Page 38 of Pistol Perfect

“That sounds perfect to me.”

“Is that the preacher coming?” Carol said as she appeared outlined against the screen, a dishrag in her hand.

“It is, are you ready?”

“I was thinking maybe you would do your marriage counseling first. The chicken I put in the oven still has another thirty minutes.”

“All right. I’ll go meet him and tell him to come on around here.”

“I hate that I can’t go with you.”

“I love that you’re listening,” she said with a smug look as she opened the screen door and followed Carol through the house.

She met the preacher as he was getting out of his car and shook his hand, welcoming him to the house.

“James is on the front porch. I don’t know whether I mentioned it or not, but he hurt his foot today, and I advised him to stay off it as much as possible.”

“All right. You had mentioned it, but that’s not a problem. I think I smell fried chicken,” he said as they walked around the house.

“Baked chicken, from what it sounded like, but it sure smells good, doesn’t it?”

“It sure does. If you tell me how long it’s going to be until it’s ready, I can probably pare my marriage counseling down so it fits in just nicely. My stomach is growling. And trying to gnaw a hole through my backbone.”

Mabel laughed, liking that the pastor was a simple man who didn’t get worked up about things. She figured she was probably borrowing trouble to think he was going to have a problem with their speedy marriage.

As they stepped up the front porch steps, she said, “This is James. James, this is our local pastor, he has the white church in Sweet Water.”

“Good to meet you, sir. I’d stand up, but my nurse here told me that I need to stay off my foot.”

“I see,” the pastor said, grasping James’s hand and looking at the bandages around his foot.

“What happened?” he said as Mabel arranged a chair for him to sit on and then settled herself down beside James.

“She shot me,” James said casually.

“Mabel shot you?” The pastor’s eyes bugged out. Then he huffed out a breath. “Was that before or after you asked her to marry you?”

“It was before. I think she used a lot of intimidation.”

“Would you please be serious? He’s never going to marry us if he thinks you were coerced into it. And we both know that’s not the case.”

“She’s right. She didn’t mean to shoot me. It was an accident.”

“You’re saying she shot you with a gun?” the pastor said, feeling the need to clarify apparently.

“It was a gun that belonged to Annie Oakley, and she seemed quite enamored with it, but she obviously had no idea of how to handle it.”

“Obviously.”

“Yes.”

The pastor raised his brows. “I don’t usually recommend prenups, but I might suggest that, or make sure that someone else is the beneficiary of your life insurance.”

“Oh my goodness,” Mabel said, only a little outraged but laughing too. “I promise, I had no intention of actually hitting anyone or anything, and I’m definitely not the beneficiary of his life insurance. We just decided to get married today.”

“Today? So that’s a little fast,” the pastor said slowly.

“Yes. Considering that we just met for the first time today, although we knew each other from her dad and I working together. Today was the first day we had any conversations of any length.”