Chapter 42
B randon groaned as he straightened, not super keen on this strawberry picking thing. His body felt rusty and old, but Lenny seemed to be having the time of her life.
The strawberry plants had bloomed about three and a half weeks ago, and she’d spent hours with them every day, making sure they were well cared for, researching the price of premium, organic, off-season strawberries, and planning for this very day.
Brandon had been planning for this day too, just in a different way.
The bottom fell out of his stomach when he thought about proposing to Lenny. At the same time, he couldn’t wait to do it, because then he’d be able to make things official—not only with her, but with his friends and family as well.
Gun and Camila had put their wedding on June tenth, with Rock and Clover scheduling theirs for April twenty-seventh.
Brandon figured a week wouldn’t make a difference, and he’d been hoping to nail down June third for him and Lenny to be married here on the homestead.
He’d already unofficially told everyone that date, with the small ranch owners showing up with a celebratory cake for him and Lenny at the February meeting a couple of days ago.
“Twenty-five quarts,” Lenny said, her voice the happiest Brandon had ever heard. “I’m going to be able to sell twenty-five quarts of strawberries.” She looked down at her phone and then over to him. “And keep five for us.”
“That’s great,” he said. “What price did you decide to list them as?”
“Well, I talked to Clara Jean,” she said. “And she said she’d mark them at eight-fifty in the grocery store. But of course, she can’t buy them from me for that much.”
Brandon smiled at the beautiful woman he loved as he drew closer to her.
“She said the best she could do was four-fifty, but I think I can list them at eight, and that would almost double my profit.”
“List them at eight,” he said. “Listen, I’m gonna go shower, okay?”
She nodded, back to tapping into her phone. “Yeah, okay. I’ll come in and start dinner as soon as I get these strawberries in the cold storage.”
A flash of pride moved through Brandon before he could stop it.
He’d been on the homestead for another month, and while he was officially working and living here without pay, he didn’t need much.
He and Lenny ate from her garden and greenhouse.
They had all the eggs they wanted, and she’d added free-range meat chickens, quality meat turkeys, and goats to her livestock.
They enjoyed milk and cheese from the goats, and he’d smoked two chickens and a turkey last week.
With spring almost upon them in the Panhandle, they’d be planting alfalfa and the grasses, pumpkins and potatoes—and those were just the big acreage crops. Lenny had plans for a full garden, too, including corn, peas, carrots, onions, lettuce, beets, and yes, more strawberries.
He’d been reading up on fertilizing soil, and he’d spent a week turning the earth, consulting with Finn and Alex about the soil pH, and then plowing in fertilizer to prep for planting
They didn’t have to pay for water or electricity, and Brandon no longer took trips to the truck stop to shower either.
He didn’t live with Lenny, but about the only thing he didn’t do at her place was sleep.
He ate all his meals there, stored his food in her fridge, and showered in her bathroom with her glorious hot water.
She’d sold all their excess lumber this month for almost four thousand dollars.
Twenty-five flats of strawberries at eight dollars each would be another two hundred, and she made about two-twenty-five on monthly egg sales.
That money was enough to supplement their diet with meat they didn’t harvest here on the homestead, though Lenny’s long-term plans were to add a dairy cow, beef cattle, horses, and sheep to the homestead.
Not only that, but Brandon had started learning to hunt with a bow and arrow, because if he could harvest a deer even twice a year, that would feed them for a long time. So he didn’t need much money, and he’d never been happier working the land—because it felt like his own.
He went inside while Lenny started portioning out the strawberries into the quart containers she’d bought at the IFA.
Since he was back in the habit of taking a hot shower every day, Brandon didn’t feel the need to stand in the stream for a half-hour.
He did stay in a little bit longer, simply so he could practice his proposal one last time without Lenny overhearing him.
He’d gone over all the things he wanted to say to her, including how much he admired her and how happy he’d been since coming to the homestead.
