Chapter 26
Chapter Twenty-Six
“ W e’re still on for tonight?” Wilson asked as they finished up breakfast. He enjoyed having the kids home and was dreading the fact that they were going back to school in less than a month.
Although he would enjoy having more time alone with his wife, the idea of losing three of the kids was… depressing.
“We sure are. We planned it last month, remember?”
“I do,” he said, putting the dishes in the sink and grabbing the rag to wipe the table.
Her phone buzzed, and she pulled it out, setting the milk down on the counter while she read the message.
“Wilson?” she said tentatively as she looked up, and he could tell from the tone of her voice that something happened.
“What is it?” he said immediately, straightening, the rag in his hand.
He could watch the kids if she needed to go help somebody.
Or… Maybe someone needed him. He could take one or two of the kids with him.
Gifford was always good to go. And Banks and Lavinia ought to be able to go with him as well.
He figured pretty soon Serafina and even little Evans would all want to go any time he left the farm.
Even if he was just feeding cattle or doing mundane chores, the kids loved to follow him around.
And he enjoyed the teaching time with them.
“The grocery store in town just said that someone came and asked if they could order ten dozen of my gobs. They want them for this evening.”
She looked down at her phone and read it aloud. “‘I know that that is really short notice, but I have a customer standing here in front of me, and I wanted to know whether it would be possible for you to do it or not? She’d like to pick them up by nine o’clock this evening.’”
“Wow. That’s a lot of gobs.”
“I know. And… I could do it, but you and I have a date.”
“Well, maybe we can spend our date making gobs?”
“You don’t want to do that,” she said, tilting her head and giving him an exasperated look.
“As long as I’m with you, I’ll do anything, which is better than anything I could do without you.” He meant that with his whole heart. She seemed to understand that he was serious, because she shrugged.
“I might be upset if you want to cancel our date just so that you can go do some kind of emergency work…”
“No, you wouldn’t. Last month, we canceled our date because my brother wasn’t watching his children and got my mother to do it, and my mother wanted to come here, so you and I stayed home, remember? That was me.”
“I remember.”
“You didn’t complain at all. Not even a little bit. In fact, you acted like you had the time of your life.” He had really appreciated that. She hadn’t complained or acted put out at all. Even though she had to have been looking forward to going out. He knew how much she enjoyed it.
“We could take a rain check,” she said, lifting her arms up.
“Somehow, that never happens.”
“True.”
“The three older children will be in school, and even if Mom has Gilbert’s kids, they will be in school too. So we could plan a lunch date, for sure.”
“All right. Let’s do that.”
“And next month, you and I will make it up together.”
“All right. It’s a deal.”
Wilson watched as she turned back to the sink.
He knew she was excited about her business doing so well, and he had to say he was happy for her.
And while he knew that they wouldn’t have any privacy tonight, it was probably a good thing.
Although… At night, he’d been dreaming more and more of kissing his wife.
It seemed like his every waking thought was consumed with that, and at night, he couldn’t get away from it either.
He took a deep breath and turned back to the table, wiping it absentmindedly, while he thought about how much time he had left until next Christmas.