First Comes Marriage

by Sophia Sasson

  Lily lifted her head as if sensing Meera’s discomfort. “When you’re in love, Doc, you just know.”

  “So why not tell people? You’re a married woman, and being his wife, you should be getting medical care from the military.”

  Lily shook her head. “When he left, he made me promise I’d wait to tell everyone until he got back. He hadn’t told his folks back home, and that girl he was supposed to marry—he wanted to break it to her himself. If I told people here, it would get to Norma Jean and she’d go and tell his momma and...you know.”

  “Have you spoken to him? When will he be home?”

  “That’s just it—I haven’t heard from him in months. Since I figured out I was pregnant. We were emailing and writing and then it all stopped. I have no idea where he is or how to get ahold of him.”

  Meera’s skin prickled.

  “Have you contacted the army?”

  Lily nodded. “They think I’m some crazy stalker. They asked me for proof that we got married, and I don’t know where our marriage certificate is. Joe must’ve taken it.”

  Meera smiled tightly. She hoped for Lily’s sake that Joe wasn’t the scoundrel he sounded like. “The place you got married should have a record of your wedding. Call them and see if they can send you a copy.”

  Lily slapped her forehead. “I didn’t think about asking them.” She sat straighter and clapped her hands. “That would solve everything, and then the army can tell me where he is and I can talk to him.”

  “And you need to tell someone here. Do you have family in town?”

  She shook her head. “It was just my momma taking care of me. The town didn’t like her much ’cause she was a single mother. She died last year and I’ve been alone ever since. At least until Joe came along, and now all I have is my crazy aunt, Norma Jean, who doesn’t even like me much.”

  Lily sniffed, then blew her nose. “The town doesn’t like me much, either, but at least they’re nice to me. If they think I’m having this baby out of wedlock, they’re gonna write me off like they did my mom.”

  Meera patted her hand. “I know this might be hard to hear, but you have to consider the possibility that Joe took advantage of you and the reason you can’t get in touch is that he doesn’t want to be found.”

  Lily shook her head vehemently. “I know what it looks like, Dr. M. I didn’t just fall off the turnip truck. He loves me.” She tapped her heart. “I know it in here. He’s a good man, and he meant to make me his wife. I know he’ll do right by me.”

  Meera took a breath. Lily was full of pregnancy hormones; there was no way to win her over with logic. Just like there was no convincing all the red-meat-eating, smoking, overweight people in Bellhaven that their hearts were ticking time bombs. She thought about how she handled her mother when she went overboard with the wedding planning. “Let’s take it one day at a time. First, see if you can get the marriage certificate. Then we can try to get you medical benefits.”

  “Thanks so much, Dr. M. I feel better just talking to you. I’ve been holding this inside so long, I was gonna explode. And I know that isn’t good for the baby...and I’m so glad the baby’s all right.”

  Meera smiled kindly at her and began putting away the ultrasound equipment. She wanted to make sure Lily got out of the office before Rose returned from lunch.

  “I’d never forgive myself if something happened. I don’t know what I woulda done if Jake hadn’t sent me to you.”

  “Do you want to know whether it’s a boy or a girl?”

  Lily shook her head, fresh tears streaming down her face. “I know it’s dumb, but I’m still hoping Joe will make it back somehow. I want to find out with him.”

  Meera’s heart went out to her. It was an impossible situation, one which she felt sure held heartbreak for Lily.

  “I don’t have a lot of money, Dr. M., but if we can come up with some monthly payment, I’ll pay you for all this. I got a job as a waitress...”

  Meera’s chest ached at the desperation in Lily’s voice. It had been a long time since she’d felt the pain of being poor. But she did know what it meant not to have money, and therefore her own freedom. What it meant to be at the mercy of someone else.

  She shook her head. “No, Lily, I will absolutely not take money from you.”

  Lily shook her head in turn. “I’m not a charity case, Dr. M. I’ve got my pride. I have to pay you.”

