A husband was performing at a nightclub-restaurant. His wife was planning their divorce.

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And she had the perfect woman in mind for her soon-to-be ex-husband — Amy Martin, an entertainment writer for the Dallas Times Herald. 

“And when I showed up to this dinner that she had invited me to, [her husband] Scooter was at the table,” Amy says. “I was a little taken aback.”

Amy had seen Scooter at some of the shows she covered. His almost ex-wife had already moved to Denton.

“They didn’t see each other much. He and his ex-wife were on really good terms,” she says.

When she met Scooter, Amy had every intention of remaining single. 

“You know, I was one of the heartbreakers. I was dating musicians,” Amy says. “And musicians are not always a long-term project.”

But Scooter was different. He was a musician with a day job.

She continued to deflect his dating requests, until the day he called while she was planting shrubs. She said she was busy in the yard, and he asked if he could come over and help.

“That did the trick,” Amy says. “Plus he looked really sexy in his shorts working a shovel.”

They dated for a while before Scooter moved into Amy’s Lakewood Heights House.  They lived together for over a decade before they figured they should make it official in 2006, right around Valentine’s Day.

A justice of the peace officated the wedding, after which the couple hosted a lunch and reception at the Eastwood home they live in today. By the day of the nuptials, everyone already thought of Scooter and Amy as husband and wife.

“What really worked is that we became friends first — I think he knew I was the one before I knew he was the one — and because I had to let go of a lot of assumptions about what my relationship life would be,” she says. 

She advises, “Allow things to grow. Don’t expect to be knocked off your feet by a thunderbolt.”

But a little falling is OK, she adds. “He has that dark-haired look that I just love. And fell for.”