The Cowboy Who Lost His Ranch to a Size 20 City Girl novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: What Lottie Said

Chet lowered himself onto the top step.

I had pulled my dress back down and Jace had buckled his belt, and we both sat on the swing.

Chet did us the kindness of not looking.

"August," he said. "Last night she was awake."

I leaned forward.

Jace's arm came around my shoulders.

"She was bad by then," Chet said. "Couldn't walk. Couldn't eat. But she knew me. She said, Chester, bring me the good whiskey."

"Did you?"

"I did. She had one sip. She said it tasted like 1989."

"What happened in 1989?" I asked.

The old man's mustache twitched.

"I asked her to marry me."

Jace turned his head so fast his hat fell off.

"Granddad."

"Don't gape. I'm seventy-six, not dead."

"You never told me."

"I never told anybody. I asked her on that exact porch, at that exact swing. She said, Chet Ransom, you ask me again when you're a better man."

"And did you?"

"I thought about it every day for thirty-seven years."

His voice was steady, but his hands, folded on the cane, were not.

"I never asked twice," he said. "I figured there was always time."

Something inside my chest cracked wide open.

I got up from the swing, crossed the porch and sat on the step beside him.

I put my arm around his bony shoulders.

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