Chapter 13
“Good morning, my love,” Chris cooed, waking Chanda up by holding a plate of chocolate waffles with whipped cream under her nose. Her eyes widened as she sat up and gathered the sheets around her slender naked form.
“What is this?” she gasped.
“I had Rita make us breakfast.” Chris set the plate on the bedside table. “So I have a plan for us today. The first thing I want to do with my beautiful new bride is take her out horseback riding. Are you ready?”
Chanda emitted a giddy giggle. “Oh, horses. Oh, yes, I am ready.”
“Good.” He clasped her face in his hands and tenderly kissed her. “I have an outfit ready for you. I even had boots monogrammed with your name. So eat and then we’ll go to the barn and get started. I have the perfect mare for you to ride. She’s very gentle.”
Chanda squealed like a little girl. She then began to pick at the waffles. “Are the waffles good?” Chris asked, concerned that she didn’t like Rita’s cooking,
“They are very sweet,” she admitted.
“Ah, yes. I forget that our food is very rich for you. Is there something else that I can get you?”
“No, they are good. Very good. I am just too excited to eat,” she giggled. “You know how long I have been waiting for this day.”
“You married the right man,” he commented.
“Yes! I married the best man that I could find,” Chanda grinned at him.
Chris sat for a minute, his chest swelling with happiness. Chanda ceased eating altogether when she noticed how he was staring at her. “What?” she finally asked. The expression on his face was unreadable.
“I just adore you. I’m so glad I found you,” he said softly. There was a wetness in his voice, an undercurrent of strong emotion. “I was so lonely until I found you.”
She managed a smile. “I like how open you American men are,” she finally said.
Chris stood up. “Well, would you like to see the outfit I bought you?”
“Yes!”
He led her to the automatic rotating closet. With the press of a button, the clothes began to swim by in their neat rows. He paused it when the closet reached the section of Chanda’s clothes. “Look,” he said, pulling down a pink plaid Western shirt and a pair of pressed jeans. “And these,” he added, producing a pair of pink cowgirl boots covered in rhinestones and with her initials monogrammed on the sides in red.
“Oh!” Chanda gasped. Never before had she owned clothes that were so expensive or high-quality. Her factory had manufactured such jeans, and she had never dreamed of owning a pair. Her clothes before were always cheap and usually hand-me-downs or reconstructed from the old clothes of other people. Having her own beautiful new set of expensive clothes brought tears to her eyes.
“Are you crying?” Chris was taken aback. “What’s wrong?”
“I am just ashamed. I have never had such clothes,” she finally admitted.
“I just ordered them from Boot Barn. They are not that special,” he said shyly. In reality, they were incredibly expensive custom-made clothes.
“Well, thank you.” She shot him a mysterious look before scurrying into the bathroom to change.
He took a few photos of her when she emerged, calling her his cowgirl. She giggled and twirled around, striking hilarious poses. “I feel so American!” she cried.
Chris thought how she was very far from any American that he knew, but he didn’t tell her that. “You are very American,” he said instead.
She grinned and linked her arm within his, absolutely glowing with joy. “So now show me your horses,” she said with exhilaration in her tone.
The barn loomed over Chanda’s small figure as Chris unlocked the gate and led her inside. A horse softly nickered and Chris led her to the stall door. “This is Miss Peanut,” he introduced her to the sleek chestnut mare standing inside. “Say hi to her. Put your hand out like this.” He guided her hand through the gate and Miss Peanut nuzzled it curiously.
“Her nose is so soft!” Chanda cried.
“Like velvet, isn’t it?” Chris agreed. “Miss Peanut is a former prize-winning show horse. Now she spends her retirement years peacefully grazing in the pastures, and occasionally being ridden. She’s very gentle and well-trained. She doesn’t need to be reined very hard because she seems to intuitively know what you want her to do. She’s a great horse.”
There was the sound of a shovel dragging across the concrete. Chanda turned and froze when she saw a young man with brown hair and wide brown eyes, standing there with a mucking shovel and staring at her.
“Ah, Johnny, I want you to meet someone.” Chris waved John over. “This is Chanda.”
“Hi,” John muttered, averting his eyes.
“Be a gentleman and shake her hand,” Chris said firmly. He was surprised by how awkward John was. Now that he thought about it, he had never seen John with anyone and had never heard John talk about a girlfriend. Maybe he had no skills with women? “I’m about to take Chanda riding. Would you mind haltering Miss Peanut and Dark Knight?”
