Chapter 5
Boon strolled slowly beside Angelle in the moonlight as he escorted her home. In one hand he held the fishing poles and gripped the handles of the picnic basket Valerie had sent with them. In the other his large hand held Angelle’s smaller one gently.
“I can’t believe time got away from us like that,” Angelle said, completely relaxed beside him as she held tightly to his hand, and held onto her tackle box with the other.
“I can. Best day I’ve had in a long, long time,” Boon said.
“I didn’t bore you to tears?” she asked, smiling up at him in the darkness.
“Are you kidding? Fishing, the birds singing, quiet time away from everything else, the woods, water and your kisses. What else could I ask for?”
“Excitement?”
Boon came to a stop as they reached the edge of the woods closest to Bane’s and Bam’s houses. He turned and faced her, while still keeping a hold on her hand. He looked down into her eyes as he shook his head. “When are you going to believe that to me, you are the most exciting female?”
“I’m working on it,” she said.
“Let me ask you something else,” Boon said.
“Okay.”
“Can you see yourself being satisfied with this kind of life every day?”
Angelle laughed. “This is about all my days consist of already. At least I’d have someone to spend them with me.”
Boon didn’t laugh, though he did give her a small smile.
“I can’t leave our community — for obvious reasons,” he said, flicking his gaze upward toward his horns.
“So, I tend to live a life much like someone from the turn of the century. I hunt or fish pretty much every day. I go down to the beach where Enthrall has his fishing shack and splash around in the waters there. Though I have to admit that since Odin buried his friend there and built it up like a monument of some sort, there are always people and kids running around there, so I usually go at night, or when they’re having some other kind of get together elsewhere.
I like my solitude too much to be splashing around with kids.
Other than hunting, fishing, helping out those who need it when they need it, cooking my meals — which are usually smoked meats, and catching my meals, there’s not a lot happening in my life.
I’d like someone to share it with. I’d like to share it with you, but I’m pretty sure you’d get bored with my lifestyle. ”
Angelle thought about it for a second. “If you add someone else to your life, wouldn’t it change it?”
“Not really,” Boon said.
“I beg to differ,” Angelle said with a smirk.
“How so?” Boon asked.
“Well, if it was me, I’m okay with meat from time to time, but I prefer vegetables and greens, and fruit — especially blue and black berries.
So, you’d have to tend a garden, or at least help me put one in so I could tend it.
If I’m there, I’d want to make our home nice.
Doesn’t have to be fancy, but no reason it can’t be comfortable, and if there are not many modern conveniences, I’d need help with some of it.
” She paused to look up at him to see how he was taking it so far.
“And…” he said.
“And your mother and father are there. I’m sure I’d like to visit with them, if they like me, that is.
And you’ve mentioned uncles and aunts, and people you grew up with.
I’m sure they’d appreciate being invited to dinner from time to time.
And you said get togethers, so at least sometimes they do get together. ”
“We do.”
“And I’m sure at some point, I would, or I might, want to try to have a child or two. And that would change things drastically. I know that people did things differently around the turn of the century, and regardless of how people lived in the early 1900s, I’d expect you to pitch in with children.”
Boon had started smiling back when she mentioned a garden and it just kept growing bigger and bigger as she spoke.
“Why are you smiling like that?” Angelle asked.
“Because you’re talking about our life together and children.”
“Do you not want children?” she asked, starting to get a little worried.
“I’ve always dreamed of taking my son out with me to do all the things I do and teaching him all that I know. Passing on the skills and the knowledge that can only come from living it.”
“And if you only have daughters?”
“I’ll teach them, too, if they want to learn.” His brow came down over his eyes as he scowled. “No, I’d teach them anyway. They’ll need to know how to take care of themselves on their own. They’d definitely have to learn to hunt and to track, and to protect themselves, because they are girls!”
Angelle nodded encouragingly, glad he wanted to teach his kids to be self-sufficient, regardless of whether they were boys or girls.
“I know you prefer solitude, and I do, too. I mean, I really do. My own people send me screaming from their get togethers sometimes. But, we’d be a team, working toward the same things.
I don’t think I’d need time away from you. Would you need solitude from me?”
