Sam Cain was glad he wasn’t likely going to have to use his pistol for a while.  His hands were sweating so badly, the odds were he would drop the durned thing before he could pull the trigger.  For the third time in as many minutes he wiped his hands on his trousers, then pulled at the suddenly too-tight collar around his neck.  Glancing over, he stiffened as he saw Teaspoon’s hastily suppressed grin then relaxed a bit, grinning back at the older man.   He was acting like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar and waiting for Mom to tell his dad and he knew it.  Silly as it seemed he was scared—probably even more scared than he had been the first time he’d promised to “love, honor and cherish.”  Back then he’d been little more than a boy but now he was a fully-grown man.  Shoot he had faced down more than his share of criminals in his time and hadn’t been this nervous. What did he have to be nervous about, he wondered.  He’d gotten past the hard part of it —he’d asked Emma to marry him and she’d said yes.  But now, standing at the front of the church, waiting for the woman he loved to walk down that aisle towards him . . . well, it just didn’t seem possible that she would actually go through with it. His mind took him back to the first time he’d seen Emma Shannon.  She’d driven that buckboard like it was a much smaller buggy and had handled Tompkins over at the general store like a mother would handle a naughty child.  Tompkins had been eating out of her hand by the time she was done with him, Sam remembered with a low chuckle. She hadn’t struck him as a pretty woman at first.  Her hair had been pulled back in a tight bun and her clothes while clean were worn and didn’t show much of the figure underneath.  But there’d been something about her.  He’d seen it then and recognized the quiet dignity with which the woman held herself.   Getting to know her hadn’t been easy.  She’d seemed a bit standoffish, not socializing with the other women in Sweetwater.  They’d taken that to heart, of course, making her the subject of a lot of brutal gossip.  The fact that she was a single woman, living alone on that farm of hers, led to more stories about her past than any one person could have lived.   Of course, the fact that she never responded to the snide remarks or vicious storytelling had piqued his interest in the “widow” Shannon.  He’d tried to chat her up a couple of times only to be rebuked, politely but rebuked none-the-less.  It wasn’t until Teaspoon Hunter and the Pony Express had come to town that he’d had the chance to really get to know her. The rumor mill had gone wild when it was discovered that, not only Teaspoon, but several strapping young men would be staying on the Shannon farm.  Still Emma had stood her ground in the face of the looks and mutterings from the other women in town.   Things had started looking up for a while until Evan Crandall had come to town.  Sam thought he’d lost his chance at that point.  Emma had loved the man, had conceived a child with him.  Somewhere someone had smiled on him though and he got her back.   They’d had their problems, sure.  There was a time when his own stubbornness and her independent spirit had almost torn them apart.  But he’d known even then that she was the only one he would ever love and he knew she felt the same way.   And now he was standing, fidgeting like a little child, waiting for the one person he could honestly say he loved more than anyone in the world to walk down the aisle and become his wife.   A nudge from Jimmy Hickok brought him back to the present.  Emma stood at the end of the aisle with Buck on one side and Ike on the other.  Cody and Kid were following the trio so closely they were almost stepping on the others’ heals.   The boys had almost come to blows over who would have the honor of giving the bride away.  He solved part of the problem by asking Jimmy to be his best man and left it up to the others as to who would be doing what.   Emma had wanted Lou to be her maid of honor.  After a lot of debate, it had been decided that “Lou” would be sent on a ride and Emma’s cousin “Louise” would arrive by stage just in time to take part in the festivities.  Sam had been amazed at the difference a dress and some lace had made in the young woman’s appearance.  No one would have ever recognized her as the scrawny young rider who’d ridden hell-bent-for-leather through town two days earlier, mochilla across “his” saddle.  She stood now across from Jimmy, smiling from ear to ear. But Sam didn’t even notice her.  He had eyes only for his bride-to-be.  Emma had never looked more beautiful, he decided.  All the hardness that running the ranch had forced on her was gone in the softness of the dress she wore.   This being her second marriage, she wasn’t wearing white or a veil but, right at that moment, Sam wouldn’t have cared if she was wearing a burlap bag.   The quintet reached the bottom of the steps and Buck and Ike fell back to let the other pair of riders take over.  Sam stepped forward as Emma gave all four boys a kiss on the cheek and then let Cody and Kid escort her up to the man she was going to marry. Taking her hand, Sam and the woman he loved turned to face Teaspoon who, in his best preacher’s voice, intoned “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here in the sight of God . . . “ ~~~~ My Only Love Written by Jimmy Fortune Sung by the Statler Brothers on their album Statler Brothers Greatest Hits You and I were meant for one another Today we’ll join our hearts eternally And this moment I'll always remember All the words that mean so much to me And you're my only love My only love And I just thank the Lord above For you each day I can't believe the way I feel You're so special You're so real And I know you'll always be My only love Listen closely to the words I'm sayin' I know I never meant them more For your love only, I've been prayin' You and I are what this love is for... And you're my only love My only love And I just thank the Lord above For you' each day I can't believe the way I feel You're so special You're so real And I know you'll always be My only love I know you'll always be My only love Email Cathy HOME