Page 27 of Sugarplum Dreams
“I would have said something right away. But nobody wants me, and that’s always a good thing when you have small children,” she said, holding up her phone which showed a picture of her kids in the background and no messages on her screen.
“Well then, we’re free to continue if you’d like.”
“I think we better get back. We don’t want to wear your mom out on her very first day with the kids. It would be nice if shewould agree to do it at least once more before she gets scared away.”
“I think you’ll be surprised. Mom will have the kids well in hand when we get home, and she might not even let us in, because she won’t want to give them up.”
“Well, that vision is completely opposite of what I’m afraid of, which is my kids will have the house completely trashed with your mom tied up in a closet somewhere.”
He laughed. “Give Mom some credit. She did raise six kids.”
“I know. I guess in most situations, I’m all about positive thinking and all that, but in this instance, I think that maybe it might be best to be prepared for the worst.”
“All right. You have your vision, I have mine. Mostly because I have faith in my mom. I kinda think that’s the kind of grandma you’re going to be.”
She laughed again. “I can’t even imagine being a grandma at this point. The idea of my little kids growing up and having children of their own is just so…foreign, but wonderful at the same time.”
He laughed. “Wonderful because they’re not yours to take care of anymore?”
“Maybe. Or maybe because they’ve grown up into people who love God and serve Him. That’s my only goal. Really. Other than teaching them to read and write and do a little bit of math.”
“That’s probably all we need. Although, I think the school district would like to see them do some more.”
“I have very low standards, I guess, because in that area, I feel like they can teach themselves everything they really want to, but they might not teach themselves about the Lord, that’s my job.”
“And mine,” he said as the waitress brought his receipt back, and he signed it before they stood together.
“Thank you very much. That was…the best time I’ve had in a long time.”
“Hopefully there will be a lot more times like that in your future. Although, you’re probably going to get tired of me.”
“I don’t think so. I guess I could be wrong, but I kinda feel like you’re the kind of person that I’ll always be interested in. You’re always going to have something interesting to say.”
“I’ll try. But we might end up being like other married couples who talk about bills and diapers and household repairs.”
“I guess I won’t mind that.” She sighed.
“Just because there’s someone to talk about those things with you?” he asked, and while he was only partially teasing, he was also serious, because that was almost certainly a problem. She didn’t have anyone to talk about those things with.
“Yeah. It won’t be all on my shoulders anymore. Speaking of, I’m totally fine with moving out of my house into yours and selling mine. How soon were you thinking to do that?”
“Well, if we get married on Christmas—?” He kind of let the sentence trail off as though he were asking her.
“That’s fine with me. I mean, if you’re willing to do it that quickly, I’m certainly not going to stand in your way.”
“I want to do it that quickly. Not that I’m willing. Which I am.”
She smiled at his insistence. Somehow, he felt like it was really important to let her know that this was what he wanted. Sure, he was following what God wanted him to do, but the more he talked to Charity, the more he was sure that God knew exactly what He was doing, not that he ever doubted it. But maybe it would be better for him to say the more he talked to her, the more he wanted to do what God wanted him to do, just because of Charity.
They walked out of the restaurant and moseyed down the street toward his truck.
“So if we get married on Christmas, can we use the week between Christmas and New Year’s to move into my house? I don’t want to push you, but at the same time, there’s no point in dragging our feet.”
“I agree. I know that’ll be fine. We might as well let the children know that this change is going to include moving to a new home. I… I think they’ll be excited about it. Even Gifford, maybe even mostly Gifford, if being on the farm is as fun as I think it’s going to be.”
“I’ll try to make sure that it’s fun. And Gifford can help if he wants to. There are plenty of things that an eight-year-old can do, and he’ll actually be quite an asset, I think. Although, if it is not something that he’s interested in, we don’t have to push it.”
“Thank you. Thank you for taking that into consideration and also for being willing to talk to me about it. I would have stressed about this, because I probably wouldn’t have asked.”
