Page 17 of Sugarplum Dreams
“Yes. That’s what I was trying to say.”
“All right then. That’s good enough for me.”
He shut the door and walked around the truck. He wore a button-down shirt but no coat. It was mild, high fifties maybe, and he had the sleeves rolled up and his forearms stuck out. He looked good in his jeans and boots, and she felt like she needed to pinch herself to remind herself that it was real. He reallywanted her. Although, the idea that he was just doing what God wanted him to do, while she loved that, it also made her feel…like she was just a part that he was playing and not something he really loved. It was like playing music because he had to instead of because he wanted to.
She tried to push those thoughts away though, because they weren’t helpful. So what if he was marrying her because God wanted him to? She loved a man who would do what God wanted over everything. She admired that and was grateful that he was like that.
“The pastor wanted us to stop by for a little bit of marriage counseling, although he agreed to marry us on Christmas if that’s still okay with you.”
“Marriage counseling?”
“Yeah. He was fine with us marrying, but he said that he usually has people attend several sessions of counseling before he agrees to marry them. In our case, he agreed to waive that, but he still wanted us to stop in.”
“All right. So should we do that before we eat?”
“I guess I thought that that was probably best. Not that I want to get the worst thing out of the way, but I guess I just want to get the thing that we have to do out of the way, in case something does happen with the children and we need to go home early.”
“That’s wise. All right.”
He pulled out on the road, heading toward the courthouse.
“So you have a lot of good memories of Christmas as a child?” he asked as he signaled and then checked his mirrors before pulling out and turning.
“I suppose. My parents got into the whole Santa Claus thing, and I was so bummed when I found out that he wasn’t real. I truly believed. My sister thought it was hilarious. And I oftenwished I had a younger sister, because I always thought I would be nicer to her than my older sister was to me.”
“Wow. Those are kind of mature thoughts for a kid.”
“Yeah, maybe. I just never thought she was very nice. But I suppose looking back, she just acted the way older sisters usually act. I wish I could have been brought up in a big family like yours.”
“There were definite benefits to it. But you probably had your own room.”
“That’s true, I did. But I never really learned to share it. It was such a shock when my husband and I moved in together. I wasn’t used to having to share anything.”
“There are some good lessons you can learn growing up in a big family. Is that why you decided to have a lot of children? Because you only have one sibling?”
She hesitated. There weren’t a whole lot of people who agreed with her or not necessarily agreed with her, just had never thought about things the way she did. She took a breath and then said, “I don’t think birth control is biblical.”
His brows went way up, and he glanced over at her quickly before his eyes went back to the road. There wasn’t a ton of traffic in Mistletoe Meadows at this time of day, but there was enough to keep his attention focused on driving.
“Do you have verses to back that up?”
“I don’t have a verse that says thou shall not use birth control, but God talks about how children are His reward. If we’re using birth control, we’re kind of keeping Him from rewarding us, aren’t we?”
“I never really thought about it like that, but I suppose.”
“And birth control is just as much for unmarried people who want to commit fornication with no consequences as it is for married people who don’t want to be bothered with a ton of kids.”
“That’s true. There’s a lot more of that going on, and I suppose birth control has a lot to do with it. If people were afraid that they were going to have children, they would probably engage in a lot less fornication.”
“Yeah. They’d get married younger, have bigger families. And I guess I don’t see the harm in that. I know that that kind of flies in the face of everything that society tells us we should do, but the Bible says ‘the fruit of the womb is his reward.’ God wants to reward us with children. He told Adam and Eve to go and multiply and subdue the earth. He never rescinded that comment, even though some people would think that or tell you that the earth is overpopulated. But I think that God would know that better than men.”
“I agree. And you’re right about the verses. I suppose I just never thought about it. It’s just something everybody does. And having a lot of children is a lot of work. Most people don’t want that kind of work.”
“I agree. It’s all hard work. For sure. And you can end up like me. Believing that birth control is wrong, so then you have five kids, then your husband can’t take it anymore, and he flees the country. That…doesn’t look very good for my argument.”
She was joking a little, making light of herself, and he laughed. It made her happy that he understood that she wasn’t ripping on Clancy exactly, and she wasn’t complaining or upset. But she could hardly preach it if she wasn’t living it, but when people looked at her life, she wasn’t a convincing argument.
“So you think birth control is a sin?”
