Page 67 of Mail-Order Bride Substitute
“Yes?”
He shrugged. “It’s just a silly memory.”
“I’d love to hear if you don’t mind sharing.”
He considered his options. “On one condition.”
She studied him a moment as if suspicious of his request. “And that would be?”
“You tell me a memory.”
A shrug of her shoulders. “Very well.” She waited for a blink of her eye. “You go first.”
“Like I said, Pa loved pudding, but he always made a wisecrack about it. Most of them were jokes or puns. Like this: ‘Knock knock!’” He waited to see if she would play.
Her eyes twinkled. “Who's there?”
“Pudding!”
Her eyebrows rose. “Pudding who?”
“Pudding on your shoes before your trousers is a bad idea!”
She groaned but her grin said she’d enjoyed it.
They looked at each other over the empty dessert bowls. Pa would have liked her if for no other reason than she smiled at one of his jokes.
“Any others?” she prompted.
“Can’t remember but every time he finished cleaning out his dish, he would look at Ma and say, ‘Thanks for pudding up with me.’”
“Aww. That’s sweet.”
He nodded. “Sweet as pudding.” He felt rather pleased with himself when she laughed.
The silence stretched between them. Comfortable and promising. He jerked his thoughts back to where they belonged. “Let’s hear your memory.”
“Let me think.” She tapped her chin. “You didn’t say it had to be a cooking story or a joke but maybe I can come up with something.”
She took so long, Riley wondered if her life had been without the kind of fun he knew.
Then she nodded. “Remember I told you Sylvia did her best to teach me a few skills I’d need out here?”
He nodded. Of course, he remembered. But he hadn’t received the letter in time to voice his objection.My times are in thy hand.The words came in his mother’s voice. He knew them to be from the Bible and knew his mother would be telling him those very words if she was here and could hear his defensiveness regarding Olivia. She’d say there were no accidents in God’s timing. She’d probably tell him that God had sent Olivia his way.
Before he could marshal a good argument for his mother’s admonitions, Olivia began to talk.
“Now you have to understand that this wasn’t my fault. Sylvia wanted me to cook eggs for breakfast. She explained that eggs could be soft, medium soft, or hard. They can be flipped over or sunny-side up. According to her, people tended to have a favorite way of eating them.” She stopped and pressed her fingers to her mouth, her eyes wide with shock. “I didn’t even ask how you like yours.”
“I like them exactly as you’ve been making them.”
“Oh good.” Her breath whooshed out. Then her eyes twinkled. “Though I don’t think you mean the first day when they were…”
“Burnt?” He hoped his grin informed her he found it amusing.
“Sorry about that. I managed to cook them fine with Sylvia supervising, but I found it a lot harder when I had to manage on my own.” She considered him a moment then nodded as if satisfied with what she saw.
He congratulated himself on relieving her worries about her early attempts at cooking.