“Angelle, you are my solitude. But just so you know, if you wanted some alone time, I’d understand. I might not go too far, but I’d be silent, and I’d leave you alone until you were ready to talk to me again.”
“Same. I know it would be a drastic change for both of us. I’d have no problem giving you alone time, but I’d want to be with you most of the time — I think.”
“You think?” he asked, laughing heartily.
“Well, we can’t know until we try.”
“Just so you know, we do have the means to get modern products, and foods and all. And if you need something I can’t provide, my sister can provide whatever it is.
I’m sure you’re aware of the things Tempest can do?
Well, my sister is more powerful than Tempest ever thought about being.
But it’s more the lack of electricity that I think you’d have to get used to.
We build our homes in a certain direction that allows the windows at the front and back, or left and right of a house to be opened to allow for a nice breeze to blow through, cooling everything.
We have fireplaces for warmth. And for the kitchen, we use iceboxes, rather than refrigerators, except Lily’s.
Hers is more modern. Ice boxes work out well for me because like I said, I like to hunt, and food only lasts so long, so I have to do it more often than not.
Our kitchens have stoves that can be wood burning, or my mother’s and my sister’s and few others now, too, I think, run on propane gases that are brought in in pressurized bottles. ”
“Like cooking on a gas stove,” Angelle said.
“Exactly. It’s just propane gas. Now that I think of it, I could get some propane heaters if you’d like some. It’ll help keep the house warmer in the winter.”
“That might be nice,” she agreed.
“We have cisterns on the roofs of our houses that gather rainwater, and a plumbing system that allows it to run through the house. We have septic tanks for waste water leaving the house. We just don’t have electricity.
When it gets dark, we have old hurricane lamps or candles for light.
There is no television, we read, we visit, we play board games — well, some people play board games — we talk. ”
“It sounds romantic. Like a time lost to advancement.”
“I don’t know about romantic, but it’s definitely not like anything you’re used to. The reason I tell you all this is that I’d like to take you there. Give you a chance to experience it first hand, see if you think it’s somewhere you might be happy.”
Angelle’s stomach fluttered a little at the thought of leaving home, leaving her parents and everything she’d always known. She looked away for several seconds before looking back at him.
He was watching her, his hand still grasping hers, his thumb rubbing soft, soothing strokes across the back of her hand.
He could feel the fear; he could actually see the hesitation in her, and he believed that in that moment, he’d lost any chance of her living with him in his world. But she surprised him.
Angelle turned her attention back to Boon, shored up her courage — literally stood a little straighter as she realized what she was about to say.
“I think that’s a good idea. I’d like to meet your family for more than just a few minutes while we’re all preoccupied with Tempest and Brandt’s new baby.
I’d like to see how you live. I think I should go home with you to experience your life and how you do things. ”
Boon’s face lit up and it was all he could do not to dance in place. “When do you want to go?”
“As soon as possible.”
“What do you think your parents are going to say?”
“Oh, they’re going to hit the roof! Prepare yourself.”
~~~
Angelle paused outside her front door and looked up at Boon.
“So, we’re doing this then?” he asked.
“We’re going to explore this. If it all works out, we’re doing this,” she said.
“I’ll go inside with you to tell your parents,” he said, reaching for the doorknob.
“No! No, no. I think it’s best if you let me do that.”
“I should stand with you.”
“No, you shouldn’t. I’ll tell them, and then I’m sure you’ll have a chance to speak to them afterward.”
“They’ll be angry…”
“Exactly. Which is why it will be better received by my family if I present it to them alone.”
“I don’t like it. I feel like I’m leaving you to face them alone.”
“You’re honoring my wishes.”
Boon watched her for only a few seconds longer before he nodded. “I will bow to your preferences. But I’m not happy about it.”
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said, going up on tiptoe to kiss his cheek.
Boon leaned close to her and pressed his lips to hers rather than be satisfied with a kiss to his cheek. “Tomorrow.”
Angelle opened the door and stepped inside, wearing the glow of a young woman in love.
“Where have you been?” Daniel demanded.
“I was at the creek, just like I said I was. And you know that, or you’d have already come looking for me,” Angelle said indignantly.