A Second Chance in the Show Me State - Jessie Gussman Page 0,62

actually need to survive.”

“You only need one. You have two. God gave you a spare so you can share.”

“I love it when you rhyme. You know that. But you’re not distracting me. I have a solution, and I want to talk to about it.”

Thunder rumbled in the distance, and Reid thought it was kind of appropriate as a background noise for this conversation. He almost mentioned it, but then he thought that maybe Emerson wouldn’t find his humor as funny as she found his rhyming. Especially not after he suggested trying to sell her kidney to save the farm. Or was it her selling his? Wasn’t sure, since he was a little distracted because her finger was still doing the circular motion thing but not on his chest anymore.

“Listening.” That was mostly true.

“I talked to my dad. I told him I want to sell my share of the business. And I talked to the man that I’ve been working with for the past eight years, who wants to be a part of the business—he’s willing to buy. He’ll need a little bit of time to come up with the money, but it should be a smooth acquisition that would go through before Christmas. Which should be good enough to save the farm by New Year’s. What do you think?”

Reid stared at the ceiling, wishing he’d just gone and gotten the dog the first time she said something.

Then he wouldn’t be having this argument with himself.

He’d thought he’d conquered the pride thing, but he found he hadn’t, because “no” was the word that sprang to his lips immediately. He bit it back before it came out.

There was a flash of light and more thunder. It sounded closer.

The whining got louder and more desperate.

Reid almost ended the conversation by saying he would go get the puppy. Instead, he rolled over onto his side, shifting his arm and laying his head on his shoulder, kind of propping it up. Emerson’s legs tangled with his, and it made him smile at the contrast in texture and size. But he didn’t get distracted.

“What you’re saying is you want to use the money from the sale of your share of the business to pay off the loan that I got for the farm to build the dairy barn that didn’t pan out?”

It didn’t sound any better now as he said it out loud. Actually, it sounded worse. Everything in him rebelled. He’d been brought up to be the protector and provider, and he wanted to think of himself that way.

“I know you don’t like the idea.” She rolled toward him, her hand going to the indent of his waist. Her fingers moving. “I’m fine if we don’t. I’m still selling my share, and the money is going in our joint account. I consider it ours. Just like I consider the farm ours, even though you’ve been the one paying on it since we got married. I don’t look at things as mine and yours. We got married, two became one. Everything that I have is yours. If you want to make separations out of our stuff and split hairs, I don’t care. But I’m not.”

She didn’t sound angry nor upset. She actually sounded kind of reasonable. Which of course was the way Emerson usually sounded.

“When you put it that way, it makes me look like an idiot if we don’t do that.”

“Your words,” she said, a little flippantly, and he grinned.

“You are not going to twist my words to make me say that I just said I was an idiot. Not happening.”

Her shoulder went up, and her fingernails scratched up his back, lightly, making goosebumps break out on his arms, and he shuddered.

A flash of light lit up the bedroom, blinking for a good three or four seconds, followed almost immediately by a loud and continuous crack of thunder.

The desperate whines became howls along with scratching. A door closed.

“Let’s do that then. You sell your share of the business, and if you’re sure that’s okay, we’ll pay off the loan for the farm and figure something else out. I’ve heard the price of eggs is up.”

“I’ll look into it,” she said, a smile in her tone.

“Oh really?” he said. “Just like that?”

He twisted and rolled until she was on her back and he leaned over top of her. He was just lowering his head when the door burst open. Another flash of light, happening almost simultaneously with the deafening roar of thunder, and two little boys