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I also know you probably aren’t even close to seeing me the way I see you. You might not feel the same. But I wanted you to know that today was not just sex for me. It wasn’t just my body there with you.

I’m not the greatest when it comes to spilling my heart but here goes.

I can be mouthy as I’m sure you know. I don’t always pick up after myself and keep things as neat as I should probably because I’m working long hours to get this ranch up to speed. I don’t live an exciting life but it’s a steady one.

The kind of life that can be counted on. And I’m the kind of man that can be counted on.

I don’t know if you have a set ideal for what you’re looking for in a man so I can’t give you a pitch about why it’d be a good thing for you to give me a chance. I might fall short of your expectations. But I swear that no man will ever work as hard as I will to be the one you want.

So…would you be in a relationship with me? Would you let me love you?

~Yours Truly, Cowboy, the one in love with you.

I fold the letter with neat creases but can’t find an envelope. Instead, I find a roll of masking tape.

Taking both items, I drive the short distance to her aunt’s house and tape the letter to the storm door.

Then I drive back home, praying the whole time that she reads between the lines and see that I put my heart in it. The heart I’m hoping she agrees to hold onto.

Chapter 11

Tempest

I frown as I peel a long strip of masking tape off the door.

“Who the heck sent that?” Emberlynn asks as we walk inside.

She’s staying the night because her recently married brother and his wife came to visit their grandmother and there aren’t enough bedrooms.

“It’s a letter from Maverick.”

I carry the letter to the chair by the window where the night air blows gently into the house. After at first rejecting the idea that Midnight Cowboy and Maverick, I’d accepted it as the truth.

I had known at the pool hall that he wanted to tell me this. Though it had definitely surprised me, it also felt like fate had a hand in arranging it. Maybe because the truth between our families had needed to come out. Maybe because peace was long overdue.

I hadn’t wanted to hear what he tried to tell because I was afraid he would push me away.

But it doesn’t seem like that was his plan. The longer I read, the faster my heart beats. The summer I was fifteen, I remember him, too.

He’d looked at me and I’d pretended I was cool, that I didn’t think he was cute.

When I get to the part where he mentions the sex wasn’t just about the physical for him, it takes me back to the pool table. My mind gives me a vivid memory of that and I fan my shirt.

“Need something to drink?” Emberlynn asks as she carries an armload of fresh linens into the guest bedroom.

“What? Oh, no thanks. I’m good.” Actually, Maverick was good and my mind won’t let me forget it.

I feel pulled toward the steady life he mentions in the letter. During my teen years as my family had spiraled into chaos, I’d learned that trust and belief can be exploited. But with Maverick, that’s a lesson I’m unlearning.

He’s the exact opposite of chaos.

And in the letter, he’s hopeful, but he isn’t asking me to love him. He’s asking for a chance. Having a family to come home to, having a man who won’t let me down is exactly what I want. He’s exactly what I want.

Emberlynn walks back into the living room and drops down onto the sofa. “My butt is dragging. I was up before it’s decent for anyone to be awake because Grandma wanted eggs for breakfast and didn’t have any. She still gets up at five every morning rain or shine.”

“How’s she doing?”

“She’s chafing under her physical limitations. I keep telling her once her hip heals, she’ll feel better.”