Page 12 of Sugarplum Dreams
“Of course he believed you. What I don’t understand is why?”
“That was my question too, although I guess I feel a little offended that you said it in that tone.”
“I’m sorry. But I don’t want you to think that this isn’t a big deal. I mean, you have five kids. And Wilson McBride… He’s…”
“I know. Successful. Upright life. An upstanding citizen in the town, a man of character?—”
“Handsome. Gorgeous. Yummy. Like, I would not mind marrying Wilson McBride, like today,” Kyra said, although Charity was pretty sure she was just kidding.
“I guess I didn’t even notice that he was handsome,” she said, although she knew that was mostly a lie. Thinking back, she had to say he definitely was. His hair was short, almost a military cut, but he had that sexy stubble on his face. It did not hide his strong jaw and Roman nose. Plus, when she thought about his big hands holding her children, she didn’t really care what the rest of him looked like, because those hands that looked so tough and strong were so tender and gentle, and it had made her heart flip over in her chest.
“He has great hands,” she said quietly.
“What?” Kyra said.
“His hands. I… I really liked his hands.”
“You are so weird,” Kyra said, and then she laughed. “But I guess I notice fingers sometimes. Like fingers that are made to play the piano or fingers that seem like they would be really good on a guitar or banjo or that seem to be made for the violin.”
“Yeah. Only he had a farmer’s hands. You know? Like, I could tell they were a working man’s hands. But…” She couldn’t tell her friend how amazing they looked holding her son and her daughter. There was just something about them that more than anything else were probably the reason that she said yes.
“Are you sure he’s not some kind of child molester or serial killer or something?” Kyra said.
“You tell me. What does the town say?”
“That he’s a catch,” Kyra said without hesitation.
“That’s kind of what I thought. And I think I would be a fool to not take him up on it, even though we didn’t talk about being in love or anything like that.” And she thought he was kind of right. It didn’t really matter how deeply in love a couple was. They could be head over heels for each other and be divorced within the year. After all, if she had to go on the strength of her feelings toward Clancy back when they had been engaged, she would have said they would have lasted forever. In fact, she probably did. But it didn’t even last ten years.
“Well, I don’t know exactly what’s going on, but if he’s legit and for real, you hit the jackpot. It might even have been worth the crappy treatment from Clancy, to have Wilson. I mean, he’ll be your kids’ dad, right?”
“Yeah. I guess we didn’t talk about specifics, but I assume that was what his point was.” He was going to watch the kids later and said she could make pies. He had said something about how he didn’t want to leave everything to her, and he wasn’t asking her to marry him just so that he could leave her for the long haul.
“I don’t know. On the one hand, it seems like there’s something fishy, but on the other, I want to believe that God is finally smiling on you.” Kyra’s voice had modulated and was soft and caring.
Charity couldn’t believe that Kyra had stuck with her. It seemed like being friends with her meant a daily dose of negativity, because there was always something going wrong, and it seemed like there was never anything going right, but she tried not to complain. Tried to find humor in the situation, and tried to laugh at herself. Although, she had to admit that there were days where it was extremely difficult.
Still, Kyra had been a good friend.
“Do you think I made the right decision?”
“When did you say you were getting a license?”
“This afternoon.”
“Wow. That’s fast.”
“I guess I didn’t see the point in waiting. Once we’ve made up our minds to do it, we might as well get it done.”
“Is that what he said or is that what you thought?”
Charity tried to remember. She couldn’t think whether it was his idea or hers, but regardless, if he had said it, she agreed. “I’m not sure. But it sounds right to me. After all, you know I don’t drag my feet. If there’s something to get done, we might as well do it. Just sitting around thinking about it makes it that much worse.”
She laughed. “I don’t know how many times you told me that you live through it twice if you sit and worry about it before you actually do it. And then that just makes it more terrible. I didn’t used to understand what you meant, but I finally started thinking about my practice sessions like that. I can put it off and put it off and put it off, dreading it all day long and finally doing the practice session in the evening, or I can get up in the morning, practice, get it over with, and feel good about it.”
“Yeah. It’s kind of like that. Only, I don’t know if I’ll feel good about getting married once we do it, but there’s just no point in thinking about it and thinking about it and thinking about it and dreading it and second-guessing myself. We made a decision. Let’s do it and move on.”
“But sometimes when you let some time elapse between your decision and moving on it, things come up that might not have come up if you hadn’t waited.”
