“You can have my bed tonight,” the cowboy whispered, his rough voice barely louder than the winter wind against the cabin walls. “But don't mistake my kindness for pity. I've wanted to tell you something since the day you arrived.”
The extraordinarily beautiful woman sitting on the edge of the enormous wooden bed looked up at him with trembling brown eyes. She was thirty-two years old, weighed nearly seven hundred and seventy pounds, and had spent most of her life believing that a man as handsome as the one standing before her could never love her without expecting something in return.
Her chocolate-brown prairie dress spread across the thick quilts, its lace-trimmed neckline resting against her broad shoulders. Loose chestnut curls framed her flushed cheeks, and her full hands gripped the fabric gathered over her lap as though she feared the slightest movement might destroy the tenderness between them.
The cowboy stood close enough that she could see the old scar beneath his collarbone. He was thirty-six, towering and powerfully built, with a weathered face, deep green eyes, and dark wavy hair curling beneath the brim of his brown hat.
His shirt hung beside the iron stove after becoming soaked during the evening's struggle to secure the horses against the approaching storm. The lantern light moved across his bare shoulders and muscular chest as he leaned toward her.
He gently lifted her chin.
“Look at me, sweetheart.”
She tried.
But the tears gathering in her eyes made his face blur.
“Don't,” she whispered.
His hand stopped.
“Don't what?”
“Don't say something beautiful just because you think I need to hear it.”
The cowboy's expression changed.
He lowered himself slightly so that she would not have to strain her neck to meet his eyes.
“I've never spoken a word to you that I didn't mean.”
She shook her head.
“You don't understand what it feels like.”
“Then tell me.”
She looked down at the enormous folds of her dress.
“Every man who's ever looked at me has seen this body before he's seen anything else. Some laughed. Some pretended to be kind. Some wanted my money or my labor. But none of them ever looked at me the way you're looking at me now.”