The boy….

Way back in 2001 I was 17.  It was summer.   I was a lifeguard.  My friend and I had decided to go, at the last-minute, to a rodeo a few towns over.  We had gotten there late and the dance was just starting.  There were a few boys in the parking lot sitting on their tailgate.  We stopped and talked to them.  This is where, if we were in a romance novel or a teen drama, a mushy love song would start playing. I saw him: a boy 3.5 years my senior. He had very green eyes, an inviting smile, a farmer’s tan. He was beautiful. He talked to me. I smiled at him. We spent some time at the dance before a bunch of us made it back to an after-party. This handsome boy and I sat on his tailgate and talked, looking at the stars until the wee hours of the night. We shared a kiss. Just a kiss.  I stayed out past my curfew and was grounded from everything except going to work the next day. He promised to call me the next day after he got home from the lake. Boys always say they’ll call. He actually did call. I was shocked but oh so very happy. The boy and I began talking on the phone(I was still grounded for a while) then hanging out as much as possible for the rest of the summer before he went back to college and I started my senior year of high school. I worried it was just a summer fling. It wasn’t.  Today marks 10 years that we’ve been together. 10 years of laughs and tears and hugs and fights. In 10 years, there was a wedding and babies. The boy became the greatest love I never knew I could have. We have a bond that has been tested so many times but never broken.  I look at him and think back throughout those 10 years and know without a doubt he’s the only one I would want by my side. A true best friend for life. A partner in every sense of the word. I see him in my children’s eyes and actions. I look to him for advise and comfort. He is what love is all about for me. I’m so grateful to whatever force brought him to me.

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