Matched in Minnesota (At the Altar Book 22) Read online

  “They all think they’re going to have better lives out west. Well, all the men do. The women are giving up friends, easy shopping, and schools for the kids. They are taking on so much more work by going west. Why?” It didn’t seem fair to her that the men wanted more money, and as a result, the women got a great deal more work.

  “Because their men demand it, and women in that time period were taught not to talk back to their husbands.” He shrugged. “I can’t imagine being married to someone who was afraid to share her real opinions with me. Sometimes I think I need to go back in time by a hundred seventy years to join a wagon train, and sometimes I know it would make me absolutely crazy. It would be awful not to have a wife who said whatever she wanted to say.”

  “I wouldn’t go west with you, Aaron. You’d be on your own, and I’d stay with my family and friends back east.”

  “I read a journal a couple of months ago about a woman who gave birth one day, and they started for Oregon in the rain the next. A woman’s life was so hard back then. I wouldn’t want that for you.”

  Miranda obviously heard that last bit of what Aaron said because she shook her head. “He only married you because you’re interested in the Oregon Trail.”

  “Maybe. But all of the female students taking his classes are as well, right?” Marissa knew her answer was a bit snarky, but it was obvious Miranda had a chip on her shoulder. Did all of the girls at that college sit around and talk about her and how she got Aaron to marry her?

  Miranda put their plates down. “Do either of you want more to drink?”

  Marissa pushed her empty lemonade glass toward Miranda. “Thank you, I’d love more.”

  “I’m good,” Aaron said. He watched as Miranda hurried away, and shook his head at Marissa. “Good comeback.”

  “I tried hard,” she said with a grin.

  After their meal, they drove to the apartment, and walked over to the river. There were kids on the rope swing playing in the water, and Marissa smiled as she watched them. She had no idea if Aaron even wanted children. “Any desire to have kids?” she asked.

  He shrugged. “I think I’d like a couple. Someday. You?” he wasn’t in a hurry for children, but he wouldn’t mind two or three.

  “Yeah, I think I do want a few. Maybe six or so.”

  He gaped at her, and she giggled. “I really only want one or two, but it was fun to see your face!”

  Aaron wrapped his arm around her and tickled her. “Brat!”

  She was still giggling when they got back to the apartment thirty minutes later. Mrs. Larsen was gone, but the place was immaculate. Even the study had been cleaned, and the spare room had been turned back into a spare room. “Mrs. Larsen is amazing. Can we keep her?”

  “You don’t mind that she comes in every week?”

  “I work full time. I like having someone do the real cleaning, and I just do the dishes and pick up after us. I haven’t pushed a vacuum since we got married. In fact, I don’t even know where our vacuum is!”

  He shrugged. “I don’t either.”

  “There has to be one. She couldn’t do this good of a job on the carpets without one.”

  “I’m sure I have one. Somewhere.” He wandered into the study and plopped down in his chair. “I’m going to get started on our studying.”

  “I’m going to find the vacuum cleaner, because it’s going to bug me otherwise, and then I’m going to join you. I have beef tips in the crock pot for supper.” She still had half of her country-fried steak, but she’d eat that for a snack while he was at work this week.

  She wandered from room to room, opening every closet. She finally found it in the coat closet in the living room. When she joined him in the study, she raised her hands in triumph. “I found it!”

  He didn’t even glance up. “That’s nice.”

  “I’m dancing naked in front of you,” she said, just to see his reaction.

  “I’ll meet you in the bedroom!” he said, jumping to his feet. Then he looked at her. “Hey, you’re not naked!”

  “I guess not. But it was fun to pretend for a minute.”

  “Now I’m going to help you get naked to teach you not to lie to me.” Aaron smirked at her.

  “I’m not complaining!”

  The meal with his parents went particularly well. Aaron and Marissa were waiting for them when they arrived, and dinner was in the oven. All she had to do was take it out, and they could eat.

  They sat down in the living room, and Marissa was reminded why she liked Aaron’s parents so much. They were wealthy, yes, but they were some of the most down-to-earth people she’d ever known.

  Aaron leaned forward, his forearms resting on his knees. “I’ve converted Marissa. She’s reading my Oregon Trail journals with me.”

  Tammy sighed dramatically. “It was bound to happen with as much time as you two spend together. I don’t think it’s good for two people to live in past centuries, but I guess it’s all right.”

  “I know it’s all right,” Marissa said with a grin. “I’m really enjoying them, and Aaron has convinced me that I need to write a fictionalized account of the journey of the people I’m reading about. I’m excited to do it.”

  His father smiled. “At least you’re doing something practical with the knowledge you’re gaining. Aaron just learns more and more. He already has a doctorate. What more is there to learn about the Oregon Trail?”

  “So much!” Aaron said. “I’ve barely scratched the surface. There was a professor in Oregon by the name of Milton Madden. He died before I chose the Oregon Trail as my primary focus of study, but I would have loved to sit down with him and just soak up everything he said like a sponge. I’ve heard there’s a place in Idaho that has all his research books and slides he took over the years. What I wouldn’t give to be able to go there and just study for a few months.”

