The parking lot at the local diner was full, but then this was the time of day when the old ranchers gathered for coffee every morning. Stevie’s father had had a standing date for breakfast on Saturday mornings with some of his friends when he was alive. Cody made a couple of laps around the parking lot before he found an empty space. During that brief time, Stevie remembered being up early on a Saturday morning and asking her father if she could go with him when she was about six years old.

“No, you would be bored, sweetheart,” he had said. “We talk about politics and taxes and those kinds of things.”

“What’s taxes?” she had asked.

Her father had patted her on the head, and said, “You’ll find out when you are older. Now run along. Your mama has made pancakes for you.”

“You’re awfully quiet.” Cody turned off the engine and turned to face her. “You having second thoughts about this date?”

“Nope, just thinking about my father. When he was alive, he used to have breakfast on Saturday mornings with his buddies at this place,” she said.

“Dad used to come here a couple of mornings a week when he was able,” Cody said. “I often wonder if he misses the times that he spent with the guys his age. He never complains, but I can see how much it peps him up when some of those older men come to visit him at the ranch.”

“Ever think about driving him into town once a week so he could catch up with the whole bunch of them?” she asked.

“Yes, ma’am,” Cody answered as he slid out of the truck. “I even offered, but he told me he didn’t want to spend time away from Mama.”

He jogged around the front of the vehicle and opened the door for Stevie. “He said she was the most important person in his life, and he didn’t want to waste a single minute away from her side.”

“That is so sweet.” Stevie wanted that kind of lifetime commitment.

“Yep, it is.” Cody slung an arm around her shoulders. “It’s nice to walk beside a tall woman who can keep in step with me.”

“Well, thank you, Dr. Cowboy, for that compliment,” she said.

“Just stating the facts, darlin’,” he said with a broad smile as he opened the door into the diner.