John hastily shook Chanda’s hand while still avoiding eye contact with her, then he returned to the tack room to get the halters. As he haltered the horses and led them to the grooming room, he kept his head down. Chris showed Chanda how to brush Miss Peanut down, then started grooming his own horse, the enormous Dark Knight.
“He’s so big!” Chanda gaped.
John slipped up next to Chris. “She’s beautiful,” he whispered.
“Thank you,” Chris pretended to be stern, but John’s compliment filled him with pride. It had been so long since he had a beautiful woman on his arm and never before had his hands seen him with anyone. “You better stay away from her,” he added, just to establish his dominance.
“I will,” John muttered, still staring at her as she wiped clouds of dust from Miss Peanut’s coat. “Just proud of you, man, that’s all.”
“I appreciate it. Now get out of here.”
John hurried away to finish mucking the horse stalls. But he must have told the other hands that Chanda was there, because soon they appeared in the grooming room.
“Hola!” Carlos shouted boisterously. “At last we get to meet the beautiful Mrs. Stryker!”
Chanda froze again, surprised by the interruption. “Hi,” she managed shyly.
“Nice to meet you, Mrs. Stryker,” Derek said respectfully, taking her hand and kissing it.
“All right, guys,” Chris warned.
They slowly backed off, still watching Chanda in shock. There was none of the usual teasing and joshing that they gave Chris. They seemed to be in awe of his wife, who was more beautiful in real life than in photos.
Chris finished grooming Dark Knight and picked the horses’ feet. Then he hefted a saddle out of the tack room and set it on Miss Peanut’s back.
“I want to do it!” Chanda insisted.
He smiled. “Are you sure? You have to get the cinch very tight, all right?” He showed her how to tighten the cinch, back cinch, and breast collar and then adjusted the stirrups. “You’re a lot shorter than me,” he explained as he took a few inches off of each stirrup.
“Thank you,” she breathed. “Now it’s time?”
“Almost. Untie her, and lead her over there.” He pointed to the arena off of the barn, where a white mounting block awaited. “Let me saddle Dark Knight and I’ll be right there.”
He led Dark Knight out into the arena and tied him to the side of the arena with his reins. Then he helped Chanda slip the reins over Miss Peanut’s neck and use the mounting block to swing onto the horse’s back. Chanda cried out in excitement once she was securely on the horse’s back. “I am so tall,” she giggled. “I can see the world from here.”
“Wait till you see the world from where I’m taking you,” Chris said. He pointed out a distant hill. “From the top of that, you will be able to see for a hundred miles around.”
Chris led Chanda in a circle around the arena. She kept cheering and clapping. The hands stopped working to watch. “Go on,” Chris snapped at them. “Nothing to see here.” But they wouldn’t budge.
“She’s a cute one,” Carlos laughed.
“Why am I cute?” Chanda demanded.
The men were surprised that she spoke up. “I’ve never seen a grown woman so excited to ride a horse,” Carlos finally explained. “You act like a little girl.”
“This is my first time,” Chanda responded indignantly.
“That’s clear,” Derek snorted.
Chris turned on him. “Knock it off, guys.”
“Sorry. I’m just pointing out that you’re riding with your heels up, Chanda. That’s how you say your name?”
“Yes,” she said.
“Here.” Derek strode into the arena. Chris flared his nostrils with irritation as Derek tapped Chanda’s feet, showing her how to properly position them.
“Oh. Thank you,” Chanda said. “That’s much more comfortable.”
“You’re welcome.” Derek brushed his bangs off of his forehead and smiled up at her.
Chris sighed. “Are you ready to go, Chanda?”
She nodded eagerly.
“All right, bye guys. This is our ride so you don’t get to follow along,” Chris grumbled as he untied Dark Knight and swung into the saddle.
“Just trying to help,” Derek responded.
“Well, we don’t need your help now.”
Chris and Chanda took off into the hill country. Low, brambly trees and blackberry bushes surrounded them and the hills were shrouded in verdant green. Chanda rode directly alongside Chris, a happy grin on her face. “This is wonderful,” she commented.
“Isn’t it?” Chris pointed out some of his cows. “They won’t hurt you now, but never go near them. They tend to get mean when the fancy strikes them.”
“I didn’t think riding horses could be so calming. They have a…”
“A rhythm? A cadence?” Chris suggested.
“That’s the word!” She beamed. “You must teach me more English.”
“Your English is so good. You speak it better than I do.”
“But there are many words I do not know,” she answered. She leaned forward and rubbed Miss Peanut between the ears. Miss Peanut swiveled her ears back and heaved a content sigh.
