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I laughed. I pondered. I surprised myself.
I grew over the next few weeks. It was enough for me to pull my head out of my ass and give a great man a chance to love me. To love him back.
Months later, I wouldn’t dream of giving up my therapy sessions. There will always be as scar left by Tyler’s betrayal. There’s no magic potion to remove it. Instead of trying to cover it up, I wear it proudly as a reminder of the strong, single mother I am. It helps me love Will in a new and deeper way.
Damn, I’m getting melancholy in my old age.
I snap back to reality and look around the room.
Tonight’s dance floor at Lone Tavern is a packed. The place is not filled with young coeds, half-dressed in cowboy attire. No, tonight is all about Sergeant William Bronson.
My handsome officer is sauntering across the room in his smoldering glory over to where I’m seated with my girls.
As he approaches, he places his arm around the small of my back and pulls me up, kissing my cheek and looking at me with such adoration that it’s like he hasn’t seen me in days when, in fact, we came here together.
“What are you doing over here? You’re the man of the hour. You should be mingling with your friends and family.”
He whispers, “Why would I want to hang out with them when my favorite person in the world is over here?”
I playfully slap him on the chest. “It’s been a year since you were shot. Everyone is here to celebrate your heroism and promotion. Go play nice with the family.” I lean in and whisper so no one can hear me, “Don’t worry; the actual celebration has been planned for you tonight when the kids go back to Tyler’s.”
“Handcuffs?”
“And the baton.” I lean up and place a chaste kiss on his lips and shimmy out of his hold, but not before he grabs my hand and pulls me toward him and places the sexiest, most arousing kiss on my lips.
“Will!” I admonish even though I love when he treats me like this—like I’m the most important thing in the room and what he can’t live without. “Your mother is staring.”
“Good. If she didn’t like it, she shouldn’t have helped you get me arrested.”
“She and I have an understanding now. When you get out of line, we know where to put you.”
“Up until last year, I’d never been in trouble in my life.”
“So I’ve heard. Such a Boy Scout.”
I smile and then let him lead me toward the dance floor. The music is playing a similar country tune to those we danced to last year. The kind where he leads my body in a sultry dance and my heart into a trance.
We don’t dance like that tonight. Instead, the friends and family who came out to celebrate Will join us. His parents and siblings, nieces and nephews—yes, the Bronson clan is huge. His friends, who have stuck with him. Men and women he works with, and my small family, including Jillian and Tara. They all take to the floor.
Hunter, who long ago got his cast off, does a terrible rendition of the Worm while Izzy shakes her head, her eyes rolling, and then laughs. Dad takes her hand and twirls her, showing her how to do a proper dance, as Gavin Jones doesn’t mess around on the dance floor.
As Will pulls me in, I fall into his embrace, as I have been since the very first time I threw myself at him in the parking lot of this very bar.
I love William Bronson as much today as I did the first time I declared it, but not as much as I will tomorrow and the day after that.
It’s not just his kisses.
I found my big love.
The kind that will stay until we’re old and gray and one of us leaves first.
And if by chance, in ten to fifteen years down the road, it doesn’t work out, I’ve settled into the fact that I’m so blissfully happy right now that I wouldn’t change a thing.
Love … it’s complicated, sure.
It’s also beautiful, amazing, and what I can’t live without.
