She chuckled. “Plus a little agriculture. Actually,” she said, “I wanted to give you the right of the first move. After yesterday morning, I couldn’t make myself wait any more.” She returned to her seat and took his hands again. “Your turn.”
“Hm?”
“Time to tell me how you feel about it—about me.”
He was slow to answer.
“I was...dead,” he said. “Marie—my wife—left me a long while ago. It was harder on me than I realized at first. I lost interest in my work, and I became uncomfortable around others, and pretty soon I was alone. I tried to tell myself that I preferred it that way, but I was alone whether I liked it or not. I had money, so I took advantage of the opportunity to retire and get away. I landed here. Lots of space, no neighbors to speak of, no pressure of any kind. As long as I could get groceries and get to Mass on Sunday, I thought I had what I needed.”
“And then?”
“Then there was you. The embodiment of life. Life on the hoof! What I’d needed but hadn’t had the sense to look for or pursue, delivered right onto my porch on a breezy April day. From that very first moment, you brought me life in such abundance that I knew I couldn’t stay dead. Want to know how I knew?”
She nodded.
“Because I couldn’t look at you without quaking inside from the fear that you might get away.”
Her eyes brimmed over. She rose and pulled him out of his seat.
“Come on,” she said. “Let’s get moving.”
“Hm?”
“First,” she said, “we shower. Then some toast or eggs or something. Then we go see Father Ray.”
“Why?”
“Banns and a date, dummy! You do want our firstborn to be legitimate, don’t you?” She tugged him down the hallway toward the master bathroom.
“Oh. Right. Kate?”
“Hm?”
“Could I help with the farm? I don’t know much about growing things, but...?”
That stopped her. She turned and searched his face. “It’s dirty, tiring work, Allan.”
“That’s okay,” he said, “if I can do it with you.”
She smiled and pulled him close. “That you can.”
==<O>==
Part Two: Soil Tests
Allan trotted along beside the tractor as Kate steered it toward the barn. He pulled the sliding door open and stood aside as she brought the tractor smoothly to rest in its accustomed place. She killed the engine, jumped down from the driver’s seat, and writhed to stretch the kinks out of her lower back.
“We got a lot done,” he said as he reached for her hand.
She smiled tiredly, slid the barn door closed, and took his hand. They headed up the slight incline toward the house.
“Kate?”
“Hm?”
“Something wrong?”
She looked up at him in some surprise. “No, nothing. Why?”
“You haven’t been very talkative lately.”
That elicited a crooked grin. “Farm girl, remember?”
So along with not talking during sex, they don’t talk the rest of the time either?
He nodded and escorted her to their back door. Once inside, she silently stepped out of her overalls, tossed them at the rough-clothing hamper in the corner, and headed for the bathroom. Presently he heard the pulse of the shower.
Allan frowned, took a seat at their kitchen table, and propped his chin on his folded hands.
Something had to be amiss. Kate’s taciturnity had gone well beyond her norm. She’d been driving herself harder than ever, rising earlier, stopping later, and demanding ever greater prodigies of effort from herself. In bed she’d gone from enthusiastic to frenzied, straining to bring him to orgasm twice or thrice every night. Yet she hardly had a word to say about the farm, their labors, their love life, or anything else.
It’s only been a year. Maybe I don’t yet know her all that well.
He tried not to worry.
Maybe the party will lift her spirits.
He went to their bedroom and rummaged through the closet for an appropriate suit. Though he’d saved several from his lawyering days, they failed to fit him as they once did. Farm labor had developed his chest, arms, and thighs more radically than they could accommodate. He wasn’t unhappy about it—he’d never felt better in his life—but it meant more casual attire for the Taliaferros’ party than he was used to wearing to such occasions. He shrugged and settled on a navy polo shirt and a new pair of tan slacks.
He cleared a spot on their bed, lay back, and allowed his thoughts to ramble. The previous year’s rhubarb and scallions had sold extremely well. With his help, Kate had gotten six acres of each under cultivation, plus six of asparagus from a gourmet line. Present trends continuing, the coming crop would be as bountiful, and would sell out as quickly and profitably, as had the previous one. They had good reason to be proud of their work.