"Oh…my…God!"
He chuckled again as he sat on the edge of the bed and stretched. "Lordy, darlin', that was somethin'."
What was? I thought in sheer terror. "Umm, Mr. Miller-"
"Yes'um, Missus Miller?"
I couldn't have. I wouldn't have. My friends would've stopped me from doing anything so stupid. "Look, this is a bit out of character for me."
He just grinned. "I reckon so. Not every day you go marrying somebody in the middle of the night."
"Marriage." The word sent a wave of terror through my whole body as I recalled the night's events. "We got married last night."
"Darlin', ya a'right? Ya look a might pale."
I sat down on the bed to keep from falling. "I don't know. I feel sick."
"I'll get ya somethin'." He bolted to his feet and rushed out the room. When he returned he was carrying a glass of water. "Sorry, darlin'. Fresh outta aspirin."
My hands were trembling as I took the glass and gulped it down quickly. When I finished, I handed him the glass and somehow forced a smile, finally remembering his first name. "Dusty?"
He knelt down in front of me and took my hands. "Yes, darlin'?"
"I think… That is to say…" I stared at our hands together. His large hands holding mine; surrounding them as only hands as large and tender as his could. His brow was knit together in a concerned frown as he looked up at me with those eyes that saw everything. "Dammit, Dusty. Why are you so handsome?"
He smiled. "Thank ya, darlin'."
"This is so hard." I sighed, trying to think of the right words. "Last night, when we met at the bar, I got pretty drunk. I don't usually do that."
He nodded understandingly. "Don't worry, darlin'. We both got pretty drunk."
"This marriage-" Is a mistake, my mind screamed. The biggest mistake of my life and needs to be annulled right away. "Are you sure we did right? I mean, we weren't exactly in a state to make life changing decisions."
He shrugged. "Probably not, but the Good Lord has His reasons for everything."
"Yeah." Well, this is going just swimmingly, I thought as I trudged forward. "Dusty, do you think we might have made a mistake?"
He thought for a moment. "Dunno, darlin'. Maybe. I reckon we just gotta play the hand we been dealt."
This is getting me nowhere fast. "Is this what you really want, Dusty? To be married to a stranger?"
He smiled and shook his head. "Granted, it ain't the way I would've done it, but what's done is done." He narrowed his eyes. "'Less you're having second thoughts."