  Meera considered her options. She didn’t want Lily on her feet any more than she had to be. She chewed the inside of her cheek. Her eyes fell on Lily’s clothes, and she snapped her fingers. She’d noticed that her clothes didn’t have any tags on them. “Do you sew your own clothes?”

  Lily nodded enthusiastically. “My momma taught me.”

  Meera thought back to Jake’s comment about her clothes making her stand out in town. "Well, then, I’ll tell you what—if I get you some fabric, do you think you can make me a few things?”

  Lily clapped her hands. “Oh, I’ve been wantin’ to dress you since the moment I laid eyes on you. I can make you some real pretty dresses.”

  “Then it’s decided. Sew me some clothes, and your account’s settled.”

  She exchanged phone numbers with Lily and promised to come see her for measurements.

  After Lily left, Meera snuck a look at the schedule for the rest of the day. Dr. Harper had six patients; she, of course, had none. Forget it! She wrote Rose a note to say she was leaving and to call her cell if she was needed. There was no point in wasting the day at the clinic when she could go back to the ranch and get real work done. It has nothing to do with seeing Jake.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  MEERA PULLED INTO the carport at the ranch and noted that Jake’s pickup truck was parked there, too. Her stomach fluttered with excitement. She smiled to herself and went to the cottage to change clothes.

  As she made her way over to the ruined field, her pulse quickened when she saw Jake in a tractor. He was using a front loader to pick up debris and throw it in a dump truck. Meera studied Jake’s confident movements as his eyes focused on the work ahead of him. He was quite the man.

  She wondered about the woman in his life who had drunk the fertility tea and left him. She thought about Gloria and her claim to Jake. Gloria was a very attractive woman, but Jake hadn’t seemed into her at the barbecue. He would want a simple girl, someone down-to-earth who would work the ranch with him. The image of Gloria driving the tractor in her red dress popped into Meera’s head and she smiled. Not that a designer-clothes-wearing, dirt-averse vegetarian was any better.

  He turned the tractor off and hopped down. She couldn’t help but notice how sure-footed he was in his cowboy boots, and how his jeans fit him perfectly. Boot cut indeed.

  “Couldn’t stay away, huh?” His tone was light, but she noticed the worry in his expression as his gaze returned to the field.

  “It was a difficult choice between staying in a tiny office with no air-conditioning and nothing to do...or coming here to do menial labor in the baking sun. My guilty conscience won out.”

  He gave her a small smile.

  She shifted on her feet. “About earlier... I didn’t mean to get so defensive.”

  He stayed silent but turned his attention to her, his expression thoughtful, inviting her to say more. What could she say to make him understand that her parents meant everything to her? They had literally saved her life. Would he get it? Her American cousin, Priya, often told her that cultural values were different here. Children grew up and left their families, eager to flee their childhood homes. This was the first time she had ever been away from her parents. She couldn’t imagine a life without them.

  “I love my parents very much. I can’t stand anyone speaking against them.”

  His eyes locked on to hers. “Well, how about we leave it at that.” />
  She raised an eyebrow.

  “I love my father, Meera. God knows he’s not perfect, but I don’t let anyone talk smack about him. I get what it’s like to be protective of your parents. I didn’t mean to overstep.”

  Her heart responded to the sincerity in his voice. She wanted to open up more, to tell him all of it. Somehow she knew he would understand like no one else. She stepped toward him. “What can I do to help here?”

  He looked as though he was about to say something, then shook his head slightly, as if he’d thought better of it. “Kelly said we need to get this field cleaned up today and lay down seed. There’s rain in the forecast, and we might be able to grow something for the fall and be in good shape for spring.”

  “Does that mean you might be able to salvage this field?”

  Jake shook his head. “Not for grazing. I’m still gonna have to send some steer to slaughter.”

  She took a step away from him. Years of her parents’ lessons about the value of life hung over her head. “This is all because of me. Their deaths are on my soul.”

