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I chuckled. “Deidre sent me inside for the same reason.”

He shook his head. “Must have ESP they’ve been together so long.”

I nodded secretly wishing I could have the same thing with someone one day. “Do you think they’re upstairs?”

A loud moan echoed through the upstairs, and both our cheeks flushed red.

“Maybe we should...” He stepped down the stairs, but I moved up, trying to get out of his way, and now we were on the staircase, chest to chest.

Parts of me I’d long since forgotten fired back to life this close to his strong chest and the earthy smell of his cologne.

“I—” I swore I saw his eyes flick down, to my chest, my lips.

I had to be dreaming. He was fifteen years older than me. And I was never known for being the most desirable woman in town, a curvy single mom with two kids and hardly two pennies to rub together most of my life.

He seemed to realize we were both still standing there and stepped past me. “Why don’t we turn back and say we tried?”

I smiled, barely catching my breath as I gained some space. “That sounds like a plan to me.”

EPILOGUE

KNOX

I cameout of the bathroom to see Dad and Agatha coming downstairs. Dad saw her almost every day at the diner, but as far as I knew, they were only friendly acquaintances. Except the flush on her cheeks told a different story.

What would be the odds that my dad got remarried before I even had a serious girlfriend in Cottonwood Falls?

I tried not to think about that as I walked outside to the makeshift parking lot in the pasture. A couple country kids were waiting for me in their truck, holding a pig between them with a ring of flowers around its neck and a blanket over its back that said CONGRATULATIONS.

“Thank you, gentlemen,” I told them, passing them a fifty. “You’ll come get it in ten minutes?”

They nodded.

“Follow me.”

I picked up the pig, holding the squirming, oinking thing in my arms, and walked to the shop where the reception was taking place. Rhett and Maggie shared their first dance on the cement floor, eyes only for each other.

They looked so happy together, and it had me thinking,would that ever happen for me in this small town? I wasn’t so sure.

The song closed to an end, and the kid on my right said, “Now?”

I shook my head out of those thoughts usually brought on by weddings and said, “Now.” I bent, letting the pig on the ground, and it instantly darted around ankles of wedding goers.

People shuffled, screamed, and laughed as they realized there was a pig running around the shop building.

I saw Rhett’s gaze follow the noise until he spotted the animal, and when he did, a grin spread on his lips. He yelled, “KNOX! I’M GETTING YOU BACK FOR THIS.”

Chuckling, I called back, “I’d like to see you try.”

***