She hated her name. She had always felt unlucky but had plugged along with a smile on her young, hopeful face, never expecting much happiness from life.

Until Muley.

The first time she saw him, he was sitting at a table in the Long Branch, looking down into his beer and glowering. Just another slim, young cowboy with a mop of unruly brown hair. Her initial friendly approach had been rebuffed, but Lucky saw something in him that intrigued her. He definitely had an attractive face, but it was more than that.

"Just thought you might want to talk, you being alone and all. And it's kinda my job," Lucky said with a smile, sitting down uninvited.

"I been here two weeks now, and Miss Kitty, the owner, says I'm too young for this kind of work," she continued.

"Well, you ARE!" Muley snapped. His eyes took in the girl dressed like a saloon woman.

"I'm not as dumb as I look!" Lucky's eyes narrowed in anger.

"Well, THAT'S a good thing!" Muley replied.

Staring at him, she didn't even mind his brusque words and rudeness, sensing something more behind his tough façade. Her relentless bantering was finally managing to get through to him.

Then Muley's quick, unexpected smile instantly transformed his sullen face and made Lucky's insides tingle. It was like the sun coming out through gloomy gray clouds.

Lucky smiled back, and a connection was formed. From then on, the young woman was his and only his. Her passion became to make him smile, to be around him, to watch his face, and to just talk with him.

Barely seventeen, Lucky had led a sheltered, lonely life until necessity had made her get a job as a saloon girl. She had left her unbearable stepmother and uncaring father, determined to work for one year to earn $1,000 so she could go East and become a "lady."

Fortunately, she HAD been very lucky to have chosen the Long Branch from all of the possible saloons in Dodge. And very lucky to have Kitty Russell as her first boss. The beautiful red-haired woman kept a close and protective eye on her saloon girls, and would not tolerate any abusive treatment from the cowboys and gamblers.

Kitty did not think young, naïve Lucky should be working in a saloon, but at least she could keep an eye on her in the Long Branch. Her radar went on alert as she watched Lucky hover over Muley like a bee to a flower.

An uninhibited, child-like young woman, Lucky looked for Muley on the street the next morning and asked him to eat with her, telling him she had never eaten with any other man than her Pa before. Scowling, the cowboy relented and ended up having a good time, enjoying talking with another young person.

Despite his youth, Muley was the leader of a small group of outlaws and was planning on robbing the bank in Dodge. Before meeting Lucky, he had back-shot the Marshal in an attempt to make the robbery easy, but Matt had soon fully recovered.

Having to make new plans, Muley had to fight the distraction of Lucky's adoring attention. He tried to avoid her for two days, but could not stay away or deny his deepening feelings for the young woman.

"I look at you and things get all mixed up! I like you more than a little bit. I like you too much!" the anguished young man told her.

She convinced him to go on a walk with her to her favorite place to think and sit and be quiet. Running up a grassy hill outside of town, he was surprised to see that a graveyard was their destination…Boot Hill.

Lucky found a yellow prairie flower, picked it, and put it in Muley's buttonhole after he gently pulled her close and kissed her. She had told him to earn the flower.

"Oh Muley! I wanna pick you hundreds and hundreds of flowers!" She laughed and spun around, arms wide open to the warm breeze, the bright sun, and her overwhelming happiness.

The young cowboy grinned watching her. 'Ain't it supposed to be the other way, me picking them for YOU?'

Looking over at him with her bright green eyes, Lucky piped back, "I'd like that too, but no reason it can't be both ways!"

Their happiest time together was suddenly ended with the discovery of the crude wooden marker for the grave of Muley's older brother. Rex Proddard had raised his younger brother, and been shot down committing a robbery. The shock jerked Muley back to the harsh reality of why he and his gang had come to Dodge.

His smile changed to a fierce frown as he yelled at the started young woman:

"The sorriest day of your life is the day you said hi to me! 'Cause I'm gonna HURT ya Lucky! I don't want to, but I'm gonna!"

Lucky reached out a hand, but Muley backed away.

"There's something I gotta do, don't know how, but I'm gonna do it!"

There was something about the young man that worried Kitty. Her worst fears came true after he and his gang were fooled into thinking they had waylaid a gold delivery through a dark alley.

Matt had suspected Muley of being an outlaw after finding an old wanted poster of his dead brother. He had made a point of loudly saying goodbye to Kitty with Muley standing nearby at the bar, stating that he would be gone for a day or so. Shortly after, Festus had come in and loudly asked Kitty where the Marshal was since a shipment of gold dust would be moved through town later that night.

Matt, Festus, and Thad had then trapped the three men, and in the ensuring shootout, Muley was shot by one of his own gang while he was trying to protect Lucky who had gotten in the way after following him.

Lucky bent down over Muley, lying in the dirty alley, pleading "I didn't mean you no harm! I just wanted to talk to you!"

The dying man reached up with his ebbing strength and took her hand as he looked into her distraught face with infinite sadness.

The young outlaw had sacrificed himself for love, and died with Lucky's tears falling on him.

Kitty understood her heartbreak. Yes, it turned out that Lucky's man had tried to kill hers, hating and blaming all lawmen for the death of his brother, but she couldn't blame Lucky's heart for choosing Muley.

When she heard the young woman crying into her pillow in the wee hours of the night, Kitty would go to her and silently hold Lucky until she cried herself to sleep.

Lucky stayed on as one of Kitty's saloon girls until she had earned enough money to head East the following year. She was popular and friendly, but her smile never again reached her eyes, and she held back from anything more than being business-like with the male customers.

Some women, even young women, only love deeply and truly one time with one man. Even death can not stop the love, only change the form.

Lucky had planted wildflowers atop Muley's grave on Boot Hill, and shortly after, the somber site was transformed by the riotous blooming. Picking them, she would inhale their sweetness and cradle them in her arms as she slowly walked home. They had been nourished by Muley and were a part of him.

It was a cruel irony that the graveyard atop the windswept hill was the first place Muley had kissed her when she gave him a wildflower, and now was where she came to sit by his grave and think of him and his dying words:

"I'd have picked flowers for you. Honest, I would have."

End.