The carriage door slammed shut.<\/p>\n
The sound echoed through the empty western street.<\/p>\n
The bride\u2019s sobs were muffled behind the glass.<\/p>\n
Her hand still pressed against the window.<\/p>\n
Reaching.<\/p>\n
Begging.<\/p>\n
The cowboy stood motionless for one more second.<\/p>\n
Then something inside him broke.<\/p>\n
Or maybe finally woke up.<\/p>\n
His jaw tightened.<\/p>\n
His eyes hardened through the tears.<\/p>\n
And without another word\u2014<\/p>\n
he turned.<\/p>\n
Fast.<\/p>\n
His boots hit the dirt hard as he strode toward the hitching post beside the church.<\/p>\n
The groom heard it.<\/p>\n
Looked back from the carriage with sudden unease.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat are you doing?\u201d he shouted.<\/p>\n
The cowboy didn\u2019t answer.<\/p>\n
He grabbed the reins of his horse in one sharp motion.<\/p>\n
Swung into the saddle.<\/p>\n
And spurred the animal forward.<\/p>\n
Hooves exploded through the dust.<\/p>\n
The carriage had barely started rolling when he caught up beside it.<\/p>\n
The bride looked out through tear-blurred glass.<\/p>\n
Shock filling her face.<\/p>\n
Hope right behind it.<\/p>\n
The groom shoved the carriage door open.<\/p>\n
Fury twisting across his face.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe chose me!\u201d<\/p>\n
The cowboy rode closer.<\/p>\n
Voice cold.<\/p>\n
Dangerously calm.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
He looked directly at the bride.<\/p>\n
Not the groom.<\/p>\n
Not the crowd gathering outside the church.<\/p>\n
Only her.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe chose silence because I was too much of a coward to speak.\u201d<\/p>\n
The wind carried the words between them.<\/p>\n
The bride covered her mouth.<\/p>\n
Crying harder now.<\/p>\n
The groom reached for the shotgun mounted inside the carriage\u2014<\/p>\n
but the cowboy was faster.<\/p>\n
He pulled his revolver and aimed low.<\/p>\n
One clean shot cracked through the street.<\/p>\n
The carriage wheel splintered.<\/p>\n
Wood snapped.<\/p>\n
The entire carriage lurched sideways and ground to a stop in the dirt.<\/p>\n
The horses reared.<\/p>\n
Townspeople shouted from the church steps.<\/p>\n
The bride stumbled as the carriage tilted.<\/p>\n
Then the cowboy was there.<\/p>\n
Already off his horse.<\/p>\n
Already reaching for her.<\/p>\n
The groom lunged forward.<\/p>\n
But the bride stepped back from him first.<\/p>\n
That was all it took.<\/p>\n
The cowboy caught her by the waist and pulled her safely down into the dust.<\/p>\n
Into his arms.<\/p>\n
For a moment\u2014<\/p>\n
neither of them moved.<\/p>\n
She clung to his coat.<\/p>\n
Shaking.<\/p>\n
Crying against his chest.<\/p>\n
The groom stared in disbelief.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t take her!\u201d<\/p>\n
The cowboy looked up slowly.<\/p>\n
One arm still around the bride.<\/p>\n
His voice was rough.<\/p>\n
Certain.<\/p>\n
Filled with everything he should have said before.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not taking anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
He pulled her a little closer as she held onto him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just refusing to lose her twice.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The carriage door slammed shut. The sound echoed through the empty western street. The bride\u2019s sobs were muffled behind the glass. Her hand still pressed against the window. Reaching. Begging. The cowboy stood motionless for one more second. Then something inside him broke. Or maybe finally woke up. His jaw tightened. His eyes hardened through […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":8465,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}