Page 7 of Wild and Wrangled

“You got something to tell me, kid?” the presumed Stan responded. He was still eyeing me and my wedding dress.

Dusty chuckled. “Nah, but do you still have T-shirts?”

Stan nodded and jerked his chin. “In the back.”

“Thanks, man. If you have any new jerky flavors, leave them up here for me,” Dusty said as he put his hand on the small of my back and softly guided me farther inside.

Don’t think about it.

As soon as we were headed in the right direction, his hand moved. I missed the comfort of it immediately, or maybe I just missed his hand on me—like I had for the past decade.

Not thinking about it.

At the back corner of the store, there were two clothing racks—one of them held together at the corner by duct tape—full of mismatched T-shirts. There were folded sweatpants and shorts on a cardboard box next to them.

I started looking through the shirts on the racks. There were lots of wildlife options, a few generic Wyoming ones, one with a jackalope, and…

“If you get this one,” Dusty said as he reached for the dark green shirt I was currently looking at and pulled it off the rack, “we can match.”

“ ‘Show me your Tetons’?” I asked, reading the white text on the shirt, and a smile tugged at the corners of my mouth.

Dusty grinned back at me. “Only if you show me yours.”

“In your dreams, Dusty Tucker,” I said on an eye roll, trying to stifle a giggle. He’d always been able to make me laugh, even when I didn’t want to.

He gave me an exaggerated wink. “You have no idea, Ash.”

“Stop flirting with me while I’m still in my wedding dress.” Leave it to Dusty to make me feel comfortable enough to make a joke about something that should not be remotely funny yet.

“We better get you out of it then.”

I huffed in mock exasperation. “You are ridiculous,” I said and then shoved the shirt into his arms. “Hold this for me. I need to find some pants.”

“Do you?”

“Yes,Dusty,” I said. “Or should I call you by your legal name?” Dusty’s gray eyes widened, but he was smiling, like he was thrilled I was playing with him.

“You wouldn’t,” he said.

“Try me, Tuck,” I responded, the nickname rolling off my tongue for the first time since he came home last year. His eyes glittered.

He took the shirt from me, and I stepped toward the shoddily folded piles of sweatpants. They were all basic drawstring sweatpants. My color choices were gray, navy blue, and hot pink.

I went with the navy blue that had the Wyoming Bucking Horse on the hip. My eyes scanned the rest of the clothing—looking for a sweatshirt or jacket or something, but the only one I found was an extra small that looked like it would fit Riley.

“I have an extra coat and a pair of boots in my truck,” Dusty said, reading my mind. “The bathroom is out the back door”—he pointed down a hallway to our left—“but we have to go get the key from Stan.”

Changing out of my wedding dress in a backwoods gas station bathroom felt like a step too far. “Can I just change in your truck?”

Dusty looked down at the floor, suddenly bashful. “Oh…uh. Sure,” he said. I watched his Adam’s apple bob, and it made my cheeks heat.

“Great,” I said quickly. This space suddenly felt too small for both of us, so I started walking back toward the front. I tripped over one of the uneven floorboards. In my periphery, I saw Dusty reach for me, but I righted myself before he could touch me again.

Once we reached the counter, I set my sweatpants near the register, and Dusty put my shirt next to it, along with three plastic water bottles that he must’ve picked up on the way. There were also clear plastic bags of beef jerky there, too.

“There’s honey jalapeño, brown sugar bourbon, and dill pickle,” Stan said as he pointed at each bag before scanning the rest of our items. Dill pickle beef jerky? I could get into that. “Forty-two seventy-three. Do you need a bag?”

“We’re good,” Dusty said. He pulled his wallet out of his back pocket and dropped three twenties on the counter. “Thanks, Stan. Appreciate it.” I waited for a second for Stan to get Dusty’s change, but Dusty had already gathered up the items and was waiting for me to lead the way toward the door.

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