  “You can’t?” Marissa asked. Now she was curious too. He always made her want to learn more, and she loved it. She wasn’t taking on quite as much work, because she was having too much fun learning.

  “Not that I know of. I wish there were a way.” Aaron shrugged. “I might call and see if they’d let me spend some time in their library.”

  His parents praised her for the supper, and they genuinely seemed to enjoy being around her. As they said goodnight, Marissa thought about how thankful she was to have gotten those two as her in-laws and not some people she wouldn’t or couldn’t have liked. No, the Christiansens were the perfect in-laws for her.

  “Next month?” Tammy asked.

  “Do we want to meet in the middle or go back to your place?” Marissa was fine either way.

  “Meet at my place, and maybe the next month we’ll meet in the middle.”

  “Sounds perfect. It’s hard to believe we’re already at the end of July. Summer school will be over soon, and then the fall semester will start.” Marissa had talked to Tammy about the vacation to Disney that evening. “I can’t wait for our Disney trip.”

  “You two will have a wonderful time. I almost wish we’d forced Aaron to go when he was younger instead of driving the Oregon Trail. It was fun and educational, but he wasn’t able to be a kid on that trip. You teach him to act his age, would you? He was born an old man.”

  Marissa nodded, hugging her mother-in-law. “I will do my very best.”

  After they’d gone, Aaron put his arm around Marissa. “I think we have time for an hour of studying, and then an hour of lovemaking, and then we can still get our eight hours of sleep.”

  She laughed. “Sounds perfect to me. We have our priorities straight, don’t we?”

  “I sure think so.”

  The following day Marissa started writing the first book in her series. She didn’t know what she was going to call it yet, or exactly what would happen, but she was going to do her best to tell the story of two of the people from the Oregon Trail. She knew she wanted to write the series as romances, so she had been taking careful notes from the journals to decide who she would
write about.

  There were a surprising number of marriages on the wagon train, all officiated by Pastor Jedidiah Scott. She decided she would start with Pastor Scott’s marriage to Hannah Moseby, which happened right before they left on the trail.

  From their journals, she’d gleaned that they hadn’t really known one another before they married, and they had “honeymooned” on the trail. Hannah had learned what it meant to be a wife, and the pastor…well, he’d learned that not all women were perfectly obedient.

  So, she took what little she really knew and she added to it. She took Aaron his lunch on her break as usual, but she didn’t tell him she’d been writing. She had already made plans to take the rest of the week off work so she could work on this book. Thankfully, she’d caught up, and she had a little bit of time she could spare before she was sent another assignment.

  By Friday afternoon, she had what she felt was a very good start on the book, which was more than twenty thousand words. She was only planning to make the book forty-thousand, so she was half there.

  On Saturday afternoon, she asked about his week, and he’d told her about giving the students study guides for their finals. “How many families did you plan vacations for this week?”

  “Just one. I did something else too.” She turned to her computer and clicked the send button on the email she’d already written, with her book attached. “You’re the technical advisor. You need to let me know if I got things right or if I messed them all up.”

  Aaron spun to his computer and opened her document. “Are you finished?” he asked, surprised she’d written so quickly.

  “No, but I’m halfway done. I want to know what you think so far.”

  “Okay, then go away and leave me alone.” He began reading, a smile on his face. He was so proud of her for at least trying, whether she was any good or not.

  While Aaron read, Marissa finished supper and set the table. She was dying to know his opinion, but the average reader took about an hour to read twenty-thousand words, according to the research she’d done. She needed to give him time.

  She settled on the couch with the next journal she was reading, and had been concentrating on every evening while he was there. She was reading about Margaret Bolling a young widow, who was only twenty-one. She’d lost everything when her husband died, including the right to live on the land he’d worked so hard. She’d only had daughters, so she took the two girls, and they headed west on a wagon train.

  She knew it was going to be hard when she set out, but she’d had no idea how very hard it would be. The girls were constantly tired and they complained about riding in the wagon, and then they complained about walking. She was at her wits end by the time they reached Nebraska.

  Aaron walked into the room just as she finished the journal. “You got almost all the details perfectly. I made a couple of notes in the margins. But more than anything, I love it so far. You’re an amazing writer!”

  Marissa smiled. She knew Aaron well enough to know he wouldn’t lie to her. She was going to be a writer when she grew up, and no one was going to stop her.

  Nine

  A month later, the book was done, and Marissa was walking on air. It was time for Aaron to get ready for the fall semester, and their trip to Disney was coming up in just six weeks.

  When Aaron got home from work the day she’d finished her book, she met him at the door. “We’re celebrating.”

  He didn’t argue, but instead looked at her questioningly. “What are we celebrating?”

  “I finished the book.”

  “Really? Has anyone seen it yet?”

  “You’ve seen the first half, but no one else has seen a thing. I want you to take me out to a restaurant, and pretend I’m the most amazing woman on earth!”

  Aaron grinned. “No pretense needed.”

