#withmusic

Then he stepped into the bar, tall enough to see above the trees with those legs. She took in the sight of him and couldn’t stop the full smile that spread across her lips. He was easy on the eyes, that was for sure, and Grace was certain in that moment that there was absolutely nobody else that she wanted. She watched as he drifted over to the bar and turned her attention back to Tommy.

“Well I’m meeting a few friends,” Tommy said, excusing herself from the table. “I’ll see you around, don’t get into too much trouble tonight, alright?”

Grace waved her off, swirling the straw around in her glass of ice water. He approached the table with a smile. “Howdy,” he said after a minute, taking a few swallows from her beer.

“I didn’t know people still said ‘howdy’,” she teased, watching as his eyes brightened.

“Well we do. Anyway, I was wonderin’ if you might wanna dance,” he said, glancing in the direction of the dance floor, then added for clarification, “with me.”

A laugh slipped past her lips as she swung her legs over the side of the chair, sliding her hand into his offered one. “Of course I do.”

He led her out towards the dance floor, and Grace took note that she couldn’t move as easily as she did even a month ago. On instinct, she rubbed a hand over her stomach.

“You feelin’ okay?” Judd asked, as if the movement were a cry for help.

Grace drew her lips together into a straight line. He was obviously worried that she was going to overdo it, with her growing belly filling the space between them. “I’m feeling fine,” she said incredulously.

She didn’t miss the sheepish smile that crossed his features, it was a look she’d seen on him many times before, increasingly so with the passing weeks. It also meant that asking her now didn’t mean that he wasn’t going to question her another five times before they sat down.

“You look beautiful.”

Grace glanced down at the dress, with its floral detail cascading over her baby bump and then back up into his face. He set a hand on her waist then enveloped her much smaller hand in his own as they started to sway to the music that played. “Thank you. You look quite handsome yourself.”

“I had this feeling that I just might meet someone who’d change my life tonight.”

“A feeling, huh?”

Judd didn’t respond to her teasing, instead shaking his head a little. “You have changed my life, Gracie, even before the first time I met you. I wouldn’t be who I am now without you. There’s a lot I don’t know if I’d have made it through without you there. Your voice, your words, your presence—were life-changing.” She swallowed against the sudden thickness in her throat, the emotion that Judd’s words uncovered overwhelming her all at once. They gazed into each other’s eyes as Judd led her around the dance floor with a confidence that came with the familiarity of time.

“You would have,” Grace finally said, as they moved across the dance floor. “You’re the strongest man I know, Judd. You’ve made it through everything so far in life, and you would’ve made it through that, even if I wasn’t there.”

Judd shook his head a little. “No, and I don’t wanna think about what it would’ve been like—”

“You don’t have to,” Grace reminds him, a small smile crossing her face at the verbal reminder that she didn’t have to go through life without him, either.

“You’re right.” Judd said as he looked down at her, his expression soft with a fondness that Grace never thought she’d experience. A love like theirs was steady and strong, adventurous and thrilling, grounding and life-changing, all at the same time.

They continued to sway to the music, reenacting their first time meeting at this very same bar. Judd swept his thumb over her cheek, the fondness that Grace could so easily see in his eyes reflected in his touch. He dipped his head down to give her a kiss until she pressed a hand against his chest to stop him.

“Judson Ryder, you know that is not how it went. You’d better do it right.” Grace waved an accusatory finger in her husband’s direction, watching as he rolled his eyes.

“You serious?”

Grace raised an eyebrow as she looked up at him, unable to restrain the smile that spread across her face. “What do you think?”

*

The last thing that Grace had expected when she’d met with a few of her friends was to have such a tall man approach her at their table. Well, really, he hadn’t approached her—more like he’d been dragged behind his pretty friend, Tommy.

But the second their eyes met he’d smiled at Grace, looked at her in a way that nobody else had, not once in her life. That look alone made Grace feel things, her stomach clenching, indicating that something was happening even if she didn’t know exactly what that was. Then he’d opened his mouth and smiled at her and she felt as though her heart had stopped, “I’m Judd.”

The second the words slipped past his lips she knew exactly who he was. This man that she’d been talking to through prayer hotline at the church. He’d called one night, obviously struggling and feeling alone, broken-hearted and hopeless, and he couldn’t understand why he’d been the one to survive. He’d been worlds away from self-worth when they first spoke. Then he’d called again and again. As time passed the calls had become less about emergencies and true help that Judd needed, quickly changing into him calling Grace for general life advice. Finally, he’d started calling just because he wanted to hear her voice, hanging up on the other operators who answered the phone until he got her on the line. Which was both terribly inconsiderate and really sweet.

