Page 45 of A Cowboy's Convenient Marriage

Instead, every time he came home, there was some kind of new chaos going on in the house. He was pretty sure Aunt Karen had Ada cleaning it from top to bottom. Aunt Karen was helping too, of course, but she wasn’t young anymore, and he was guessing that she did more dictating than she did helping. Not that it was in a bad way. Aunt Karen was super sweet, and Ada was smiling at the end of the day, not casting vengeful glances at Aunt Karen.

They had totally cleaned out the attic, wiped it down from top to bottom, went through every single thing that was stored up there, and took loads of stuff away to donate and almost as much stuff to throw away. Then, after the attic was done, he saw Ada out on a ladder washing the outsides of the windows. Maybe he should think about trying to have the windows replaced to the new kind that opened up inside to make them easy to wash. However, Ada seemed like she was perfectly at home on the ladder, and he remembered how comfortable she’d been with the charging cow. He figured if she could handle a cow, she could probably handle a ladder as well.

And Karen was exceptionally happy that her windows were now sparkling, every curtain in the house had been washed, and all the walls and baseboards and trim had been completely wiped down.

Ada started to look a little tired in the evenings when he came home, but she still had a happy glow about her.

There were seven closets in the big old house, his aunt informed him one day, and she and Ada were going to go through every one of them.

More loads of things went out to be donated, and more loads of things went out to the trash. Closets were completely redone, cleaned inside and out, and his aunt said that hadn’t been done in years and years. His aunt glowed with a happiness that he hadn’t seen since before his uncle died. Ada looked even more tired, but she also looked happy as well.

After the closets came the kitchen, and after the kitchen came the basement. By then, his aunt had grand plans for the yard, and he came home one day to find trees leaning against the porch, along with several boxes of plants and flowers.

Apparently, Ada knew something about landscaping, and she and Aunt Karen were on their way to the local landscaping store to buy pavers which Ada was going to put down.

Cash nodded, did what he needed to do in the house, and went back to the car dealership, which had been thriving even more than he could have imagined.

Four weeks had gone by. John had called him three more times asking him to go out, and the yard and the house looked like professionals had cleaned it and revamped it. Cash was a little concerned when his aunt said that the roof needed to be replaced and wondered if she was going to have Ada do that too. But, in the next breath, he realized he needn’t have been worried, because his aunt said that their elderly neighbor, two doors down, had been watching what she and Ada were doing, and had asked if it would be possible if Ada would be able to help her do a little summer cleaning in her house, and possibly clean out a few rooms and closets and maybe even the attic and basement.

Cash sighed and listened, and noticed that Ada did not seem to mind at all.

They had been taking walks in the evening, when Ada had enough energy, or when Aunt Karen didn’t have something for her to do.

He decided that he was going to talk to her about it. He didn’t mind that she was working, and he loved that she was staying busy and she seemed happy, but it was his job to take care of his wife, and he wanted to make sure that she wasn’t doing it just to keep his aunt happy, or because there was something going on that he was unaware of and she was afraid of Aunt Karen getting upset.

One evening after they’d been married for a month, and after they cleaned off the table, he set the last dish in the dishwasher and turned to his wife.

“Would you have time to take a walk this evening?”

“I’d love to,” Ada said, and then lifted her brows at Aunt Karen.

“Well she can go, but I was expecting her to go over to Evie’s house this evening and take a look at the things that need to be done. We're going to get started bright and early in the morning.”

“I’ll tell you what, how about I go with Ada, and we’ll stop at Evie’s house, and then once we’re done talking to her, Ada and I can continue on with our walk?”

“I suppose that would be okay,” Aunt Karen said. “I was going to go along too, but I guess I don’t need to. Unless you want me?” She seemed to be asking hopefully.

“We definitely want you, but... I think I’d like a little time with my wife. She’s been pretty busy since we got married.”

Ada’s face showed concern immediately. “Have I been too busy? I didn’t want to neglect you, but I also didn’t want you to feel like you had to entertain me.”

“I suppose it’s a fine line we’ll get used to. But no. You haven’t been neglecting me. Not at all.”

She sighed with relief, and he put a hand on her shoulder.

“Are you ready?”

“Yes. Just let me finish up these dishes.”

“You go on ahead. I can finish the dishes,” Aunt Karen said.

Ada looked at her, and she seemed to be running through her mind whether or not she wanted to cut out with work still to do. He was starting to understand that if there was something to do, Ada had a hard time letting it go. Maybe that was one of her faults, although it could also be a huge asset as well. As long as it was managed.

“Come on. Let’s go,” he said, tugging on her hand, and gratified when she allowed him to pull her out of the kitchen.

She had a tendency to walk around in her bare feet, and she stopped at the door to put a pair of sandals on.

It was a beautiful evening, although if they didn’t go quickly, darkness would descend, and it would get cool fast.

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