Page 24 of A Cowboy's Convenient Marriage

“Now, I said she’s just willing to talk. She hasn’t agreed to anything. But she does know about your proposal, letter, and the time line.”

Cash nodded. He was expecting Ezra to talk about some of that, as well as explain some of his background, so it was nice to know that he had.

He stood up, and the protests of the children registered, but he didn’t acknowledge them as he walked around the table and put his hand out.

“Hi, Ada. I’m Cash. It’s nice to meet you.”

He felt like he ought to give some kind of nod to their unusual circumstances, and typically he didn’t get too tongue-tied, but he couldn’t think of anything to say.

“It’s nice to meet you, Cash,” Ada said, and she sounded self-assured and confident, and not awkward or weird, like he might have thought an unmarried woman in her mid-thirties might.

Was there a reason she wasn’t married? Was there something he had been missing? Her brother had given her an excellent recommendation, but his opinion was most certainly biased.

“Is it okay if we walk outside for a bit?” he asked, his voice gentling without his conscious desire. She...brought out the best in him without him even thinking about it.

He always recommended to his congregation that when they were looking for their lifetime partner, they should look for someone who made them better. The idea flitted through his head as he thought about how without even trying, Ada had gentled his voice and made him considerate.

“Yes. It’s a nice evening out. I don’t think we even need a jacket.”

He nodded, smiling a bit, and then looked over at Ezra, nodding his head in thanks.

Ezra’s face was serious, giving away nothing of his thoughts as he nodded back.

The children continued to talk as they walked out.

“I know this is kind of crazy,” he said as they stepped out on the porch together.

“It definitely is one of the weirdest things I’ve ever heard,” Ada agreed, taking a deep breath of the evening air and waiting, without making it obvious, to see what direction he would lead.

He liked that, a lot. She was obviously not a shrinking violet, but she also was not the kind of woman who felt like she should be in charge of everything.

“Sometimes I wonder if I made the right decision to even give the letter any credence at all. Maybe I should just throw it away. This doesn’t seem like the best way to go about getting married.” That had to be what she was thinking, and he felt like he just voiced what both of them thought.

“I don’t know. It seems like marriages were arranged in a large part of the world for thousands of years, and those marriages worked out just fine. I understand that women didn’t always have recourse, but I think nowadays we end up getting divorced just because we can’t get along and not for any Biblical reason, like adultery.”

“That’s true.” He’d seen plenty of marriages in his church disintegrate because each person in the marriage was too prideful to give up their way. They insisted that they were right and their partner was wrong, and they couldn’t even conceive of trying to find a compromise or solution for the long-term. It was sad to see two Christians be unable to live basic Christianity in their marriage, being kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, living with joy, looking for the positive things about their spouse. Just basic Christianity. It seemed like Ada was saying the same thing.

“But I have to admit I never expected that I would be considering marriage like this. I thought I would do it the way the rest of society does.”

They had stepped off the porch and onto the driveway. It was long enough that they couldn’t see the road, and they started strolling slowly down.

“I imagine Ezra already told you that I was engaged, and I was definitely doing things the way the rest of the world thought I should.”

“I’ve never been engaged,” Ada said. “And I know that some people look at me and see that I’m in my mid-thirties and I’m not married, and they wonder what’s wrong with me. I wish I could answer that question for you, but I guess you’ll just have to try to figure it out yourself. All I know is that with the guys that have come around, I haven’t felt like they were what God wanted for me, and so when they showed interest, I told them no.”

“That’s admirable. I knew some women who would do anything to be married, no matter what. And they’d certainly not let a little thing like whether or not she thinks God wants her to stop her.”

She chuckled a bit, and then they lapsed into silence.

He felt awkward. Where did he start? What did they talk about? They had such a short amount of time, and it felt like they should talk about serious things, but maybe he should just try to break the ice by being casual. After all, it wasn’t like they had to make a decision tonight, and he assumed that she wouldn’t be.

“I don’t know what all Ezra told you, so I’ll just assume that you don’t know much of anything about me. I sell used cars here. But I used to be a pastor in Virginia.” He knew that Ezra had told her what had happened. “So one of the things I really love to do is to study the Bible. I find it endlessly fascinating.” He let out a breath. “I’ve been told I’m exceptionally boring because of that. Normal people don’t answer the question ‘what are your hobbies?’ by saying that one of the things they love to do is to unearth new and precious information from God’s Word.”

“I can imagine you’ve taken some flak for that over the years.” She didn’t say what she thought of it, which was really what he was interested in.

“What do you like to do?”

“I pretty much would have to say that my hobbies are my family. I love being with them, cooking for them, cleaning with them, doing anything on the farm with them, from working with cattle to putting up fence to just hanging out. I watch my nieces and nephews a good bit for my siblings, and I guess one of the things I do in my spare time, which I consider more of a ministry than a hobby, is offer free babysitting for the ladies in the church and in Sweet Water. That’s what I was doing last night when you saw me.”

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