"Because it was the most romantic and the most idiotic thing I'd ever seen." She presses her face against my chest, laughing. "You couldn't even pin the corsage on because your hand was shaking so badly."
"I was nervous."
"You'd just fallen off a bull. The shaking was probably medical."
"It was nerves, Harper. You were wearing that blue dress and your hair was up, and I thought, if I don't marry this girl, I'm going to regret it for the rest of my life."
She goes quiet. Her finger stops tracing.
"You thought that? Even then?"
I don’t tell her I’ve had her engagement ring in my house for years. The one we both fell in love with at the same time. That the only way I picture my future is with her as my wife.
"I've thought that every day since I was seventeen years old."
She doesn't say anything. But her arm tightens around me and her breathing changes, and I know she's fighting tears again. Happy ones this time. I think.
“Remember the time I tried to lasso you on the chair and nearly took your eye out?” she asks.
We laugh. The kind that starts in the belly and takes over everything and makes you grip whoever's beside you because it feels too big to hold alone. The kind we used to have every day. Over nothing. Over everything.
“Yeah, I’m surprised I don’t have a scar on my cheek. You got any better at that?” I ask.
“Nope. Probably worse. What about the time Colten accidentally set the barn on fire trying to make jerky?" she says.
"We don't talk about that."
"Your dad wassomad."
"Dad was furious. He made Colten rebuild the whole thing by hand. Took him three weeks."
"And Hunter just watched from the porch drinking lemonade."
"Hunter was taking notes. He used that as leverage for years."
She giggles. "You guys are crazy. Never change.”
"I mean, you got kidnapped by a cowboy in a flamingo shirt, and you’re still lying here with me. You like our flavor of crazy.”
She slaps my chest. I catch her hand. Kiss her knuckles and hold them there.
The laughter fades into something softer. She curls into me. The stars wheel slowly overhead. A coyote calls from somewhere in the valley, and another answers from the ridge behind us.
"Ace?"
"Yeah?"
"What if we'd never broken up? What do you think we'd be doing right now?"
I think about it. Really think.
"Probably this. Lying in this truck, looking at these stars. Except we'd have a couple of kids asleep with us and a dog named something stupid that you picked."
"The dog's name would be excellent, and you know it."
"Penny’s name was almost Princess Sparkle Hooves, Harper."
"I was eighteen!"
