THE UNLIKELIHOOD OF US

Sometimes I still wonder about the unlikelihood of it all.

One week after my husband admitted he was having an affair, I found myself in Las Vegas with a broken heart and a life that no longer looked the way I thought it did.

From the outside, I appeared to have everything going for me. I was successful, independent and capable. I had built a good life. I was not looking for someone to rescue me, and I certainly was not looking for a down-and-out Oklahoma cowboy with little more than a dream and the hope that life might still give him another chance.

Then I met Rowdy.

There was an immediate connection between us that neither time nor reason could explain. Maybe it was his blue eyes. Maybe it was that smile. Maybe it was the way he looked at me as though he could see beyond the woman everyone else thought they knew.

Whatever it was, the man stole my heart.

People may wonder how a woman like me could fall hook, line and sinker for a cowboy like him. The truth is, Rowdy came into my life when my heart was broken, and somehow, in his own imperfect way, he helped me believe in love again.

And perhaps I did the same for him.

I gave him hope when he had very little left. He gave me the courage to step away from everything familiar and begin again. Together, we dreamed of land, horses, cattle, rodeos and a life built beneath the wide Oklahoma sky.

Our story was never simple, but it was ours.

What made it last thirteen years cannot be explained by the difficult moments alone. It lasted because there was laughter. There was tenderness. There were private jokes and quiet conversations. There were long drives, shared dreams and peaceful evenings when the rest of the world disappeared.

There were the moments when no eyes were upon us, when we did not have to prove anything to anyone. In those moments, we were simply a man and a woman who had found something in one another that both of us had been missing.

There was magic between us.

Not every day. Not every moment. But enough of it to change the course of both our lives.

Rowdy was complicated. So was I. We healed one another in some ways and wounded one another in others. But the beautiful side of our relationship was real, and it deserves to be remembered.

Because for most of those thirteen years, it was beautiful.

And no matter how the story ended, I will always be grateful for the cowboy with the blue eyes and unforgettable smile who found me in Las Vegas at exactly the moment we both needed to be found.

RIP Marvin... I've got this!