“Miss Peanut likes you a lot,” Chris noted. “She feels relaxed right now. You’re relaxed, too. That’s so important when you are riding horses.”
The ground began to slope up. Chris found a trail. “Those are the oil wells,” he told her, pointing out one that was arching up and down in a valley next to the hill.
“It looks like a giant bird, pecking the ground for worms,” Chanda observed. She had never seen a machine like that. It made a slight creaking noise. Cattle grazed around its base. “The ranch is so beautiful except for those,” she added.
“That’s how we make a lot of our money,” Chris explained. “After a while, you stop noticing them. And this hill is peaceful, free of them. I ride up here all of the time. When I’m upset, this place soothes me. I come here to collect my thoughts and calm my mind.”
“Why this hill? There are so many others,” Chanda asked.
Chris glanced around. While his ranch was covered in gentle hills and slopes, this one had always stood out to him. “Perhaps it is because my brother and I used to come up here when I was younger. My brother and I liked to ride up here. We would pack some beers and drink up here when we were too young to drink. We’d come back all drunk, and our father would whip us.”
Chanda laughed. “I notice how happy you look when you speak of your brother. You must miss him.”
Chris shifted in his saddle uncomfortably. “Yes, I do.”
“What happened to him?” she ventured.
“He…had an accident. Now look behind us.” Chris stopped Dark Knight and turned to face the trail that they traveled. “You can already see almost the entire ranch.”
Chanda turned Miss Peanut and gasped as she looked over the beautiful ranch. In the distance was the huge ranch house and barn complex. “It’s so lovely up here.”
“It’s quiet, too. No one else comes up here.”
“America is so vast,” she went on. “The open spaces shock me. We don’t have that in Cambodia. There are people everywhere.”
“I remember that. You will have to get used to big, open spaces, especially in Texas. Of course, the cities are pretty crowded. But there is much distance between every city and town here.”
“It is amazing.”
“You’re happy here?” Chris smiled at her. “I was worried you might get homesick. I read that foreign brides tend to miss their families and homes.”
She shrugged. “I miss them all. But I have missed my family for many years. Since my father got sick, I have been very lonely. I miss my mother most of all. She dies when I was much younger. Here, I have you. I feel complete. At home, I only had my cousin Yun to talk to. I couldn’t talk to my other family about things like love and romance.”
“I just want you to know that you can talk to Yun whenever you want. And you can set up a shrine if you want, too. I want you to be comfortable. And if there’s anything you want to do in the community, you should do it.”
“I can find a job,” she suggested.
Chris laughed incredulously. “A job? I am a billionaire, Chanda. If you ever need money, I can give it to you.”
“Yes, I know. But I am used to working. I would like to get a job.”
“Do you know what people will think of me, making you work when I have so much money?”
Chanda looked insulted. “You just said that I could do whatever I need to do to feel comfortable. I feel that I need to work. Otherwise, I will be bored.”
Chris sighed. “I did say that. I suppose that’s something we can think about. We have to finalize your green card for you to work.”
“Let’s start that right away.”
“OK.” He still frowned. The idea seemed bad to him. “I just worry that people will say mean things to you. And tell you bad things about me.”
“Why would people do that?”
Chris turned Dark Knight and continued ascending the hillside. “People get jealous. They have a lot of bad things to say. That doesn’t mean that you should listen.”
“OK,” Chanda agreed. “The women at the factory were that way too. They were so mad that I was going to America. I was going to get a promotion there, too, and everyone was mad that I turned it down to come here. My boss was not happy with me.”
“That’s understandable. But see? They were just jealous. They wanted to keep you in the same low life that they led. I’m glad you didn’t listen to them. Now you can have a better life than all of them do.”
“Yes. Even Yun is very jealous. She has been on the site longer than me yet she has not yet found a husband.”
“Poor Yun. She seemed very sweet.” And pretty, too. Chris wondered if maybe John would like her. John was always so sheltered and hadn’t had a girlfriend that Chris knew of. He also earned a handsome salary from Chris. Maybe he and Yun would hit it off, if Yun came to visit? “Does she have her passport?”
“Yes.”
“OK. Perhaps she can visit you.”
“I promised her that she would visit.” Chanda seemed overjoyed. “I’m so glad you suggested it first.”
They finally reached the top of the hill. They whoa’ed the horses and spent several minutes looking out across the valley housing the ranch. Chanda finally heaved a sigh of happiness. “Yes. I am very glad I didn’t listen. This is better than anything that I had in Cambodia,” she told him finally.