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“Wow. I was thinking we would just sit beside the creek and watch it flow, but... I think I like your idea better.”
They had a good time, splashing in the water, even though it was probably too chilly out for either one of them to want to swim. But it was funny, she didn’t notice the chill in the air or the water when Ezra was around.
A long time later, they spread out the blanket that they brought, and lay down on it, with her curled up against his side, one legthrown over his, with his arm around her, as he absentmindedly stroked her arm.
“We probably ought not to lay in the sun too long. We’re liable to get sunburn on bits and pieces that don’t typically ever see the sun.”
“That’s funny. I was just lying here thinking that I hope this place is as secluded as what you claim it is. This would be an awkward way to get caught by anyone, even if we are married.”
He laughed a little. “I don’t think being married gives us a pass for public indecency, but this is private ground, so there’s that.”
“You have an awful lot of brothers and sisters.”
“I’m pretty sure all of my brothers and sisters know what I’m doing today. And where I am. I think they’ll let us alone. Maybe twenty years ago I might have had issues with my brothers thinking it would be funny to ‘surprise us.’”
“Twenty years ago I was five.” She laughed a little, but Ezra stilled beside her, and she ran a hand down his rib cage as she looked up at him. “Are you okay?”
“It just surprises me sometimes that the difference in our ages is so great. It doesn’t bother me. I hope it doesn’t bother you.”
“I wouldn’t have thought that I would find my soulmate, and he would be so much older than me. You think we’d be the same age, but that’s not the way it worked.”
“No. It’s not, is it?” he said, smiling again.
She was happy she put his mind at ease. He’d done so much for her, although it wasn’t like she was saying anything that wasn’t true. She meant it with all her heart. She felt like he was her soulmate. Even odder than their age differences, were the other differences between them. Even in their interests. Here he was, at the spot where he visited often, and it was her first time beside a creek. Just that one difference, but... Their surface differences didn’t seem to matter because they seem to connect on a deeper level.
“Is it cheesy to think that I feel a connection to you that I’ve never felt with anyone else before?” she asked, feeling a little dreamy and lazy. Sleepy. Maybe a nap would be good.
He grabbed the corner of the blanket and flicked it so it was covering her.
“I wouldn’t want this person I have this deeper connection with to get sunburn on their nether regions,” he murmured.
“So...that means you agree with me?”
“I told you. From the first time I saw you, I felt this irresistible pull. Maybe it’s a deeper connection, and maybe it’s just the Lord. I don’t know. I do know that I did not feel right with Sondra, and God protected me from marrying her, while marrying you was something that God clearly showed me was the exact right thing. And God gave me exactly what I wanted, because I want to be with you.”
“And I want to be with you.”
And maybe that was enough. To have someone come, someone she knew had been given to her from the Lord, who loved her, and wanted to be with her. She couldn’t think of anything else that could make her more content.
Epilogue
“When are you going to let me go home?” Sondra said, as Asher came in the door with an arm load of firewood.
He’d just brought her to the cabin, they’d been there all of ten minutes, and she’d been going crazy because there was no cell phone service.
“I don’t think you really want to go,” he said casually, knowing that he could quite potentially face kidnapping charges.
“How could you presume to know what I do and do not want?” Sondra said, with her hands on her hips.
“I guess I’m not really presuming. But, isn’t there some show that you watch where they get away in the mountains for a week and they see if they can make it without electricity or running water? Wasn’t that one of your favorites a while back?”
“Big Brother in the Woods!” Sondra snapped her fingers. “You’re right. I loved it. And, I really don’t think that Zeke should have won. It should have been Ralph, and here’s why.” She started going off on the show, and Asher listened for a couple of minutes before he moved, to dump the firewood on in the box by the door.
She barely noticed that he wasn’t standing in front of her anymore and kept going on about her show.
He didn’t really mind listening to her talk. He’d always liked the sound of her voice when she talked to Ezra.
He arranged the wood in the box, grateful that it was spring, and the only time they’d need the fire would be to cook and at night when the temperatures dipped down as they had a tendency to do in the mountains.
He’d built this cabin years ago and spent his vacation time fixing it up. It wasn’t anything special, but it gave him a place to go to have some peace and quiet away from his big family. He loved them, loved every single one of them, but sometimes a man just needed a break.
He turned back to Sondra, she was still talking, and he listened. She hadn’t been any good for his brother, Ezra. Ezra was too serious, and he didn’t have any interest in the things that meant so much to Sondra.
Although, Asher kind of figured that Sondra used TV as a crutch, because she was alone without it, and she viewed all of the people on the screen as her friends. He also thought that maybe that was what she saw in Ezra. She saw his big family, and wanted to be a part of it because she was lonely.
Asher felt bad for, and he also had a huge crush on her. What a terrible thing to have a crush on his brother’s fiancée. Except, Ezra was married to someone else, and Sondra was no longer engaged.
Unfortunately, she had never looked at him and seen anything interesting.
He might have a week, if that, to try to see if he could convince her that there was more to him than she had noticed so far.
