if I hadn t been speeding

The woman turned to me. “I’ve raised five daughters. I’ve seen a lot of fellows come a courtin’ in my day. I can size ‘em up with a glance. Some guys are always going to be rovers. Some are way too eager. This one here is worth your time, darlin’.”

I stood there uncertain.

“Now, Miss Linda, we’ve been introduced, and you even have a recommendation on my character,” Josh grinned, his eyes on mine, eager and hopeful.

“Well, it seems I have no choice but to accept your invitation.”

“Yes!” He exclaimed.

“However,” I added with a serious tone, “the marriage offer is out of the question.”

“Hey, anyone who hates caviar is on my proposal list. But I promise not to bring it up again for a week or so. I wouldn’t want to rush things.”

“You really are cracked in the head,” I exclaimed. “Do you go around proposing to every woman you meet for the first time?”

“Only the ones who are as beautiful as you are and hate caviar.”

I gave him my address just outside Branson city limits, and he grinned at the information. When I added that I had decided to postpone my trip to Tulsa, his grin broadened even more.

As I turned my car around and headed back to the Ozarks, I wore a mile-wide Julia-Roberts smile of my own. He stood on his head. He wants to take me for a sunset picnic on the lake. He’s not afraid of the marriage word. I can’t wait to tell Lissa.

I was thinking that romance is not a lost art after all.

Mister Nobody’s-Perfect James had predicted correctly.

I was returning to Branson sooner than expected.

But not for him.

If I hadn't been speeding I might have missed the perfect stranger. ..