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Chapter 5
Mabel couldn’t believeshe had almost jumped out of her car and asked a complete stranger to marry her with no warning whatsoever.
She was grateful that Carol had come out of the house and called them to dinner.
It was much better to break the ice, so to speak, as they ate and talked about Annie Oakley, and the box, and of course she had to say how delicious the lasagna was.
James was actually funny, and she appreciated the fact that he held doors and wasn’t afraid to pray. That surprised her, since she saw him as a city guy who was too modern for any of the things she might consider important.
He had been a colleague of her dad’s, but she didn’t really remember anything else about him. Some of her dad’s colleagues had been more crooked than straight.
None of them had kept in touch after his death.
Still, James didn’t really talk about his business at all but seemed interested in the fact she was interested in Annie, and he also complimented his aunt several times on the lasagna.
As they finished their meal, she got up with her plate and carried it to the sink, setting it down and turning, only to find him standing behind her with the pan of lasagna.
“Oh. I’m sorry. Excuse me,” she said. She hadn’t expected him to get up and help.
“Sure. It was my fault for standing too close.” He set the pan of lasagna on the oven and then pulled out a drawer, getting some aluminum foil to put over the top.
“You seem very comfortable here,” she commented as she grabbed a rag to wipe the table.
“I grew up with Aunt Carol. She didn’t exactly raise me after my mother died, but I spent a lot of summers at her house, most holidays, and more than a few weekends.”
“And I loved every second of it. He was the perfect child, and I would have kept him all the time if his father would have allowed it.”
“Dad would have let you, if he hadn’t been so set on me learning the business. The older I got, the less he wanted me to come see you, and the more I wanted to.”
“You mean you didn’t want to go into business? But you did it because of your dad?”
“I had to do something to make a living,” James said casually as he ripped off the aluminum foil and fitted it carefully over the top of the lasagna. “That seems to be what I was groomed for, and I can’t say that I resisted, especially once I was out of high school and started in college. I...wanted to do something that I could make a living at, and that seemed to be presented right in front of me. I didn’t buck it too hard.”
“That wasn’t your interest?”
“I guess not. I...didn’t really have an interest.” His voice was a little soft, like maybe he did have an interest, but either it was personal or he wasn’t sure about what it was. Maybe he didn’t want to talk badly about his dad, who had pushed him in a different direction.
“I guess I was lucky that way. I’ve always wanted to be a vet, and things just worked out that I was able to. After my parents died, I wasn’t sure whether I would have the money to go to college or not, but somehow it just was always there.” She finished wiping the table and straightened. “I didn’t realize you lost your mother.”
“Yeah, I think I was ten. It was hard, but you get over it.” He brushed it aside, and she couldn’t blame him. Sometimes she didn’t want to talk about the death of her parents. They hadn’t exactly been a family who had been super close, but losing one’s parents was always hard. She couldn’t imagine a little boy losing his mother. At least she had been older.
Mabel hadn’t considered asking James to be anything more than a husband in name only. Someone who would marry her, then forget he had a wife when he returned to the big city. She had thought he wouldn’t be interested in anything more, and she had certainly not been.
But then, he had surprised her with his conversation at the table, and part of her felt that maybe she was asking the wrong person. Maybe there was more to him than the desire to make his business as big and successful as it could possibly be. Maybe he really would be interested in having a wife and family.
She had been using the standard she’d used for her dad, who had very seldom been around the family, and the only time she really saw him was when they went on business trips together. And that she felt was more because she was socially awkward, and he thought somehow getting her around his business associates would loosen her up, or make her talk, or whatever it was he thought.
Most of the time, she thought he was embarrassed by her, even though she couldn’t stop herself from defending him and being on his side anytime there was a discussion that she had no choice but to be involved in.
Most of the time, she chose to read in a corner, but if she was sitting at a table with his business associates, whatever she did she supported her dad.
It just seemed to be the way families should operate, even if it didn’t always seem like it was the way her family operated.
