Page 16 of A Cowboy's Convenient Marriage

“I have something that is perhaps a little unbelievable. But I thought that I should bring it to you so you could see exactly where I’m coming from.”

He pulled a letter out from his shirt pocket, unfolded it, and then turned it around so that it was right side up for Ezra.

Ezra had suspicions as soon as he saw that there was a letter, and then as Cash turned it around, he was certain.

One of his brothers, Tobias, had gotten a letter just like that.

“Now, I don’t know for sure whether it’s legit or not.”

“I can tell you it is,” Ezra said immediately, without waiting for Cash to finish.

Cash straightened, leaning back with his eyes flying to Ezra’s. “You know?”

Ezra nodded. “One of my brothers got this exact same letter. None of us were sure it was legit. But everything that it said was absolutely true.” His eyes skimmed down the letter. Then, his heart stopped. “You only have three days.”

“I know.”

“I guess I’m not sure how this involves me, unless you heard that our family might have gotten one, and you wanted to confirm?” From the reaction that Cash had, Ezra was guessing that he hadn’t known, because he looked totally taken aback.

“No. I’m here to ask if Ada might be interested in marrying me.”

There was silence in the small room, and suddenly the walls felt way too close.

Ezra felt like a father figure to his siblings. Even though his twin sisters, Priscilla and Phoebe, weren’t that much younger than him, and neither was Ada, he felt like he was the one who had stepped up and taken responsibility for the family after their parents had died in the car accident. Regardless of how close each of his siblings were to him, he loved them all like they were his very own. And while he would never admit to anyone, not even his wife, that he had any favorites, Ada was his favorite.

She had been quietly serving all of her life. Anything that she had been asked to do, she had done it. She never complained, she never shirked, she never brought a lot of attention to herself, but she was always there, always helping, always in the right spot to do the hard jobs, always willing to do the jobs that no one else wanted. Always being a peacekeeper, settling arguments, willing to take the worst jobs, again and again, if it kept everyone else happy.

She was such a servant, she had such a heart for the Lord, always seeking to serve. She could have been married ten or fifteen years before, but she never felt like God had brought the right one around.

“Ada is an amazing person. She would make you the best wife you could ever possibly have.”

Cash’s eyes lit up a bit at that, like he hadn’t been sure.

“Do you and she have some kind of relationship I don’t know about?” Ezra finally thought to ask. He hadn’t even considered that Ada might be doing something behind his back. She just wasn’t that kind of person. Although she was in her mid-thirties, and she certainly did not need to ask his permission before she talked to someone. Even though he suspected she would.

“No. I’ve seen her at church, and I saw her last night when she was helping Kendra with her children. But no. There is no relationship that you don’t know about.” Cash seemed very determined to make sure that Ezra knew that, and Ezra appreciated the fact that the man was trying to ease his mind, obviously.

“I see.” He paused. “What made you decide that Ada would be the one for you?”

“Like I said, I saw her yesterday, and I just had the right feeling. Not that I live by my feelings—my emotions. I don’t live by those. But sometimes God gives me a gut feeling, where I just have that soul-deep thought that things are going right. I had that when I met Ada, and I had it even more today while we were eating. But Ada has no idea that I’m considering her, and when I discussed this with my aunt, she suggested I talk to you first.”

Ezra nodded, liking that the man did not go straight to his sister but came to him first, apparently to be vetted, although Ezra was not sure.

“What do you hope to get out of this talk?” Ezra asked, figuring that he might as well get it out in the air right now. Maybe Cash was just informing him of his intentions and had no intention of allowing Ezra to check into his life.

“My aunt said you probably wanted to vet me. To check out my past. I’m here to make sure you know it’s an open book. And I’m here to get your permission. I assume that it would mean a lot to Ada to have you say, ‘yes, this man is acceptable.’ Especially considering that we have three days to make a decision. If I had an infinite amount of time in which to court her, it would be completely different. Although... I would still have come to ask permission.”

Ezra nodded, trying to keep his face impassive, although Cash’s words had greatly impressed him.

“Is there anything you want to tell me about yourself? Is there anything I’ll find when I start to check?” He made sure to say “when,” not “if.” He was going to check this man out. He certainly was not going to give his permission for his sister to be married in three days without doing due diligence.

“I think you probably know my current situation. I’m living with my aunt, and I’m working at her used-car dealership. I think she would like for me to buy it from her eventually, but all I promised her was that I would do my best to try to get it turned around. It’s been in the black the last two months since I started. I wouldn’t have guessed this,” he said with a slight smile on his face, “but I’m pretty good at selling cars.”

“That’s handy when you’re helping with a used-car dealership,” Ezra commented.

“Exactly. I guess, it’s really not me. God has blessed my life beyond measure. Except for one thing that turned into a really, really big thing that affected every area of my life, I felt like I was living under a golden cloud. God just blessed me so abundantly that I kind of thought that was the way my life was always going to be.”

“So when you got hit by this one thing that was really terrible, it sent you for a loop?”

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