Save the Date (Complete)

Chapter 3

May sat on the edge of the small, rickety, wooden walking bridge and dangled her feet in the cold water. It was almost May, but Texas was hot for the time of year and the water was cool as it played with her toes.

"I almost got married again today." May pulled one of her feet up so she could rest her chin on her knee. Her dress moved around her and her German shepherd sat on the silky material to comfort the distraught woman.

She couldn't have cared less about her dress. The bridge she was occupying was filthy and the dog's paws were no cleaner, but the dress would end up where her veil ended up. In the trash. What did a little dirt matter?

Pulling the dog closer to her, May scratched his ears and used the only sympathetic listener she had. "My stupid, meddlesome guardian had to come spoil it all for me. I just want to move his thumb off me and be rid of him."

The dog looked up at her in his own little way of communicating.

"I agree. But I haven't asked him for anything since I graduated. I just want to live my own life." May laughed. "I sound like a kid from a movie who has to live a perfect life but all she wants to do is go outside and get dirty. Well, it's not all that it's cracked up to be!" May shouted into the empty wilderness. She reached for her dog again. "It can be just you and me, Shilo." May rested her head on the rope railing watching the water trickle past her toes.

"So who is the unlucky man?"

Shilo began barking as soon as the man's voice reached May's ears. "Shilo," May said quietly, calming the dog down at the same time. She looked at the man, but couldn't see anything with the sun behind him, blinding her eyes. "I'm sorry?"

"The man who isn't holding you now," the man explained. "He's unlucky." The man moved closer to May causing her to stand up. She caught a glimpse of the dark hair before the sun blinded her again. She shielded her eyes with her left hand.

"Elijah." The man held out his hand. "Elijah Winderson. You look awful pretty in white."

"Thank you." May unconsciously smoothed her dress down despite the fact that she had gotten a non-wrinkle material for her latest dress at the altar. "I'm May." She took his hand, feeling the strength in the hand shake.

"Are you still planning on getting married?" Elijah asked.

May dropped the hand. "Someday. I just have to find another man."

Elijah cleared his throat and dropped his cowboy hat on head. "Well, while you are looking for him what do you to pass the time?"

"Sit here," May said, swinging her hand in a large arc to encompass the area.

"Do you live around here, or is this where you come after you leave some guy at the altar?"

"He left me," May said. The words were emotionless because she had never loved Eddy. Something that probably should have bother her a little, but didn't.

"Then he is stupid as well as unlucky."

"I'm the unlucky one." May said before she turned and smiled at the man. "But I'm over it. So what do you do when you are not talking to abandoned brides?"

"I'm a stockbroker."

"You're a little far from Wall Street." May picked up her purse and her gloves off the bridge.

"I'm visiting my sister."

"I see. I better be going." May turned and headed away from the man. "Shilo, come."

The man ran after her. "May, wait up. How about I treat you to lunch. It's the least I can do for you."

May glanced at the man and studied him now that the sun wasn't blocking her view. The man was taller than she was, a feat the last two husbands hadn't been able to achieve. She could catch a glimpse of his dark hair underneath his cowboy hat and it seemed to her that he had all his hair. He wasn't bad to look at. She noticed that he had a soft appearance but working as a stockbroker explained that.