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“James,” she said his name breathlessly.
“Yeah?” He found himself holding his breath. It was like she had come in such a rush just to talk to him.
“I need to talk to you.”
It was. It was because of him.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Nothing’s wrong. I just... I need to talk to you.”
She stepped out from behind her door and closed it.
He noticed that she was slightly cleaner than she had been when she left a few hours ago.
“All right. Where do you want to talk?”
Before she could answer, Aunt Carol stuck her head out the door. “Are you here for lunch? Because it’s ready.”
James’s stomach growled in response, and Mabel, who seemed rather preoccupied, glanced at it and stared for several moments before it seemed to dawn on her that he was hungry.
“We can eat first. Sounds like you need to.” She said that with a little bit of humor in her voice, but her lips only quirked a little, like her whole mind was focused on what she wanted to talk to him about.
“Food can wait if this is urgent.”
“It is not. And normally I go about things in a slightly more disciplined way, but... This is important to me, and... I probably should have spent a little more time thinking before I came running to you.”
“You can run to me anytime,” he said and hoped it didn’t sound too sappy. He didn’t want to say things just for the sake of saying things, and he didn’t want her to think he was the kind of man who did that.
Words like that were meaningless, especially if he said the same thing to every woman he met.
Which he didn’t, but Mabel wouldn’t know that. Not now. And she might not believe him if he started spouting off all the pretty words he wanted to say to her.
Somehow thinking of the pretty words reminded him of the box his aunt had been talking about but hadn’t seemed to want to tell him about.
“All right. Let’s go eat first, and then maybe we can sit on the front porch. I have a proposition to make.”
“Don’t forget about the box. We definitely want to know what’s in the box too.”
“Oh my goodness. I totally forgot about that too.” Mabel shook her head. “Today has been quite a day, and it’s only lunchtime.”
They walked into the house, with James holding the door while Mabel murmured thank you and stepped in.
James realized he hadn’t even made it into the house since he’d arrived. He’d spent so much time outside, first with Mabel, then Silas, and he hadn’t had breakfast that morning.
Part of him was dying to know what Mabel wanted to say, and part of him was just happy to go in and sit down, eat, and have a little time to spend with her.
Silas was most likely right. She wasn’t going to be swept off her feet; she was far too practical for that. She needed someone she knew was going to be there for her for the long haul. Someone who depended on God and would lead his family that way. Someone who had always been in her corner. Someone whose loyalty she would never question. Someone who showed her with his actions that she was the most important thing to him.
It could take years.
James was prepared to do whatever it took, for however long it took.
“I remembered that you loved my lasagna growing up, and I’ve made it for Mabel once, and she enjoyed it as well. So, that’s what we’re having.” Aunt Carol bustled around the kitchen. The table was already set, but she pulled garlic bread out of the oven while Mabel put an oven mitt on the table and set the lasagna down on top of it.
Knowing that Aunt Carol always had sweet tea in the refrigerator, James went to the refrigerator and pulled the container out.
“Would you like tea?” he asked Mabel, remembering that back when she was with her father, she usually got water. Normally with a lemon. Funny the things he remembered.
