Chapter Ten
This time, it was Angela’s turn to make breakfast, and she was happy to note that Sep liked her cooking. Her family had often said cooking was one of the things that would endear her future husband to her, so it was important that Sep liked her meals. At one point during the breakfast, Sep said, “The Larsons always talk about what a great cook Mary Larson is. I think you could rival her.” She wasn’t sure what he meant by that because she had no idea who Mary was, but she knew he was paying her a high compliment. Shortly after that, he left the house to take care of the animals.
She decided to do some light housekeeping. It was fun to be cleaning a house that was her own. She now had someone to take care of, and it would be even better when she had children to tend to as well. Finally, her dream was coming true.
It was around one in the afternoon when Sep came back to the house, and when he did, he asked her if she would like to learn how to shoot a gun.
“Sometimes a fox will get into the henhouse,” he told her. “It would be nice to have another person around here who could shoot a gun.”
“I never shot a gun before. I never even touched one.”
“That’s understandable since you were in Indiana living in town. Out here, the skill could come in handy.”
Since he seemed to have his heart set on teaching her, she agreed to go along with it. He took her out to the tree not too far from the barn. A piece of metal was hanging in the center of the tree.
“This is where I learned how to shoot,” he said as he put bullets in the Colt .45. “It’s really not as scary as it looks. A gun doesn’t have to be a weapon. It can be something useful. You can protect the animals and even yourself with it.”
“Do you often worry about the hens?”
“A couple times a year, a fox will sneak onto the property. If I don’t take care of them, they’ll become a real problem. The hens are one of the most useful animals on this property. They lay the eggs, and eggs can make many meals. Before my sister married Joel, my sister and I were in bad shape financially. Her first husband sold off almost everything we had of value to pay off his gambling debts. If it weren’t for the hens, I don’t think we would’ve made it.” Done with loading the gun, he snapped the chamber into place. “If you take good care of the hens, they’ll take good care of you.”
He put his arm around her shoulders and gave her a reassuring hug.
“There’s really nothing to shooting,” he continued. “You just need to make sure you’re pointing at your target.”
He gestured for her to come closer to him so that she could see the very tip of the gun, which he had pointed directly at the metal piece.
“If you keep the gun steady, you’ll hit your mark,” he said. “But I should warn you about something before you take your first shot. When you pull this trigger right here,” he tapped the trigger with his finger, “the gun will push you back a bit.”
“Push me back?” she asked.
“The bullet goes quicker than your eye will see. It takes a lot of power for the gun to shoot the bullet out that fast.” Probably noting the worried expression on her face, he hurried to assure her, “You’ll get used to it. The first time, it’s a shock, but when you do this enough, it’ll feel natural.”
She hoped he was right. She wasn’t all that excited to do this. She was only doing it because it was important to him.
“I’ll demonstrate.” He took a step away from her, spread his legs apart, and held the gun at arm’s length with both hands. Glancing in her direction, he said, “Once you get used to shooting, you don’t have to stand this way. You’ll be able to shoot from any position you want. You’re only doing this to start because it’s the easiest position to learn in.”
A shot rang from the gun and hit the metal piece, causing her to jump.
He offered her a sheepish smile. “Sorry. I should’ve let you know I was going to shoot.”
She placed her hand on her stomach and chuckled. “It probably would’ve startled me even if you had warned me.”
“Don’t feel bad. I was the same way when I started.”
Surely, he must be saying that to make her feel better. He was a boy at the time he learned, and boys didn’t frighten as easily as girls.
He went over to her and handed her the gun. “You can do one shot today and wait for tomorrow to do more. Or, if you feel up to it, you can take as many shots as you want today. I’ll leave the decision up to you. I don’t want to make things any more uncomfortable for you than they already are. But just so you know, I am glad you’re willing to do this.”
His words, kind as they were, eased her nerves considerably, and they made her want to shoot the gun so that she could please him. She accepted the gun and assumed the posture he had showed her to use. She must not have had her arms up high enough because he came up behind her and lifted them higher so that the gun was at eye level with her. Her skin tingled at his touch. She hadn’t expected to be excited when he touched her like this outside of the bedroom.
And as if that wasn’t distracting enough, he brought his mouth to her ear and whispered, “I’ll stand here so that when you’re pushed back, it won’t be so much of a shock.”
Though he hadn’t planned it, the feel of his breath on her neck thrilled her all the more. She had to force aside her excitement in order to focus on the target in front of her. After she took a deep breath, she squeezed her eyes shut and fired the gun.
At once, she knew what he was talking about when he said there would be a pushback from the gun. Her body jerked back, and had he not been holding her, she might have tripped on the rock behind her.
He chuckled and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “Next time, you’ll want to keep your eyes open. You need to see the target when you shoot.”
She opened her eyes. “Where did the bullet go?”
“It went up there.”
She followed his gaze and saw that she had hit the tree a good six inches above the metal piece. “But I was aiming for the center of the target.”
He gave her another kiss. “That’s why you should keep your eyes open. Don’t let it worry you. I knew this was going to be difficult for you. Why don’t we do this again tomorrow? I wouldn’t mind showing you the gardens that I have. Are you familiar with gardening?”
“Yes, that is something I can do. My family had a garden even though we lived in town, and since my uncle owned a farm, I helped him out there with his vegetables and fruits.”
He took the gun from her and slipped it into the holster at his side. “In that case, I suppose there’s not much I can teach you about growing things in the garden, but it’ll be good for you to see what I have. Then you can figure out what meals you’ll want to make.”