  He slapped his leg. “They’re gonna go to slaughter anyway, now or three months from now. Get over it.”

  She took a breath. There was no point in getting angry at him. How could she expect him to understand? “I know it must be hard for you, but a lifetime of being a vegetarian won’t undo the bad karma from this fire. That pain is real for me.”

  “I don’t get how you’re so logical in every other way but you can’t get this through your head. They would have died, anyway!”

  “But not because of me.” Why doesn’t he see that I can’t be responsible for their deaths? It was a good reminder of how different they were, of the gap between their values and core beliefs. She’d been feeling too close to him lately. “Don’t you want to save them?” she couldn’t help asking.

  His eyes hardened. “I do want to save them, but not because I want to spare my karma. It would be more profitable to slaughter them a few months from now.”

  She pressed a hand to her stomach, trying to calm it. Did she really expect him to change the way he lived his life? It wasn’t as if he could change her mind about eating meat.

  “Fine, then, save them for that reason. Isn’t there anything else that can be done? Feed them grain or buy more hay? Could you use a neighbor’s field?”

  He made a frustrated sound. “Meera, let me worry about how I run my ranch. If there’s something to be done, I’ll figure it out. I’m gonna go ask Kelly to order the seed to replant this field. If you want to help, get to work.”

  She pressed her lips together. They were back on familiar ground, with him pretending to be the cocky cowboy. She wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of rattling her. “What would you like me to do?”

  He extracted a shovel from the tractor. “Here. I need you to put all the garbage into piles. You’ll dig up mud and grass, but don’t worry about that. I just need to get all the pieces of burnt plastic and inorganic things off the soil. Understand?”

  Meera nodded. She began to walk away but couldn’t help turning back. “You want to prepare the land so you can use a seed drill to replant the grass.”

  The look on his face was so worth it. She enjoyed surprising him. She wanted him to see that she wasn’t the princess he accused her of being. Maybe that was why she had shared so much with him about her adoption. Although it wasn’t a secret, she didn’t like talking about the orphanage. Raj knew all the stories, and he pitied her. Whenever her adoption came up, he treated her with kid gloves, as if she was still a victim, but that’s not how she looked at her time there. She sensed Jake didn’t feel sorry for her. She’d seen something else in his eyes, as if he understood that what she went through at the orphanage had shaped who she was today.

  He walked back to the tractor and fired it up again, so Meera started shoveling with everything she had.

  She didn’t know how much time had passed; it could have been one hour or four. Her back and arms ached, and sweat dripped down her neck. Meera was no stranger to long hours and hard work, but this physical labor felt different.

  Taking stock, she realized she’d cleared out a sizable portion of the field, much to her own surprise. And it felt good. Instant gratification—unlike her research, which took years to show even the hint of progress. Even in her medical practice, it often took weeks for treatments to work.

  * * *

  “WELL, BUTTER MY BUTT and call me a biscuit! Is that our hoity-toity doctor shoveling dirt?”

  Jake turned around and grinned at Kelly. “Yeah, she’s been at it all afternoon.” He shook his head in disbelief. “She’d barely shake my dirty hand four days ago, and look at her now.” He watched as Meera picked up the wheelbarrow and rolled it to the edge of the field to dump its contents in a pile. She was wearing a light cotton tank top and shorts that ended midthigh. Her clothes clung to her, and her legs were covered in ash and mud, as were her sneakers. She wiped sweat off her forehead. He hadn’t expected her to literally get down and dirty, especially not twice in one day.

  He wanted more of the woman who had dropped the princess persona and opened up to him. He wanted the real Meera.

  He felt a kick on his shin. “What the...” He glared at Kelly.

  She was shaking her head and wagging a finger at him. Kelly was almost as tall as he was and weighed just as much. She had grown up in Hell’s Bells. More than twenty years older than him, she knew ranching better than anyone around here. She’d worked for his father ever since she was a teenager and had seen Jake grow up. She was a tough woman, stronger than most of the men on the ranch. And she was the only one who could boss Jake around...or kick him in the shin, for that matter.

