Forever Yours (Nebraska Series Book 9)
leg healed. Sometimes Dave could be stubborn, so she was glad he was taking Joel’s instructions seriously. She knew it was hard for Dave to sit and do nothing. Ever since she’d married him, he’d been the kind of man who liked to keep busy. With any luck, he would be well in six weeks. Then he wouldn’t have to wait the full two months.“Can I go outside and play with Jasper?” Isaac asked.
“Yes,” Mary said, “but keep him in the fence. The hens are still scared of him.” They’d only gotten the hens a couple of weeks ago, and the hens still didn’t know what to think of the large dog. Sure, he was friendly, but they didn’t know that yet.
“Can I play with him, too?” Rachel asked.
“Yes, you can play, too,” she told her daughter.
It might be better if the children were out for a while so Dave could get some rest. She would put Adam in a highchair and give him a toy to play with while she made supper. She got ready to take Adam up to change his cloth diaper when Dave called out to her. She turned to face him.
“Can you bring me a pair of drawers?” Her eyebrows furrowed in surprise, but he added, “Don’t ask. It’s a long story.”
With a shrug, she told him she’d do as he wished and took Adam upstairs.
***
Dave stared at the splint that prevented him from moving the lower half of his leg. Six to eight weeks. It was going to take six to eight weeks before he could walk without that thing on him.
With a sigh, he looked up from the ottoman his leg was resting on and stared at the front yard. He’d tried to stay inside, but after a couple of hours of sitting in the parlor and trying to read a couple of books and dime novels Joel had let him borrow, he had to get outside. But even sitting on the porch wasn’t helping to ease his boredom.
Mary came out onto the porch, a glass of lemonade in her hand.
“What time is it?” Dave asked.
“It’s 11:20,” she replied as she put the glass on the small table next to him.
“It’s only 11:20?” He threw his head back. How was it possible for time to pass at such an agonizingly slow pace?
“We’ll have something light to eat for lunch in a half hour,” Mary said.
“It feels like it should be time for supper.”
She gave him a sympathetic smile. “This is only your first day with the splint. I’m sure the other days won’t go so slowly for you.”
“They better go faster.”
“Why don’t you try reading a book? There was one about a man going to Canada to become a Mountie that looked interesting.”
He grimaced. “That has to be one of April’s books because it’s about him having to choose between two women.” He rolled his eyes. “Why would it take him an entire book to pick one? He should know right away which one he wants. I knew I wanted to be with you as soon as I met you.”
“I’m flattered the choice was easy for you, but some people really do struggle with which person they want to spend the rest of their lives with. Jessica thought she was going to marry another man when Tom came into her life. And Sally told me Rick wasn’t smart enough to figure out he preferred her over her friend until she convinced him she was the better choice.”
“Well, I’m better at picking the right person than they are. In the first chapter of that book, I knew the Mountie should pick Beth.”
“You could tell that from chapter one?”
“Of course I could. Beth was more like you. If he picks Wilma, he lacks good sense, and if that’s the case, he deserves to be miserable.”
She chuckled. “Even though you don’t care for love stories, I’m happy you would suggest the man pick someone like me.” She paused. “What about the other books? I think I saw a mystery in one of them. You’re supposed to guess who murdered someone.”
He shrugged. Gathering up clues and trying to pin down a murderer didn’t appeal to him, either.
“The dime novels have shorter stories,” she suggested.
“I tried reading one. It was about a couple of boys who were searching for treasure in a cave.”
“That sounds like a fun story. Did they find the treasure?”
“I don’t know. I got three paragraphs in before I lost interest in it.”
She shook her head in amusement. “I had no idea you could be so picky.”
“Reading isn’t fun. When you’re reading, you’re not doing anything. You’re just sitting in a chair and looking at words.”
“That’s not true. When you’re reading, you’re living an adventure through the characters. You’re supposed to put yourself in their shoes. Go on the adventure with them. Pretend you’re one of the boys seeking out treasure.”
He grimaced. “I don’t want to be one of them. I want to be me.”
Mary leaned forward and kissed his cheek. “What about writing a story of your own? You can write about something you’d like to do.”
“I want to be out there.” He gestured to the barn and fields.
“You could write about it.”
“Mary, that’s not the same thing as being out there, and you know it.”
She laughed and rubbed his arm. “I know it’s hard to sit around and do nothing, but remind yourself that this is only temporary. You won’t be stuck in this chair forever.”
“It only seems like forever.”
“If you want, I can come out here and join you after lunch. Adam goes down for a nap then, and I only have to watch Rachel and Isaac.”
“Time would go by faster if you were out here.”
She rubbed his arm