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“What stuff?” Jake asked, and Michael frowned.
“Redeye gravy.”
“Never heard of it. What is it?” Jake tore off a huge chunk of buttered bread slathered with jam and shoved it into his mouth, but his focus never left Selina’s face.
“It’s made from ham drippings.”
“Sounds like you grew up with some unusual foods,” Jake said.
Frustrated that once again Jake was occupying Selina’s attention, Michael tore off a chunk of Selina’s Southern fried chicken. There was nothing unusual about it. She made the best chicken he’d ever eaten.
“Wasn’t unusual to us.” She looked at Michael, her eyes and lips twinkling. “There was one contest you could’ve never done, Michael.”
“Oh, yeah. What’s that?” Michael suddenly felt challenged.
“The crawdad eatin’ contest.”
She was right. He would have never been able to enter that one. The others sounded fun, though.
“Crawdad tails?” Jake looked shocked. “You eat fish bait?”
“That’s what I asked her. She made me some for dinner one night. I hate to admit it, but they weren’t too bad. Even though they tasted all right, I still couldn’t eat them once I knew what they were. But at least they weren’t frog legs. I’m glad for that.”
Jake’s eyebrows rose toward the sky. “You eat frog legs, too?” He looked horrified.
Michael understood Jake’s reaction firsthand. He chuckled.
Selina shot him a scowl. “We sure do,” she said proudly. “Y’all don’t know you’re missin’.” Defensiveness stole her voice.
He hadn’t meant to hurt her feelings by laughing.
“They’re right tasty.”
“Did you ever enter your fried chicken?” Michael asked. “If so, I imagine it won.”
Her cheeks brightened to a light shade of red. Her gaze fell to her lap. “Sure did. Won first place every time.”
“I can believe it.” Jake tore off a chunk. His cheeks bulged like a chipmunk.
Conversation continued to flow as they ate. As Michael finished the last bite of his chicken, Jesse headed toward him. “Michael, can you help me a minute?”
“Sure.” He stood and looked down at Selina. “Be right back.”
She nodded.
Several yards away, he glanced over his shoulder and noticed Jake had moved around to the other side of the bench and was now sitting next to Selina. He hurried and helped Jesse chase Kitty down and put her back into her pen, then strode back over to her. “Excuse me, Jake. But I believe you have my seat.” He forced his lips to curl into a smile.
“Oh. Um. Sorry about that, buddy.” Jake picked up his plate and hurried back to the other side of the table.
Michael sat next to Selina and faced her. “What would we need to set up a few of those contests you were talking about?”
Her eyes brightened. “You mean it?”
“Yes. I think everyone here would really enjoy them.”
She threw her arms around him. “Thank you, Michael.” Her breath sent shivers skittering through him. “Okay.” She yanked out of his arms and leaped up from the bench. “First we’ll need—”
“You need to finish eating first. And no crawdad eating contest. No mention of it, even.”
“Oh, you big old teasin’ polecat. Ain’t time to catch any today and you know it.”
“Can I help with the contest?” Jake asked.
“I don’t see why not. Let’s get to eatin’ so we can have some fun.”
Michael refused to let his jealousy come between his wife’s happiness in sharing a part of her culture here in the Idaho Territory. He would work with Jake and be grateful for his help, too.
They finished eating and cleaned up.
“Okay, let’s see.” Selina glanced up at Michael standing near the barn. “We need to fetch a couple of cast iron skillets, an ax or two, four horseshoes, somethin’ to use as a spike. Need two of them. And as many empty grain sacks and gunnysacks as you can find. I need a few dozen eggs and some clean soup spoons.”
“What do you need the spoon and eggs for?”
“Well, you have teams of three. You place an egg in the spoon and carry it to the next person on your team without dropping it. Iffen you drop it, you have to go back to the startin’ line. If you don’t drop it, you hand off the egg and spoon to the next person. The first one to reach the finish line with a whole unbroken egg wins.”
“What do they win?”
Selina pressed her finger to her lip. Just what would they win? Back home there were homemade quilts for the women who won and axes for the men. No time to do that now. Or was there? “Just a minute. I’ll be right back.” Selina scurried over to Katherine.
