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“What are you going to add to the note?” Miss April asked, bringing the conversation back to the subject at hand.
“I haven’t even seen the note. Once I handled the pistol and accidentally shot James, I didn’t want to have anything to do with it. I put it back in the box, and I don’t even know what Carol did with it.”
“I put it in the kitchen on top of the shelf by the fridge. And I assumed we’d get back to it at some point.” She smiled. “After all, that probably is something that we’re going to want to pass along, isn’t it?”
“I don’t know. I... I guess it’s true that right after the pistol came, I did get married, but it’s also true that Billy was here in the yard, and Sweet Water often says that Billy is a matchmaking steer, so it could have been him.”
“Maybe you are a tough nut to crack, and Billy and the pistol decided that it was going to take both of them.” Miss April lifted her brows, as though that were a legitimate suggestion.
It made Mabel want to shake her head. A matchmaking pistol? A matchmaking steer? Both of them were preposterous.
Except, she couldn’t deny the fact that she was now married, when she hadn’t been a week ago.
The ladies were still there when Gladys, Mabel’s sister, and her husband Silas and their children came to visit. Gladys laughed and said that she needed to get to know her nieces, because she wanted to have them stay at her house overnight.
The ladies left, and before Gladys and her husband left, they had played with the kids and arranged for the girls to go to their house and stay overnight the next weekend.
Mabel appreciated Gladys’s offer. She had to admit that after all the events of the day, she was exhausted, and it wasn’t even suppertime.
They’d fed the filly twice more, and Carol had gone in to start supper.
James moved from his perch where he had been leaning against the post most of the afternoon and came over and sat down on the porch swing as they watched Silas and Gladys’s car fade out of sight.
“Busy day,” he said casually as he sat down, putting his arm around her, and this time, he didn’t let it lie on the back of the swing but set his hand casually on her shoulder, pulling her gently toward him.
“It sure was. My goodness, I don’t know if it’s the kids or the filly or the visitors, but I feel like it should be bedtime.”
“I think we’ll get our second wind. I hope so. I was kind of hoping we could talk to Aunt Carol. I don’t want her cooking all the time for us if it’s not something she wants to do.”
“I don’t want that either. Although, it’s pretty obvious I’m going to have to take cooking lessons from someone if I’m going to take up cooking.”
“I thought we talked about that. I’m going to take on the cooking. I wasn’t talking about it as a hint for you, I was just wanting to make sure that you weren’t going to be upset if Aunt Carol is in ‘your’ kitchen.”
“Oh my goodness. I appreciate every single thing she has done, and I hope I thanked her profusely. Maybe I should thank her more.”
“It’s probably impossible to thank someone too much, but you really have been very appreciative and grateful. I hope I have too.”
He tilted his head and ran his fingers down her arm and back up.
She contained her shiver as he said casually, “Are you sure you’re okay with it?”
“I know. A woman’s kitchen is her castle or whatever the saying is, but yes. I’m perfectly happy with another woman in the kitchen doing all the work.” She laughed.
James laughed with her, and they swung together until Carol called them for supper.
When they went in, they set the table and sat down to some leftover chicken and some kind of noodle-based vegetable casserole that was delicious.
The girls looked windblown and happy, and they did not protest when James asked if everyone would stay at the table after they were done eating so they could talk a little bit about some of the arrangements they’d like to make.
In fact, the girls looked apprehensive and a little scared.
Mabel wanted to reassure them, but she didn’t want to get the cart ahead of the horse, so instead, she said, “Maybe we can eat some cheesecake while we talk about it?”
The girls smiled at that, although Bernice still looked worried.
“We don’t want to forget to feed Denise,” Annabelle said as everyone sat down with dessert in front of them.
“Aunt Carol, maybe you can set your timer so that we don’t go longer than forty-five minutes. That’s how long we have until it’s time for Denise to eat again,” James said, smiling at Annabelle, who glowed under his approval.
