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“Your dish pattern is beautiful, Mrs. Gibson.” Grace turned around and picked up the salad bowl Stella had set on the counter, carrying it to the table.
“Thank you. It was a wedding gift from my mother-in-law. She knew how much I loved pink.” Stella gave her a long glance. “What’s your favorite color?”
“Teal blue.” Grace shrugged. “I don’t know why for certain, other than it reminds me of being outside with my dad and brothers at the lake near our home. My mother was so disappointed I was a tomboy for most of my childhood. She had visions of pink dresses dripping in lace, ballet lessons, and afternoon tea parties. Only, I preferred wearing overalls, detested dance lessons, and was more apt to make a mud pie to throw at my brothers than quietly sip tea.”
Stella laughed. “You sound like my kind of girl, Grace. I liked to play outside with my brothers when I was young. My older sister filled my mother’s need for someone to walk in her footsteps.” She pulled a big, heavy pan from the oven and hustled over to the table, setting it on a long cast iron trivet. “Whew. I should have left that for Gary, but I think we’re ready to eat. If you’ll summon the men, I’ll get the drinks.”
Grace retraced her steps to the living room where Levi and his father discussed irrigation practices. They both stood when she entered the room. “Mrs. Marshall said the food is ready.”
“I’m starving,” Gary said, quickly setting empty appetizer plates and glasses on the tray that had held the drinks. “Good thing I was out working where I couldn’t smell that steak cooking all afternoon, or I wouldn’t have been worth a plug nickel.”
He lifted the tray and left the room. Levi picked up the other tray and glanced at the coffee table to make sure nothing had been left behind, then offered Grace a questioning look.
“You doing okay? Mom didn’t give you a stiff interrogation, did she?”
Grace started to reach for the tray, then tucked her hands into the front pockets of her jeans. Levi wouldn’t appreciate her offer of help.
She shook her head and lowered her voice to a whisper. “No interrogation. She’s a lot of fun, Levi. From the way you talked about her, I envisioned a dragon in a ruffled apron.”
A bark of laughter escaped from him. “Just wait until one of us riles her. You’ll get to witness the transformation from fun-loving housewife to angry dragon lady.”
Grace shook her head. “I doubt that very much. I might have to ask her for the cheese ball recipe. Cindy would go nuts for them.”
He grinned. “Pun intended?”
Grace winked at him as they walked down the hallway and into the kitchen. Gary pulled out Stella’s chair at the table, and she took a seat. Levi slid the tray onto the counter, then pulled out the chair next to his mother. Grace sank into it with a nod to Levi.
Levi took a seat next to her, then slid his hand beneath the table to clasp hers. She watched him from the corner of her eye as he bowed his head.
Grace followed suit and listened as Gary offered thanks for the meal and included a few words about Grace that made her glad she’d overcome her fear of meeting Levi’s parents and joined them that evening.
As they ate, Levi’s parents asked her questions and also answered hers about their farm, the types of potatoes they favored, and the process of extracting sugar from the beets they grew. She’d had no idea there were so many different types of potatoes or that new varieties were being developed all the time. It made sense that improvements in pest and disease-resistant potatoes would be a huge benefit to their operation.
“We’re too stuffed for dessert now, Ma. How about we wait a little while?” Levi asked as he helped clear the table.
The meal had been so tasty Grace had even allowed herself to have a second helping of the tender Swiss steak and an extra scoop of what Stella had called overnight salad. The dinner rolls had been soft and warm and incredibly good when topped with butter and a dollop of homemade strawberry jam.
“That’s fine, honey. Why don’t you and Grace take a walk before the rain starts?” Stella motioned toward the window with her elbow as she lifted a bowl in each hand.
“I should help with the dishes,” Grace said, carrying dishes to the sink.
“Nonsense. It won’t make Gary break out in hives to help.” Stella tossed a sassy look at her husband.
He feigned indignation but smacked a kiss on Stella’s cheek as he lifted a stack of plates and carried them to the sink.
“Come on before she changes her mind,” Levi whispered in Grace’s ear, taking her hand in his and leading her to the front of the house. Grace snagged Cindy’s hat and plopped it on her head as they rushed outside and down the front walk.
Levi headed in the opposite direction from which they’d driven to the house. They meandered past a big red barn, equipment sheds, and a shop with tall doors propped open. Inside, a tractor appeared to be in the midst of a repair with parts scattered around it on the cement floor.
“I should probably close these in case it does rain,” Levi said, veering over to the shop. It only took him a moment to pull up an iron rod that fit into a hole in the cement pad outside the shop and push one door closed, then repeat the process on the other. He disappeared inside for a moment, then returned, brushing his good hand on the leg of his jeans. “Sorry about that. If the wind catches the doors, they can flap back and forth like a sail in a storm, and it damages the frame.”
“No problem.” Grace liked the feel of Levi’s warm hand enveloping hers when he took her hand in his again, and they continued meandering down the road. The gravel crunching beneath their feet was the only sound in the stillness other than the noise of a few birds chirping in the distance.
The buildings were behind them and a curve in the road was ahead of them when they stopped to stare at the sky. It had turned from a grayish hue to shades of azure and tangerine when the sun popped out from behind the clouds as it made its evening descent toward the horizon.
Grace drew in a deep breath of the fresh air, savoring the scents of just-cut alfalfa and a Russian olive tree in bloom. The scents and sounds of being in the country were some of the things she missed most while living in the city.
It wasn’t often she and Cindy made time to watch the sunset, not that they had a good view of it from their apartment anyway.
