Even for June, you better be asking her to marry you in the next couple of weeks.
Lenore’s heartbeat thumped and bumped against her ribs. Could she really be engaged in a couple of weeks?
She raised her head and gave Brandon his phone back. “I changed my mind. I don’t want to get married.”
Brandon scoffed, his mouth hanging open. “What? What did she say?” He dove into his phone, but Lenore simply smiled.
“She didn’t say anything. There’s just so much.” She took his phone and set it aside, then wrapped her arms around him. “Can’t we just skip the wedding?”
“No way,” Brandon said. “I want to get married, and I want to marry you.” He gazed at her. “We don’t have to do what Zona says.”
Lenore looked at him, lightning zipping through her. “We don’t?” she teased. “Really? Did you hear what you just said?”
Brandon rolled his eyes, but he smiled when his gaze met hers again. “I need a suit. You need a dress. We need our friends and family here. I’ll get Dumpling something to wear, and you’ll get the hounds new leashes.”
Lenore nodded, her smile settling into place too. “That sounds nice.”
“Zonadidremind me about Gun and Camila’s wedding, as well as Rock and Clover’s. I’ll figure out when those are, and then all we need is a date that won’t interfere with theirs.”
“In June.”
“Right. And everything else is just whatever,” he said. “Though now that I think of it, my friendshavehad announcements….”
42
Brandon 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 selltwenty-fivequarts 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.
