Page 38 of A Cowboy's Convenient Marriage

“Cash?” Abby sounded panicked. “You’re kidding? You have to be kidding. Cash darling. You couldn’t have gotten married so fast. It’s only been a few months. And I know you move deliberately. After all, I have experience with that. Why in the world would you lie to me and tell me that you were married? You silly boy.”

She sounded condescending. Ada almost wanted to say something to her, then she remembered what she had said to Cash about how she didn’t notice people’s faults.

Maybe that wasn’t true whenever it was a woman who was flirting with her husband.

“No. I’m dead serious. I just got married. My wife is standing beside me. Unless you need something else, I really don’t think that we should be talking anymore.”

At least Cash was handling it well. He wasn’t trying to put her off for some other time. He wasn’t flirting back and he wasn’t pulling any punches about the fact that he was married. She couldn’t fault anything he was doing. But, she also couldn’t keep the uneasiness from sliding down her spine and making her want to curl into herself. And she couldn’t explain why.

Up until that point, she had been confident that she and Cash could develop a good relationship.

But if this was the kind of woman he had been engaged to before, she wasn’t sure what he was doing with Ada. She wasn’t anything like her. In fact, if she had to find her opposite, it really sounded like that woman could have been it.

Cash hung up, but there was an awkward silence between them.

He lifted a hand. “I’m sorry about that. It was weird. She broke up with me before I left. She told me she was keeping the ring, but I didn’t think it was because she wanted to wear it again. At the time, our wedding was supposed to be in two weeks. And I actually still owe some money on the venue, and a few other things. You can’t cancel a wedding two weeks out and get all of your money back.” He ended lamely, as though he didn’t know what else to say.

“You don’t have to explain to me. At least now you know whose phone number that is,” she said.

“Yeah. I probably ought to block it. Remind me to do that when we sit down.”

She lifted her shoulder. “You can if you want to. But you don’t need to do it for me. You were firm in your rebuttal, and I think she understands that you’re married.” If she was a Christian woman, that would be all he needed to say. And, Ada was sure that Abby was a Christian. Or, Cash wouldn’t have considered marrying her.

“All right. I guess I need to shake that off. It threw me for a loop. I wasn’t expecting it.”

He seemed like he was thinking about it as he walked to the door and opened it for her.

She thanked him, and walked in ahead. They waited until the host could seat them, and then sat across from each other, looking at the menus.

Chapter 15

Abby’s phone call seemedto have stilted their conversation. Ada had to admit that she was struggling to continue to be confident that Cash wanted to be with her.

It would be easy to annul their marriage even though they had just committed their lives to each other, and vowed to stand together through good times and bad. And even though it was a union that had been blessed by God and sealed with a kiss, a very lame one as kisses went.

Still, to her, their marriage was just as solid as a marriage that had been going on for fifty years. But, some people would say it hadn’t been consummated, so it wasn’t a real marriage.

---