She was, oddly enough. With a sigh, she leaned against the counter and watched as he expertly flipped a pancake over. “Greg was my first boyfriend. I grew up with him and it seemed like I always knew him. But when I turned fourteen, he asked me out. I was delighted to be dating the cutest boy at school. My father said no.” She smiled at the memory. “And that was that. He said I couldn’t date until I was eighteen, because I wouldn’t know my ass from a hole in the ground until then.”

Hank grunted. “Smart man.”

Becca laughed. “Strict man. I know those were the longest four years of my life, as I dated no one and it seemed like everyone else around me was holding hands and going on dates. Greg went out with other girls during that time, but it felt like I was all alone. Then I turned eighteen my senior year, and Greg just happened to break up with his last girlfriend at about the same time, and the next thing I knew, we were finally a couple. I was so happy. We dated until graduation, and then my father wanted me to go away to college. He hoped to sell his ranch after I graduated, and retire from ranching. He’d always wanted to move somewhere around water. It was his dream. My dream was to be Greg’s wife.” She grimaced at the memory. “We had a big argument. Greg was taking time off before he went to college, you see, and my father wanted me to go off to school. I wanted to stay in Painted Barrel to be near the man I loved, because I was so sure he would propose marriage.” God, she had been young and stupid then.

“Did he?”

“Yeah, no. I ended up compromising with my father—I’d get an apartment in a nearby town, go to beauty school to get a cosmetology certification, and start my own business. He wasn’t thrilled with it—I think he wanted me to be some high-powered suit, but that’s not me. And by the time I graduated and set up my salon, Greg moved in. I think I was twenty.” She shrugged. “And then within a year, he moved back out again. Said it was too much too soon, that I was clingy and stifling him.”

Hank frowned.

“And maybe it was. We were both really young, so it wasn’t so bad. We kept dating, but we slowed things down. And after our five-year mark of being together, I started hinting that I wanted to get married. I wanted to start a family with him. I loved him. He said he wasn’t ready.”

Hank flipped the pancake out of the pan and slid it onto a plate, then poured batter for another pancake. “Because he was busy with college?”