Page 11 of Sugarplum Dreams
“Are you still working from home?”
“I am. And I’ve been providing some baked goods to the grocery stores in town. They’ve been very good about putting them on the shelves, and they seem to be popular.”
“This time of year, I’m sure they are.”
“Yeah, just finding enough time in the day to do everything is the problem.”
“This is actually my slow time of year. I got the crops harvested, and all I have to do is feed the animals. Make sure the fences are fixed and take care of anything that’s sick. Of course, I have some equipment in the shed I’m working on as well.”
“I think a farmer’s jobs are never ending.”
“That they are.” He’d been blessed. He wasn’t dependent solely on the farm for his living. He had started a business in college that had taken off, and he’d been able to sell shares in it by the time he was a senior, hire employees, and it pretty much took care of itself, leaving him with a good income. That was how he was able to buy his farm.
His family considered him the “golden boy,” but he’d worked his butt off for that.
Speaking of his family, he had known from the beginning that this was going to go over like a lead balloon, especially with his mom. She was already dealing with so much, he hated to drop more into her lap, but he wasn’t going to have much choice. She needed to know.
“I’m going to tell my mother, but I probably won’t tell the rest of my family until we make some firm decisions.”
“We can’t really do that until we get the license and know when the preacher can marry us.”
“Can we find someone to watch the kids this afternoon, and we’ll go for a license?”
“I’m sure we probably could, but I have pies to make. Fifteen of them have to be done by tomorrow dinnertime.”
“I can watch the kids this evening while you make pies, and I can give you a hand with them once they go to bed?”
She stood staring at him, like she couldn’t quite believe it. He supposed he might have had that problem if he were her, but what did she think? That he was going to ask her to marry him, say that he could see that she needed help, and then leave her high and dry?
That was why he had to give up the Secret Saint. He knew it. Raising five children was not going to be easy. Even if there were two of them. Right now, with her doing it all herself, it was the exact opposite of easy.
“All right. I… I’m sorry. I’m just not used to people offering to help. Five kids is not a walk in the park.”
“I guess we’ll have some other things to talk about,” he said, as her walk in the park comment reminded him that he wanted to know if she would sell her house and move to the farm. Maybe they should talk about that now, although he would have to be okay with whatever she decided.
Deciding that it could wait, he sat Evans back down on the floor and stood to his feet.
“I’ll see if Mom can watch the kids this afternoon, and I’ll double-check with the preacher to make sure that he’s okay with marrying us on Christmas, then I’ll be back…by one o’clock?”
“Yes. I’ll be ready to go get the license at one o’clock.”
She sounded like he had asked her if she was ready to face her execution at one o’clock, although maybe he was in a way. After all, the first time she got married, it hadn’t ended well, and she surely had some trepidation about this marriage. She didn’t know him nearly as well as she had to have known her first husband, and after what she’d been through, he supposed she was probably extremely leery.
With a nod in her direction and a smile at Evans, he walked out the door. Maybe his heart was a little bit heavy. Because while he was still sure that he was doing what the Lord wanted him to do, he understood now that it was going to be a lot harder than he had originally anticipated. And there was still a part of him that didn’t really want to give up the idea that he might eventually find the person who was perfect for him and get married and live happily ever after.
But he pushed those thoughts aside. God could do anything, and he had to believe that. Maybe, God could even make love bloom between him and the overworked, hassled, harried, and rejected mother in the house behind him.
Chapter Six
“I’m sorry, I thought you said Wilson McBride asked you to marry him.”
“That’s exactly what I just said,” Charity said into her phone as she watched her children play in the yard. She sat on the back porch steps and watched them swing on the swing and ride their bikes. They had a big front yard, but there was no fence between the yard and the street, and she was afraid to leave them all there unless she could watch them like a hawk.
“And what did you say? Yes, right?” Her best friend, Kyra, didn’t even try to hide the tone of her voice which said that Charity would have been six kinds of fools to say anything but yes.
She almost wished she would have said no just so she could say that to Kyra now. Except, it would have been stupid.
“Yes. That’s exactly what I said, and he seemed like he believed me.”
