Page 7 of Big Gruff Cowboy

He never fussed at me for reading through so many of his books. In return, I helped him with unloading and stocking inventory. Even now his bookstore feels just as much like home to me as my family’s ranch.

Walt’s silence right now doesn’t mean he’s angry. He’s a thinker. A man who weighs everything carefully before speaking. But it doesn’t matter even if he is angry. There’s nothing he could say that would make me turn away from Lizzy. She’s mine. I know that deep in my bones.

I decide to start the conversation, nodding at the steak and baked potato he places on the table in front of me. I didn’t call ahead to tell him I’d be here. “Were you expecting company?”

“Just Tank,” he says.

Tank is married to Bailey, the woman who runs the barbershop in town. “I didn’t know the two of you are friends.”

He busies himself with putting ice in our glasses. He pours both of us a glass of his sweet tea, never looking up at me. “We go fishing sometimes.”

Unease prickles at me. He’s hiding something. “Is he going to join us tonight?”

He nudges silverware toward me. “I texted him that I’m busy.”

I nearly choke over the sweet tea that weirdly doesn’t taste like his recipe. “When did you learn to text?”

“My granddaughter taught me,” he says as he takes a seat at the table. I’ve been trying to teach Walt how to use his smartphone for the last two years, and he always refused my help. I wonder how Lizzy convinced him to use it.

He pins me with an intense stare. “Which brings up what we need to discuss. Namely, what you’re doing here tonight.”

I pull the ring box from my pocket and set it on the table where he can see it.

He eyes it. “Is that what I think it is?”

He mentioned once how he saw his late wife for the first time at a barn dance and instantly knew they were meant to be together. I didn’t understand that story when he told it to me. Sometimes, you look at one person and know you’re looking at your forever.

“I love her. I knew it the moment I saw her. It was like…”

He finishes my thought perfectly. “Everything finally clicked. All the things you went through. They were making you into the man you needed to be for her.”

I nod, not surprised he understands. I’ve spent decades questioning why. Why were my brothers and I born to abusive parents? Why did we have to go into the foster system? Why did we have to hurt so much?

“I’m going to marry her.”

Walt picks up his knife and cuts into his steak. “You’re not here for a blessing. This is a warning. You’re taking her.”

I don’t deny it. I respect Walt too much to lie to him.

He chuckles. “She won’t fall easy.”

I know that too. She wants to fall but something is holding her back. I saw it tonight on the porch. Demons from her past haunt my girl. Well, she no longer battles them alone. Now she has a warrior beside her who will fight with her and for her.

He stops cutting his food and sets down his silverware. “I have terms.”

He has no say over what happens to Lizzy. She’s a grown woman, not property we can bargain over. But that doesn’t change the fact that it’d be smart to have Walt as my ally while I win over Lizzy’s heart. “Let me hear them.”

“I want to give her away. You kids want to elope, fine. I won’t stand in the way if she calls and wants to marry you right now. But I never got to give away my daughter. I’m not missing the chance to walk my granddaughter down the aisle.” He pauses there, his throat working.

His daughter was a drug addict who ran away from home. Despite years spent searching, he couldn’t find her. Around five years ago, I convinced him to submit his DNA to one of those websites that helps families reconnect. We both agreed that it was probably a long shot. Then one day, Lizzy was reaching out to her grandfather. Funny how helping Walt led me to find my soulmate.

His request is easy to grant. I don’t care when or where I marry Lizzy. As long as I get to slide a ring on her finger, I’ll be a happy man. “Done.”

Walt composes himself and continues, “And she works at the bookstore. As long as she wants. She gets to do whatever she wants.”

I couldn’t imagine pulling her away from the bookstore. I know from her social media that books are her passion. Just like they are for me. “I don’t want to clip her wings. Just want to watch her soar.”

He nods. “Final condition. A four-kid minimum on the great grands. I want plenty of them to spoil.”

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