“I guess I hadn’t thought about it that way, but when you say it like that, I have to agree. If we are following God, and we commit to our spouse, it shouldn’t matter how old we are when we marry, if we’ve been brought up to keep our commitments and do what we say we’re going to do.”
“Exactly.”
She laughed to herself that they had gotten so far off-topic. How were they talking about relationships and discussing what God wanted? She found she agreed with him, which surprised her even more.
“Maybe you’re not as old as I thought. You must be thirty?”
“Thirty-two.”
“I see.”
“So, you know how old I am. Can I ask how old you are? Even though I know I’m not supposed to ask that or your weight.”
“I don’t think I’m going to tell you my weight, but I’m twenty-seven.”
“I don’t think the world has passed you by at that age. You’re young yet.”
“Just five years younger than you.”
“That explains why I didn’t know you. My mom said the kids were taking lessons and you had gone to my school, but I was probably out of high school before you started in that building.”
“Since both of us grew up in Mistletoe Meadows, we would have gone to the same school, but you’re right. I was a while after you, although I knew about the McBrides, and I probably knew you, although over the years, I’d forgotten.”
“So you knew Isadora?”
“Yeah. And Roland. I think one was in the grade above me and one was in the grade below.”
“But you managed to avoid being stuck in a grade with a McBride. Life is good.”
“I guess. I didn’t realize that I was lucky that way.”
“Did you always know that you wanted to work with horses?”
“I did. At least I hoped that I got to. Since I was an only child, I did a lot of work on the farm. Back when I was growing up, there was more acreage, which Dad sold off when Mom started remodeling the house. But then he had to remortgage the house, because it cost more than what they thought it was going to. The nice part about that is Mom didn’t cut any corners and everything is top-of-the-line, and it’s done very well. It’s just…very expensive.”
“I got that impression. I was really impressed when I was walking through. The designer, whoever it was, did a great job of not completely obliterating the fact that there was an addition put on, but everything flows so well it doesn’t feel jarring, the way some additions do.”
“I agree completely. I was in some of my friends’ houses, where you have basically three houses slapped together. It’s weird, although those houses definitely have character.”
“That’s true, they do. A lot more character than modern-day houses, although if someone wanted to give me a brand-new house, I would not turn them down.”
“Same. But I do love the character that an older house has.”
“I do too. The wide staircases, the natural light, and the beautiful wood are just some of the things that really impressed me when I walked through the first time.”
“I kind of wished Dad wouldn’t have sold all the grounds, because it was a nice working farm, but the twenty acres that goes with it is enough to keep a few horses and give you some room to ride around.”
“That’s kind of what I thought. Did you help him make hay?”
She couldn’t believe how comfortable she found him as they chatted about their childhoods and different things that came up. He talked a little more about his wife’s cancer, and how difficult it was for the children, and how they thought they had it beat until they started getting more bad news every time they went to the doctor. She ended up telling him about the two serious boyfriends she had in college, although neither one of them were interested in moving to a small town like Mistletoe Meadows, and she ended up ending her relationships with both of them. She told him about how she had been able to finish her degree online, other than her clinicals, and even those had been things that she had been able to do not very far from home.
They found out that they were both homebodies.
Of course, his upbringing was a lot different since he had five siblings, and he talked about that a little bit.
By the time she looked around, she realized it was almost midnight and the festival was practically deserted.
“My goodness, can you believe the time?” she said, standing up abruptly, when she saw it was almost midnight.
