Page 44 of Cowboy Falling Hard

Chapter 15

Love, Trust and Desire to "give in" to the wishes of the other person to help keep both of you on the road to Happiness! (It works because we have been happily married for 48 years!) - Jean Katchmar from Ellenton, FL

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“IF IT’S OKAY WITH YOU, Dwight and I decided that we would stay here today, and I’ll give you a hand with these beans.”

Orchid stood in Mrs. Brown’s kitchen, her hand on the counter, as she watched Mrs. Brown’s eyes light up, then fill with tears.

“You don’t have to do that!”

“We wanted to. Mr. Brown has some things to do out in the barn, and Dwight is going to help him with that. And the kids just love playing in the barn. They didn’t even whimper when we said that we were going to stay here instead of continuing on like we’d originally planned.”

“Well, bless your soul,” Mrs. Brown said, smiling. “The boys were supposed to be helping Stan, but they had some farm work they had to do first.”

“I heard about that. And that’s too bad, but we can pitch in.”

“That’s so kind of you.” Mrs. Brown nodded toward the cupboard. “There’s a bowl in there you can use, grab a knife from the drawer and whatever else you think you might want. There’s food in the fridge, but I was just going to have cold sandwiches and leftovers to eat for lunch.”

“We packed a picnic lunch for the kids, and I’ll just nibble when you do.”

The last thing Orchid wanted to do was to cause more work for Mrs. Brown. The idea of her helping was to make things easier, not harder.

They had gotten through one of the five-gallon buckets of beans, and Mrs. Brown was knee-deep in a story from her childhood, talking about the house her mom had grown up in with her eleven siblings and no electricity until she was a teenager in high school, when Mr. Brown walked into the kitchen. He set the bucket he carried down next to the counter as Dwight walked in behind him.

“Don’t set that there. It’s muddy and will get the floor dirty. Set it on the rug.” Mrs. Brown’s voice took on a different tone, irritation and exasperation, and nothing like the tone she’d been using to tell her story.

Orchid bit her tongue. Mr. and Mrs. Brown never seemed to get along or spend any time together, and maybe that was part of the reason why. Orchid couldn’t remember a time when Mrs. Brown had smiled at her husband and thanked him.

Maybe he deliberately tried to avoid her because he knew nothing he did would be right.

She threw the ends of the beans in the discard bucket and grabbed another whole bean from the pile, using her knife to snap the ends off and cut the bean into small pieces.

Without stopping her work, she said, “Did you guys get something to eat?”

She was mostly asking for Dwight, because she had been supposed to be spending the day with him and wanted to make sure he didn’t end up starving when he thought she had been going to provide food for him.

“I thought about asking the kids to share their picnic food, but they seemed to be having a really good time up in the hayloft, and I haven’t yet.”

It was after one o’clock, and the man must be starving.

“Mr. Brown knows how to make his own food, and he can show Dwight, too. There are plenty of leftovers in the fridge.” Mrs. Brown’s tone wasn’t quite as brisk as it had been, maybe because she was including Dwight in her invitation.

Orchid lifted her eyes, meeting Dwight’s across the room. Questions in hers. She wanted to make sure he was okay with that and comfortable.

He grinned a little and nodded. She thought he understood what she had been asking, and she was pretty sure she was reading his answer right.

“We can grab something when we go to town. I don’t want to take the time now. I want to get this stuff delivered before those clouds on the horizon whip themselves into something more than just a tease.” Mr. Brown straightened and moved off the rug.

Orchid was happy that Dwight would at least get something to eat, although she was a little dismayed that they really weren’t going to be spending any time together.

“If you don’t mind, you said you got a text from your boys that said they’d be meeting you in town. So it sounds like you’re going to have plenty of help to unload the furniture. I’ll just stay here with your wife and Orchid and give them a hand with the beans.”

Mr. Brown seemed very surprised at those words, but he jerked his head. “They said they’d be there, so I’m good. Thanks for your help. I couldn’t have done without you.”