Instant Prairie Family (Love Inspired Historical) by Navarro Bonnie

Author:Navarro, Bonnie [Navarro, Bonnie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin Enterprises
Published: 2012-07-31T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Almost a full month had passed since the fateful day that Abby went to the chapel and came home married. More than three weeks of slow adjustments to a strange loneliness even as Abby found things to occupy her hands and her mind. Life on the farm had started to fall into a routine. The cooler mornings were for chores and then she and the boys would stay inside in the shade and focus on schoolwork until suppertime. She faithfully watered and weeded the garden. Any day now she would have lettuce, celery, cucumbers and tomatoes to add to her meals. The potatoes and pumpkins would take a while longer.

Each day was an adventure with the boys, who were now baked brown by the sun. On Mondays she washed the laundry and then they made a game of hanging all the clothes on the line. Tuesdays and Thursdays she took the boys down to the creek to fish for dinner while she read to them.

One morning they got so involved in the adventures of their hero that Willy lost his fishing pole to a large catfish. He jumped in the water after his pole and barely caught it. Abby hesitated for an instant, but as soon as Willy’s head went under a second time, she splashed in herself. She might not know how to swim, but she wasn’t going to let Willy struggle alone.

She found the water was only up to her waist and the current wasn’t strong enough to knock her off her feet. Relief made her giggle. Even with her sodden skirts, she had no trouble catching hold of Willy, who was still battling with the catfish. She held him tight around the waist as he reeled in the fish. Tommy extended the net as they brought in the fish together. Having scored victory over the catfish, Abby and Willy climbed the bank of the creek and lay out in the dappled sunlight filtering through the tree branches overhead, letting the warm breeze dry them.

“Thanks, Ma. I was scared till you caught me! I can’t wait to show Pa and Jake I got the big one.”

Abby lay there in the warm afternoon and breathed deeply to keep the tears scratching her throat from cursing down her face. It was the first time Willy called her Ma. If only she could be assured she would always be here to catch the boys….

She and Jake became friends, too. After dinner and the boys’ bedtime stories, Jake would find Abby on the porch out back. They took advantage of the twilight hours for her to teach him math and science. His mother had taught him to read when he was small, but he only read when forced to, until Abby lent him some of her books. As Abby encouraged him, he started to tell her more and more about his life and his memories of his parents. They realized that they had been about the same age when they had each lost their parents.

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