Loved By Levi

Thirty-Three

Levi

"How you feelin' son?"

I cleared my throat and pulled at my tie one more time. "I feel good."

Russ Brannan clapped me on the back with his big, calloused hand. "Glad to hear it. Well, I supposed I better go check on my girl."

I turned to look him in the eye and stuck out a hand to shake his. "Thank you, sir."

Russ nodded in his usual gruff way but I could see the smile he was trying to hold back. "I know you'll treat her right. And if ya don't, I know where to find you."

I held back a laugh. "Yes, sir."

"Well, alright then. I'll see you in a few. Nice boots." With that, he turned on his heel and closed the door of the spare bedroom I'd been set up in by Marnie Boone, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

Russ was a good guy, I knew that. Actually, he was the type of guy I really strived to be, especially for the sake of a beautiful redheaded girl that had his eyes. That was part of the reason I'd gone out with Jack Boone to pick out a pair of dressy black cowboy boots, which he'd helped me polish until I could almost see myself in them. I figured since Russ had set me up with a job as a farm hand it was about time I got a decent pair of cowboy boots.

I took a deep breath and looked myself up and down in the mirror. As much as the rented tux itched, it sure did look snazzy. Arguably, I almost looked good enough to deserve Mylee. While Russ hadn't rented a tux, he looked good, too, in black wranglers and a white shirt with a suit coat and tie. I knew Mylee would have been fine with me wearing something similar, but I really had my heart set on impressing the girl of my dreams on the most important day of our lives.

I thought back to a conversation we'd had over a year ago, before making the huge decision to move back to her home town together. It had absolutely blown my mind when she revealed that when we first met she didn't think she deserved me. I mean, really, who in their right mind would ever think that? If one of us wasn't good enough for the other, there was no doubt in my mind that it was me. I may have been a throwaway kid who's dad didn't even stick around long enough to see born, and whose mom traded for a life of drugs, but with Mylee I felt a different kind of unworthiness. With Mylee it wasn't the terrible childhood and bad past decisions that made me feel unworthy; instead it was the fact that she was truly amazing.

Mylee always thought before she spoke (as long as she was sober), she was beautiful, she was a straight A student who had just graduated from online college with her bachelor's degree in journalism, she was kind...the list went on and on. Oddly, even though being with Mylee made me feel like I would never be worthy of her, she also had a way of making me feel like I was absolutely enough. She did what no other human had ever bothered to do and made me a priority in her life. She cared about me more than anyone else in this world ever did, and the thought of spending the rest of my life with her made my heart swell.

I took one more look in the mirror and sucked in a deep breath. Maybe I didn't deserve her, but I wanted to spend the rest of my life proving just how bad I wanted to. I wanted to kiss her before turning out the lights every single night and wake up to her beautiful face every morning. I wanted to tease her about the way her hair stood up in the mornings and drink my coffee on our front porch with her, just sitting in silence. I wanted to come home from a long day at work and see her waiting on our porch swing in my t-shirt, red hair blowing in the breeze. I wanted to spend every day of the rest of my life treating her like the queen she was and doing little things that would prove my true and unfailing love for her.

I knew Russ had felt the same way on his wedding day, mostly through hearing little snippets of conversations between him and Mylee about her mama. It hurt my heart to remember that sometimes the person you love most can be taken away from you in the blink of an eye, and I prayed every night that I would never have to go through losing Mylee like Russ had lost his Rose. I wondered how Mylee was holding up through all of the wedding prep, realizing that if I was thinking this much about her mama, she had to be crying by now. Even though watching her cry hurt my heart, it also made me smile. I had never met another person so empathetic in my entire life. The past year and a half had brought plenty of tears to her eyes, but luckily I'd been able to wipe most of them away. Now, my heart ached for her and I said a quick prayer that Marnie was keeping her distracted and helping her get ready. The last thing I wanted was for her to cry without me there to make her feel better, especially on our wedding day.