So she’d been too afraid of hurting Judd to tell him that she was leaving the prayer hotline earlier in the week.

It didn’t make sense to feel like she knew this man who she’d never laid eyes on before tonight. Yet she did feel that way and knew him, in an unexplainable way, down to her core. All of her instincts telling her that this is where she was meant to be. Of all the bars in town, how did they both just so happen to be here?

She swayed with Judd on the dance floor, trying not to over analyze it as she moved with him around the dance floor, feeling unusually at ease with his hand on the small of her back. He’d taken the time to tell her about how things had gone with the woman he was trying to make amends with, and let her know that she hadn’t in fact spit on him. She’d forgiven him after all this time.

“I know this is really forward of me, but uh—” Judd flushed but made sure he looked her in the eyes. Grace was fairly certain that if they hadn’t been dancing that he might be even more awkward, though it barely seemed possible. “I’d really like to kiss you.”

Grace’s eyebrows shot up a little as she looked at him, trying not to allow it to transform into a full blown smile.

“Do I look like the kind of girl that kisses a man she only just met?”

“You look like the kind of woman that a man would give up everything for.” Judd cleared his throat again, a perfect flush working its way into his cheeks, and it was all too tempting to reach up and brush her fingers over the soft pink blooming there.

“Plus I’m not sure if it counts as just meeting when we’ve been talkin’ for months now,” Judd added. “You know more about me and what I’ve been through than literally anyone in this world, Grace. You’re the furthest thing from a stranger.”

Grace stopped swaying, looking up at him with a soft smile on her face. The way that his words made her stomach clench was unfamiliar and intoxicating all at once. Feeling this connection with Judd, even if she was only seeing him for the first time today, it made her want him to kiss her now.

Judd looked down at her curiously, his body stilling as well.

“I’d like it if you kissed me,” Grace finally said, watching a smile spread across Judd’s face.

One hand remained on Grace’s waist and he drew her slightly closer from the point of contact, his other hand shifting up to her shoulder, and his thumb brushed lightly against the curve of her neck. That simple, intimate touch made her long for more, for his lips to press against her own. As he bent down her eyes slipped closed, waiting for the feeling of his lips against hers.

Instead, a few seconds later she felt his lips brush against her cheek, pressing a soft kiss there. “I’m a gentleman,” Judd said against her hair before he stood up fully. “If you want more than that you’re gonna have to stick around.”

Grace laughed softly, shaking her head as Judd began to move her around the dance floor again.

And who was she kidding? They both knew that she would.

*

“I know this is really forward of me, “ Judd said and Grace looked up at him with a satisfied grin. He shook his head at her affectionately, though a smile tugged at his own lips. “I’d really like to kiss you.”

“Do I look like the kind of woman that kisses a man she only just met?”

So it looked like she wanted to do the whole bit.

Judd continued to sway as he looked down at her, not able to tear his eyes away from her face.

“You look like the kind of woman a man would give everything up for,” Judd said, remembering the words he spoke in the past. He dropped one hand to her rounded belly, unable to stop the warmth in his chest from spreading. “The kind of woman that a man wants to spend forever with; to make a family with.”

“Judd,” Grace whispered. He bent down and kissed her cheek softly. She waited until he pulled back to look at him impatiently. “Is that how you kiss your wife?”

Judd laughed quietly. “There’s no makin’ you happy, is there? Kiss you like I’m someone you just met, kissing you like you’re my wife—”

“If you don’t stop talking and kiss me already—”

Cutting her words off, Judd moved one hand to the back of her neck, and dipped his head down to kiss her. There wasn’t any pretending that this was their first time, and no awkwardness of getting used to the taste and feel of the other person.

There was a familiarity of thousands of shared kisses, Judd’s knowledge of what Grace liked and what she didn’t. The taste of strawberry lip balm flooded his tongue as he swept it along the crease of her lips, her fingers bunching his shirt at the sides. She pulled back a few moments later, breathless as Judd rested his forehead against hers.

“Let’s go home,” Grace whispered.

“Baby, we just got here.”

“I know.” Grace threaded their fingers together and Judd smiled down at her. Staying in place he brought her hand up to press a kiss against the back of her hand.

❤︎Photos