“There will be men here working for the next two weeks, and they are not coming inside this house,” he told her.“If you don't feel comfortable, call Megan over to hang out with you while they are here.Can you fire a weapon?”
“I'm sorry, what?”
He walked her to the living room closet and opened the door to an anchored safe.Thom punched in a code, which he called out to her.He turned the wheel and the safe opened to a small arsenal of handguns, rifles, and an archery bow.She pointed at it and the stacks of gold bars and money.
“Thom, what is this?”
“Security,” he said.“I keep at least ten thousand in cash here, along with a few items for bartering, you know, in case of the Apocalypse or a zombie outbreak.”
He burst into laughter when he looked at the shock on her face.“Relax, I do a lot of hunting.The other stuff is just in case stash.”
She blinked at him.Mae felt stupid not knowing whom she'd actually married.For some reason, she wanted to know, “Thom, are you rich?”
“No,” he said, smiling at her, “I am extremely comfortable, though.”
“I'm not a pauper by any means either,” she told him.
“Good, we'll talk about it in detail at a later time, but meanwhile, budget what you think you're going to need in the way of furniture for the home and barndominuim, or we can plan it together,” he said.“Once we get the garden going, our main purchases will be grains and meats like beef.I still have half a hog in the freezer, venison, and some beef.I prefer to get the chicken fresh.If you want chickens and egg layers, let me know, but I hate the smell of chicken shit and really, really, really, hate cleaning pens.Childhood traumas.The process of soaking chickens in solutions to get the parasites off their little chicken butts...ick.I will leave it at that.”
“Okay,” she said softly.“Thom?”
“Yes, Mary?”
“Loving you is going to be easy,” she told him, smiling.
“The way you were loving me last night had me thinking you needed a new Mercedes,” he said, laughing.“Speaking of that.What I've been saving for my wife pales in comparison to what we've been doing...I've been storing something up for you.”
“Oh, shit,” she said, placing her hand on her chest.“What have you stored up for me, Thom Brown?”
“You'll see,” he told her, providing a quick kiss before heading out the door.She stood on the porch watching him drive off.As her husband drove off, she noticed the old Ford belonging to Megan driving up.She was actually ecstatic to see the woman.
Megan parked and got out of the vehicle.“Sorry for not calling, but I didn't have your number.I have his, but that wouldn't be cool.How ya doing?”
Mae smiled at her and responded, “Actually I'm good and glad to see you.Come on in, and we can have some tea.”
“Great, because I made a lavender and citrus tea with mint, I wanted you to try,” Megan said.“It will be one of the new features on my website.The last new tea I introduced, I couldn't meet the demand and had to take it off the site.So now, I'm smarter.I’ll test it out first, then make a certain amount, and when it is gone, it is gone.”
“How much do you make at a time?”
“Usually enough to fill two hundred orders,” she said.“I do four ounces each and up to 250 grams which is 8-ounce pouches.I really want to move up to branded tins, but right now, I am still a small fry in a bowl of big taters.”
Mae couldn't help but like the woman.“Let me get the kettle going, and I will grab cookies, cheeses, and some fruit so we can have a nice visit.”
“Mae,” Megan said, “thank you.”
“For what?”
“Not being a meanie head,” Megan told her.“Neither of us knows anyone else in this town, and it's nice to feel like I have a friend.”
“Funny, I was worried you would hate me for stealing your man,” Mae said.
“You couldn't steal what I didn't own,” she told her.“Besides, this may work out better.Jiminy is kind of okay.”
“Oh really?You and Jiminy?Hey, did the porcupine come back yet?”
“No, we go out daily looking for that scamp and it's kind of cool,” she said.“He's really opened up a lot about himself, his life and how he feels about relationships.”
“And for you?”