  “You best watch yourself. I see the googly eyes you’re making at that girl and let me tell ya—you’re headed straight to heartbreak again.”

  Jake opened his mouth to protest, but she stepped up closer until she was almost nose to nose with him. “You tell yourself what you want, but don’t you even think about makin’ up some bull for me. I know she’s got a fella, and Rose says she’s stuck up higher than a light pole. You send her packing if you know what’s good for you.”

  Jake grinned mischievously. “When have you known me to do what’s good for me?”

  Kelly harrumphed. “Well, I’m not gonna waste my breath on you. I know that look in your eye. Just be careful—she’s not our kind.”

  “Yeah, like loving one of our kind worked out for me.”

  Kelly went quiet. Jolene had grown up in Hell’s Bells; she’d been the safe choice, and Jake had thought she’d stick by him no matter what.

  They stood side by side, watching Meera. “She gave me her credit card to pay for the hay and seed.”

  “She what now?”

  Kelly shrugged. “She said it’s her fault and she wants to pay for it—told me to make sure it’s charged to her.”

  He wasn’t surprised, but he wasn’t going to let her take sole responsibility. Jake shook his head. “Give me the card and forget about it. Tell Tom to put it on the ranch’s tab.”

  Kelly put her hands on her hips. “Now, you listen here—don’t think I don’t know the books. I do all the ordering and selling... I know the numbers and you aren’t making them. This is her fault—let her fix it. Don’t you go gettin’ all stupid about it.”

  Jake shook his head. “It’s not right, Kell. I was supposed to check that grill. It’s not all on her.”

  “If it weren’t for her, you wouldn’t have had the barbecue. Jake, you got enough of your own problems. You don’t need to put yourself out for a foreigner who’s gonna leave in a coupla weeks.” She looked at him appraisingly, but his gaze was drawn back to Meera. “With your heart, I might add.”

  Jake began to argue, but she put up her hand. “You don’t have a choice. Tom says y
ou’re overextended from the antibiotics we had to order for those sick cattle. He can’t give you more credit. We’re in the middle of a drought—we can’t afford to replace all that hay.”

  Kelly nodded toward Meera. “She’s got the money and she’s not payin’ rent. Let it go.”

  Kelly was right, but Jake wasn’t going to take advantage of Meera. “I can’t. I’ll fix it with Tom.”

  She shook her head, “Boy, you’re too poor to paint and too proud to whitewash.”

  “She asked if we could have a neighbor look after the cattle.”

  “She’s tellin’ you how to run the ranch?”

  Jake turned to face Kelly. “The last thing I’d do is take ranching advice from her, but it got me thinking—Mrs. Hayes might have a field she’s not using. What if we asked her to let us use it? We can give her some meat later for the winter.”

  Kelly tapped her chin. “I heard something ’bout Mrs. Hayes selling a whole herd of sheep last week. She might have grazing room.” She looked at Jake. “You gonna let her save your soul, then?”

  “What’s that now?”

  “She gave Rose a whole lecture on bein’ a vegetarian.”

  “I’m not doing it for her, Kell. You know it’s better if we fatten the steers before selling them.” Because of the drought, the price of beef was through the roof, and they sold animals by the pound.

  Kelly nodded. “As long as that’s what it is. Don’t let her make you feel bad for being a rancher. I’m not saying her beliefs are wrong, but they’re not yours.”

  “Kelly!”

  “Okay, okay. I’ll go talk to Mrs. Hayes now.”

  He nodded. “Thanks. And hey, I want you to let her give you a physical. I don’t like the way you’ve been huffing and puffing when you’re carrying feed.”

  She scowled. “You pay heed to my words, boy—that kinda girl doesn’t go for a boy like you.” She stalked off.