She shot him an amused smile. “I’ve already seen all the things you have in the kitchen, and you have a lot of staple items and vegetables and fruits to cook with. To be honest, I hadn’t expected a bachelor to have so much.”
“Well, Fred likes to eat, and he can eat a lot for a small dog.”
“He’s not that small.”
“He is compared to most dogs around here, but you’re right. It’s not like he’s a miniature poodle. Those are smaller than him.”
“Speaking of Fred, where is he?” She scanned the land around them but didn’t see the dog anywhere.
“He found a rabbit. He ended up chasing it over that way.” He gestured to the west. “He loves being around people, but if there’s a rabbit nearby, he’ll chase it for miles. But he knows his way home. He’ll be back. Are you ready to see the gardens?”
She nodded. “I’m ready.”
He took her hand in his and led her to the gardens.
***
A week passed, and everything was going well. Actually, they were more than well. They were wonderful. Sep couldn’t recall a time in his life when he had been happier. He knew that his sister was very happy in her second marriage, but he hadn’t realized just how happy she was until he had Angela in his life. He knew it all came down to marrying the right person. There was no doubt about it. Angela was the right woman for him. He was glad he had let instinct guide him when he chose her out of the three women to marry.
On the ninth day after they married, Angela came up to him while he was gathering the ripe vegetables from his garden.
“I collected some apples from one of your trees,” she told him. “I was wondering if you would like a pie tonight for dinner.”
“You mean that I can have a whole pie as the main course?” he asked, unable to resist teasing her.
Smiling in amusement, she said, “I think you know very well what I meant. The pie is for dessert.”
He chuckled. “I know, but if you ever want to make pie for the main course, I certainly wouldn’t mind.”
“I don’t think any man would.”
He pulled out some celery from the garden and placed it in the basket. “You know, if that pie is as good as the rest of the meals you make, I’m going to have to tell Joel that Mary Larson isn’t the only one who makes the best pies around these parts.”
Angela knelt beside him and put more celery in his basket. “I have yet to meet this Mary Larson, but I feel like I know her. It seems that every time you eat something I make, you bring her up.”
“That’s because the Larson family keeps bragging about what a good cook she is.”
“Have you tasted any of her meals?”
“I have.”
“And?”
“I’d say that you just might win a cooking contest if you two were to compete.”
She looked pleased. “I spent a lot of time learning how to cook when I was growing up. I had hoped that if word got out that I was a good cook, the men in town would be more likely to marry me.”
Eyes twinkling, he asked, “You were hoping to marry all of the available men in town?”
She stopped pulling up a couple of carrots and gave him a playful shove on the arm. “Stop being silly. You know exactly what I meant. Just like you knew what I meant when I was talking about making a pie.”
He reached out and brought her into his arms and kissed her. “Did any of those men actually try your food?”
“They did at church potlucks.”
“And they still didn’t want to marry you?”
“I never received a proposal, much less an offer to be courted.”
He didn’t understand it. What was wrong with those men in Indiana? The scars were easy to overlook. He hardly even noticed them anymore. Couldn’t the men get past them? Not only was she a fantastic cook, but she was very pleasant to be around, too.
“I should probably send those men all a missive and thank them. I like having you here with me.”
And then, since he was still a bit uncomfortable coming out and expressing such sentiments, he lowered his head and kissed her again.
He would have continued kissing her if Fred hadn’t wiggled between them. Laughing, Sep pulled back from her and petted the dog.
“Fred,” he playfully admonished. “I thought you weren’t the jealous type. I thought that you had no trouble with Angela being here.” He gave her an apologetic look. “Apparently, I’m supposed to wait until we’re in bed before I kiss you.”
She giggled and petted Fred. “Well, I did steal the bed from him. He’s been generous enough as it is.”
“I’m sure if you give him a taste of that apple pie tonight, he’ll forgive you for taking advantage of me in the garden.”
As he hoped, she chuckled at his joke. “You have a bit of a mischievous streak in you, Sep.”
He shrugged. “Laughing is better than crying.” He took the basket and rose to his feet. “I think that’s all for today. Think you can make good use of these?” He showed her the vegetables he had collected.
“I was thinking of making stew. Those will be perfect.”
As they headed out of the garden, Fred joined them, wagging his tail in contentment. All it took was a little attention and Fred was happy. That was one of the things Sep liked most about his dog. He wasn’t hard to please.
As they went down the path from the garden to the house, his steps slowed. He couldn’t be sure, but he thought he saw an unfamiliar set of footprints in the dirt. He stopped walking and followed the direction that the tracks were going in. If he was right, the tracks seemed to be heading south of his property.
Sometimes men came through the area as they were hunting deer. Most of the time, they would let him know they were coming, just so he was aware they were on his land. But that didn’t always happen. Once in a while, they would just travel on through. He supposed this was one of those situations.
Angela stopped walking and turned toward him. “Is something wrong?”
With a shake of his head, Sep started walking again. “No, nothing’s wrong.”
“Do you want to have dinner rolls or bread with the stew?” she asked.
“I think I’ll go with the bread. I like to cut up the pieces of bread and dip it into the stew.”
“I’m glad to hear that because I’ve already started on a loaf of bread.”
“Then it’s a good thing I picked bread.”
“I would’ve made dinner rolls if that’s what you wanted.”
Deciding to risk making Fred jealous again, he drew her closer to him and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “That’s very sweet of you, Angela, but I don’t want you to go through all that trouble just for me. I’m happy with whatever you make. I’m just like Fred. Easy to please.”
Noting her smile, he smiled, too, and they walked the rest of the way home in silence.