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“What does your father farm?” Math’s dad asked her. It was a topic he loved to talk about.
Her attention turned from him to his dad. “Small grains mostly and some animals over the years. Now he just helps my brothers; he is retired.”
“I hope he’s enjoying it. I know I am.” Math’s dad laughed.
“He is. Whether Mama does is a different story.” Tess smiled, and the entire table laughed at her joke.
The table broke down in small conversations again, and Math said to her, “So, you lied.”
“I never lied. You never asked, just assumed.” She couldn’t hide her grin as she took a small bite of ham. Just a sliver, mostly.
“That Ms. Fancy Pants has never gotten her boots dirty. Seemed like a reasonable assessment.” He cut his ham in half and put one of the pieces on her plate. She scowled at him.
“Ms. Fancy Pants, that is cute.” She chuckled, not taking the name as the put-down he had intended it to be.
He was about to say that she was cute, but he stopped himself by taking a bite of bread. Maybe it was because they had sex so recently that it didn’t bother him that she had lied. But really, he knew she hadn’treallylied. The fact that she grew up on a farm made some sense. It’s how she had known how to do everything and did it quickly. Ms. Fancy Pants had already done it all before.
Her laugh caught his attention as she talked to Mia. He had missed what was being said on that side of him. On his other side, Mandy was still talking with Kit. He strained his ear, listening to Tess. He caught her whispering, “Shut up,” and a laugh but nothing else.
Since he was done eating and he had no room for his arm on the table, he dropped it to his lap. Then as if it had a mind of its own, he slid his hand over her leg. Her legs were crossed under the table, and he put his hand on her knee. There was no reaction from her as he did it, so he left it there. As his uncle drew him into conversation, he kept it there.
Soon she was done eating, and her hand slid over his, not moving it, just holding it. She tensed again when his mom asked her, “Tess, where were you before moving to Landstad?”
She relaxed again and said, “Fargo. I was a personal banker for about ten years.”
“Did you like it?” Mandy said from the other side of him.
“I did, but I always wanted more. The last four years there, I was the manager. I was just climbing the ladder.” She smiled at Mandy on the other side of him, so he got a glimpse of it as well.
“Do you like it here?” Dotty asked.
“Yes, I do. It is a nice little town. Sometimes I run into people who do not like me, but mostly they are friendly.” She squeezed his hand but didn’t remove hers from his or look at him.
“Yeah, that’s how some people are,” Dolly said. She was looking right at Math as she said it.
Tess chuckled at his mom’s pointed look. Dropping her hand, he pushed away from the table. “I’m done, so I’m going to go watch the game.”
As he entered the living room, he heard others say they were going to join him, but he managed to get to the reclining chair before anyone else came in the room. A fast escape was necessary so that nobody noticed his very pronounced erection, an annoying side effect of being too close to that woman. Or maybe the touching of that woman’s warm leg. And the memory of her naked body not two hours before.
Mandy followed him and sat down across from him on the sofa. Turning to her, he said, “Going to take a nap?”
His sister had spent years as a nurse in the ER, then in the NICU before recently coming home to run the clinic in town. Her years of work had left her with the ability to sleep anywhere. Her favorite spot was on the couch during sporting events on the TV.
“Shut up, Math. I wouldn’t start a fight. I have dirt on you,” she replied, pulling a throw over her body, not even pretending she was going to do anything else.
“What dirt do you have?” His other sister Kit walked into the room, holding her two-year-old. She had separated from her second husband during her last pregnancy, so she was constantly exhausted, especially today.
Grabbing the boy from her, he asked, “Yeah, what dirt?”
“Things you maybe don’t want me saying out loud today about a phone call I recently got.” Mandy arranged the blanket around herself.
“Doctor-patient confidentiality,” Math said, settling the boy on his lap. He was just about asleep.
“Neither of you are my patients,” Mandy replied with a laugh.
Kit turned to him in excitement. “Did you get someone pregnant?”
“No, good god, no,” he answered a little too loudly. The only person he had slept with since his divorce was in the kitchen.
