My real-life romantic comedy

My husband and I didn’t go on our first date until July 1994, but back in June 1994 I had a sudden realization that something could possibly be brewing between us.

One fine Texas Saturday afternoon in June, I borrowed my friend Lisa’s Nissan Pulsar to attend a piano recital at a nearby college. Lisa was busy at her apartment and didn’t mind me borrowing her vehicle. A quick cruise down the highway a few miles in Lisa’s cool car with the T-top off was just the thing.

Gorgeous, gigantic fluffy white clouds filled the sunny sky, the temperature in the high 80s, a perfect summer day. I should have expected the pretty cotton-ball clouds wouldn’t last.

Those fluffy clouds I mentioned? Yep, looked sorta like these.

That afternoon, C.J.’s younger sister was playing piano at the recital, so he was there too. I saw him in the small crowd. He smiled and waved. I happened to notice that he wore his nice white shirt, favorite Wranglers and his beloved cowboy boots.

Then came the recital’s intermission. I knew right away something was wrong as I stepped from the auditorium out to the hallway. Someone opened the side door and I glimpsed gray skies, not yellow sunshine outside.

It was pouring rain outside, a Texas thunderstorm, and I’d left the T-top off my friend’s car! Lisa was going to kill me, and I didn’t blame her one bit.

And then I saw C.J., and in my eyes he looked like a knight in cowboy boots.

“C.J., I need your help. I’ve really gone and done it.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I borrowed Lisa’s car, and left the T-top off.”

We raced out the door to the parking lot. Thunder boomed. Rain poured. We were soaked within seconds as we struggled to put both sides of the car’s roof back in place.

Without saying anything more, we jumped inside the Pulsar to take refuge from the storm. An inch of water had pooled inside on the floor of the car.

C.J. and I looked at each other and burst out laughing. I apologized for his boots getting sopping wet, and he told me not to worry about it.

“But we can’t go back in, not like this,” he said, his blue eyes twinkling.

“No, we can’t.” We laughed some more, and headed back to town so I could face the music with Lisa. Even though we weren’t a couple then, I felt a spark that day.

In this bad situation, C.J. came to my rescue, risked ruining his boots, and was there for me as I explained to Lisa what happened to her car. I knew then that there could be something more than our easy friendship between us.

Thankfully, Lisa’s car was fine after it dried, C.J.’s boots were fine, too, and Lisa forgave me.

In the twenty years C.J. and I have been together, we’ve met all kinds of situations head-on in a similar way. With humor, and together.

Do you have a funny story from your real-life romance?

If you’re looking for a Texas romance that includes a pair of great cowboy boots, I hope you’ll check out book one of my series set in Starlight, Texas: Catch A Falling Star. You can find out more about the whole series here.

Lynette Sowell (34 Posts)

Lynette Sowell is the award-winning author of over 15 titles for Barbour Publishing, Harlequin, and Abingdon Press. Lynette was born in Western Massachusetts in the shadow of the Berkshire Mountains, raised on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, but makes her home on the doorstep of the Texas hill country. She loves reading, cooking, watching movies, and is always up for a Texas road trip. When she's not writing fiction, she works as a reporter for her city newspaper and has a weekly column called My Front Porch.