  Marissa stood on tiptoe and kissed him. “You’re good for my ego!”

  “Glad to hear it. You’re good for me too!”

  He opened the door. “Let’s go. I want to take you to Osaka, which is a hibachi steakhouse and they also have sushi. Does that sound good?”

  She nodded. “I love hibachi steak. I’ve only had it once, but the whole meal was really enjoyable.”

  “Good.” He drove through the streets of Coon Rapids, busy because it was a Friday night and school was about to start up again. “Do I get to read the rest of it tonight?”

  “Absolutely. I want to know if I got any details wrong. I’ve asked around, and I have an editor who is going to start on it on Friday of next week, so I need to do a read-through of my own before then, but I want you to do yours first. You’ll be the one to know if I put a campfire in the wrong place, or if I did anything else that’s not historically accurate.”

  He reached over and squeezed her hand at a stop light. “I’m so proud of you for finishing.”

  She smiled, leaning her head against the back of the seat. “I cannot tell you how good it feels to finish a book. I feel like I’m flying!”

  “Well, don’t try to fly, because you don’t have wings, but I think you’re doing absolutely great. I am so excited for you! Are you going to contact a publisher?” he asked.

  “I think I’m going to publish it as an indie. I’ve been doing research on that, and I have some good ideas about how I want to go about it.”

  “You do what you think is best for you. I really don’t care how you do it, as long as that book is published.”

  “Oh, it will be. I didn’t put that much work into it to let it sit on my computer for the next thirty years.”

  “Glad to hear it.” He really was excited. Romance wasn’t his thing to read, of course, but he loved a good Oregon Trail book, and he’d really enjoyed the first half. She had written a good Oregon Trail book. He wanted to shout from the rooftops that his wife had finished a book, but the neighbors already thought he was crazy.

  Supper ended up being a wonderful experience. The hibachi chef had put on a good show, and they had found themselves laughing a lot with the other people at the table. One of the women had never been to a hibachi before, and she had thoroughly enjoyed the experience, making it more fun for the people around her.

  That evening when they arrived home, Aaron opened his email and immediately began reading, while Marissa hurried around the house, picking up for Mrs. Larsen the following day. It was their weekend to go to his parents’ house for supper, and she wondered how he’d get along with her parents. She wondered if they’d ever visit Minnesota.

  When he finished reading, Aaron found her in the living room, making sure nothing was left lying around for Mrs. Larsen. “Your book is absolutely amazing. I loved how you took what we found out from those two journals and turned it into a love story. How on earth did you do that?”

  She shrugged. “Overactive imagination?”

  He laughed. “I don’t think so. You did so good! I think you should quit your job and just write.”

  She frowned. “Well, I’ve thought about going part time, but I really do enjoy what I do.”

  “But if you could write for a living, why would you keep planning people’s vacations?”

  “Do you have a problem with my career?”

  Aaron sighed. “I just think you could do so much more. Why not enroll at the college and get your master’s?”

  She took a step back. “You’re embarrassed of what I do.” She’d never realized that he didn’t think her job was good enough for a professor’s wife, but it was obvious that’s what he was thinking.

  “I’m not embarrassed, but you’re too bright to do such a menial job.”

  Marissa felt her anger rising. “There’s absolutely nothing wrong with a job that makes people happy. I happen to enjoy every minute of planning those vacations, and I have a very good knowledge of Disney. A knowledge that I’ve worked hard to perfect.”

  She turned from him, too mad to look at him for a moment, but he caught her shoulder and turned her to him. “I’m just trying to help you better yo
urself.”

  “Because now I’m not good enough?” She was startled to hear the words from him. And hurt. “Goodnight, Aaron.” She turned from him and walked down to the bedroom where she’d slept her first few weeks there. “Let me know when I’m good enough for you again,” she said as the door closed behind her.

  As she lay in bed, she couldn’t help but wonder if she was just being silly or if he really was being a jerk. It felt like he was going way overboard on how he was speaking to her. Yes, she could write a book, but she could also plan a darn good vacation for people!

  As she lay in bed, she said a silent prayer that things would work out between them, and then she fell asleep angry for the first time in their two months of marriage. Maybe a call to Dr. Lachele would help, but it was too late now. It was after eleven on the east coast.

  Aaron watched the door close behind her, and wondered why she had gotten so upset with him. He really was trying to help her be a better person, and he couldn’t figure out why that upset her so much. She couldn’t possibly want to spend the rest of her life planning Disney vacations for people, could she?

  As he went to his lonely bed, he wished he knew what to say to her to make her feel better. He certainly hadn’t intended to offend her. She didn’t need to work anyway.

  Marissa was up early on Saturday morning as was her habit. She didn’t worry about how loud she was as she made breakfast, because she didn’t really care if she woke him up. He was usually up before her on Saturdays, so she had no idea why he was still in bed anyway.

  She had just put the eggs onto the counter to cook them when she heard the front door. Aaron came toward her with a huge bouquet of flowers—mixed blooms this time—and a bag of something.

  He handed her the flowers. “I am so sorry I upset you last night.”