had a lot of my same values. Values that ran thin with others.
I had been filling Grammy in about Wyatt, and she was ready to meet him. I wanted to bring him over today so she could see anything I was missing. She was always a great judge of character.
I had invited him over after a speedy phone call during my ten-minute lunch break the day before.
Wyatt arrived on time, and joined Grammy and me on the porch. We were talking and laughing, waiting for our guest to arrive.
I met him with a hug and he brought us both, Grammy and me, a bouquet of flowers, each a variety of wildflowers that were clearly picked up from the town florist, not the buckets that were placed at the checkout stands at H-E-B.
“I don’t remember the last time I got flowers, dear. This made my day. Thank you.” She took a smell and then pointed out what the various ones were.
“You are very welcome.”
He sat with Grammy as I went in to put the flowers in water.
As I walked out, I paused and listened on the other side of the screen door to the easy conversation they were having. They laughed.
“What’s so funny?” I asked as I walked out, bringing some glasses and iced tea.
“I was just telling Wyatt here about the mud pies you used to make. You were one fantastic mud pie baker.”
I took a bow. “Thank you, thank you.”
I poured tea in the glasses and continued listening to Wyatt speak about some of the things he did with his aunt and her influence on him. How he could never repay her for all she had done for him.
“She doesn't want you to pay her back for anything. I’m sure you were just as important in her life, as she was in yours. That’s how love is. Like my Breigh here, she moved in with me when she was three. It was a lot; I wasn't sure how my husband and I were going to deal with it at our age. But I can’t imagine having seen her as a granddaughter rather than a daughter.”
“I feel the same way Grammy.”
“God works that way. You never know when He is going to place that person in your life, sometimes when you need it, sometimes where you don't know you need it, or sometimes for a reason or THE reason.” Grammy started to get lost looking into her yard. The well-manicured, green Augustine grass grew to a perfect lush consistency.