When he’d been in long enough to arouse suspicion, he got out, took a deep breath, and toweled himself dry.
He redressed in clean clothes right there in the bathroom and took a few minutes to clean up his beard and towel-dry his hair.
Lenny claimed to be able to cut it, and he was getting close to the time when that needed to be done again.
He opened the top drawer in her bathroom vanity and reached way into the back for the deep burgundy, velvet box he’d stored there a couple of weeks ago.
To his great relief, Lenny had not found it, or if she had, she hadn’t said anything.
He snapped open the lid to look at the simple diamond inside.
It was a princess cut, according to Arizona, and it had been set in a white gold band with Moissanite gems surrounding it. It looked ultra expensive with all the shiny extra facets, but that was one of the major perks of a man-made diamond.
He’d been praying Lenny would like it, though he didn’t doubt for a moment that she would say yes. He looked at himself in the mirror and released one of his award-worthy sighs.
“Go on, cowboy,” he told himself, as much of a pep talk as he ever gave to his reflection. “You know what to do.”
He wasn’t sure he did, but he opened the bathroom door, the sound of Lenny’s favorite band filtering down the hall from the kitchen. She liked to cook with music playing, and Brandon moved as silently and stealthily as he could to the mouth of the hallway so he could watch her.
She’d just stepped over to the stove and tipped the cutting board into the pan. Something sizzled, and it smelled like warm butter and salt already.
She’d planned to make fajitas that night, and Brandon assumed she’d just put in the peppers and onions.
Maybe he had a minute right now, and his stomach turned to stone.
Clutching the burgundy box, he went the rest of the way into the kitchen, moved up right behind her, and wrapped his arms around her.
She giggled and leaned back into his body.
“Mm, you smell nice.” She turned in his arms, and while Brandon hadn’t exactly choreographed this proposal, he figured he could do the most natural thing.
He smiled at her, leaned down, and kissed her gently for only a moment, then backed up and used the door handle on the fridge to balance himself as he got down on both knees.
Lenny’s eyes widened, and she sucked in a breath. “B, what are you doing?”
“I love you, Lenore Sawyer,” he said, glad the opening of his proposal still sat in his mind.
“I love seeing you out on the homestead working when I finally get up, and I love learning new things about you every day. I love your hard-working spirit and your loyalty to friends and family, and your enthusiasm at raising livestock and gardening.”
Her expression relaxed into one of a beautiful smile, and she focused on him intently, ignoring the sizzling veggies in the pan completely.
“I’ve dated a lot of women,” he said with a chuckle.
“And none of them has ever affected me the way you do. I want to be better because of you. I want to learn and implement everything I can to make your life easier. I want to continue to explore and live your dream with you here on the homestead, because your future is my future, Lenny. We belong together, and I promise to love you the best way I know how, to always take care of you, to listen to any harebrained idea you have, as long as you let me sketch it out before we try it.”
Her smile grew and she laughed. At the same time, she reached up and wiped the corner of her eyes.
“And as long as you can put up with Dumpling hissing at Admiral,” he added. “I’ll call myself the luckiest man in the world to be your husband.”
He flipped open the lid and held up the box. “Will you do me the great honor of marrying me?”
A tear leaked out of her eye, and she made no effort to brush it away. “Yes,” she said. “Yes, of course.” She laughed fully then, and Brandon took out the ring and slid it onto her finger. He grabbed onto her waist and hugged her, and then used her hands to help him get back to his feet.
“Give me five seconds,” she said as she turned to the stove and picked up the wooden spoon she’d laid on the counter. She gave the veggies a quick stir and turned back to him.
He eased her into his arms, a place she’d been many times, but holding her would never get old to him. “I love you, sweetheart,” he said, when she tipped her head back and beamed all of her sunshine at him.
“I love you too, B.”
He kissed her again, so glad he’d found a way to believe in himself again—to believe in God again, and to believe that he could find his one true love.