“And you had your business to deal with, too. When she was doing it, she wasn’t trying to figure out what was wrong with the business and care for a spouse with cancer.”
“Good point.” He grinned up at her before flipping the pancakes.
“You look like you’re pretty good at that. So I guess that’s one of the things you learned, is how to cook.”
“Oh, I already knew that. Mom made sure that we all learned to cook before we left the house. I guess she heard horror stories of children who left home and couldn’t take care of themselves, to the point where they couldn’t feed themselves or even know how to wash their own clothes.”
“Wow. I can’t imagine serving your children to the point where they can’t do anything for themselves.”
“I know, right? Although kids spend so much time at school nowadays and then after school at sports and extracurricular activities that they really don’t have time to learn how to do those things. Or, I guess more accurately, if you’re going to teach them how to do those things, you have to be very deliberate about it, because you’re not going to be able to just make it happen, most likely.”
“That’s a good point. I guess I don’t have children, so that’s not really something that I understand, other than I know that equine therapy is something that takes kids away from the home and keeps them from having time to do those chores.” She smiled and made sure that her gaze was understanding as he looked up with a guilty look.
“I wasn’t accusing you of anything.”
“I know. We just are coming at it from completely different perspectives. Since I’ve never had kids, and I don’t really know what it’s like.”
“Well, you’ll be living with three, so you might have your eyes opened in a few ways that you weren’t expecting.”
“And I think that’s good.”
“Yeah.” He slipped the pancakes off the griddle and put two on her plate and two on his. “Think you’ll eat twice as much as that?”
“I didn’t have any breakfast this morning, so if you cook it, I’ll probably eat it.”
“All right. Let me put four more on here, and then I’ll say grace.”
He was going to say grace. That was not good for her heart, which seemed to be beating super hard in her chest, and the feeling of attraction just seemed to be amplified. She watched as his hands held the spatula, and he moved about the kitchen like he knew what he was doing. It was obvious that he wasn’t making it up, that he truly did know his way around the kitchen, and that he truly had learned to cook.
Of course, she knew that Larissa had learned as well and that teaching his kids the essentials of life seemed to be important to him.
She just admired and respected so much about him, and felt comfortable with him in a way that surprised her. Especially since their interactions at church yesterday had been awkward. But maybe that had been her, because she hadn’t known how to act now that she knew that she was going to be living here.
He set two more pancakes on her plate and then set two more on his before setting the butter and the syrup down in front of them and taking his seat.
“Ready?” he asked, lifting a brow as she nodded.
He bowed his head and said a simple prayer as she listened, thanking God that she’d met him. Whatever it was, she admired him, and even if this Darla person really was perfect for him, and…that would be awkward. She hadn’t even considered that. What if he and Darla got serious, and?—
“Amen,” he said, in such a way that she could tell he was saying it for the second time.
“Oh my goodness. I am so sorry. But I had a thought while we were praying that kind of shocked me.”
“Yeah?” he asked, and she could tell he was interested.
“Okay. Hear me out. Because I haven’t thought about this much, since it just occurred to me just now.”
“All right.”
“What if you and Darla, or you and someone else, get serious. And you get married. I…live here in your house. What is your wife going to think about that?”
He had already shoved a bite of pancakes in his mouth, and he lifted a shoulder, like it didn’t matter, before he chewed and swallowed. “We’ll deal with it. We’ll figure it out. Whoever it is, whatever she is, she’s going to have to understand that I gave my word to you, and that’s the way it’s going to be.”
He speared two more pieces of pancake, dipping them in syrup and then holding them up before he said, “I did hear from someone that it might be a little bit…not good for the town to look at us and see that we’re quote, unquote, living together?” He made it sound like a bit of a question. He held his pancakes steady and didn’t put them in his mouth, as though he wanted to make sure he saw her reaction.
“Does that bother you?” she asked, running that over in her head. She definitely had thought of that, but just in passing.
“I don’t know. I know we want to avoid all appearance of evil, but at the same time, there’s no evil going on here. It’s just me giving you a place to stay so that you can continue to run your equine counseling business from this farm. I guess I look at it as a good deed. And honestly as I was thinking about it this morning, I just had a sense of peace about it. Like this was all part of God’s plan. I certainly didn’t buy the farm thinking that you were going to stay here, and I was actually kind of castigating myself because I didn’t help you stay on the farm, instead of trying to buy it for myself.”
