Austin: Second Chance Cowboy. Shelley Galloway

I’m Alan. Are you here for our meeting?”

      “I’m not entirely sure.” He lowered his voice. “I’m here for an AA meeting?” Oh, he hated how he sounded. Like a squeaky, nervous kid.

      The way he sounded years ago when he and Cheyenne went to visit his dad in prison.

      But if Alan thought he was a weak-willed wuss, he didn’t act like it. Instead he nodded in a relaxed, easygoing way. As though Austin had asked if he thought it might rain. “You’re in the right spot. First meeting?”

      “Yep.” As if it wasn’t obvious.

      “I’m glad you came. You made the right decision.”

      Gathering more courage than it had ever taken him to climb on the back of a temperamental bronc, he said, “We’ll see about that.” Already he was thinking about exiting out of there quickly.

      “No one’s going to make you say a word.” Alan smiled encouragingly. “But you can talk if you want to.”

      “I think I’ll just do the watch-and-listen thing.”

      “Good enough.” He stepped backward and let Austin walk on in.

      He hesitated, then continued forward. Hoping all the while that he would learn the secret to sobriety. ’Cause he was already so nervous, his mouth was near parched. And the only thing that sounded as if it could quench his thirst involved Kentucky Bourbon.

      There were chairs set up in a circle. Too ashamed to see anyone he knew, he took a chair in the middle of three empty ones, then immediately regretted his decision. Did sitting by himself make him stand out even more?