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What he said about the boat went right over her head. She heard the word office and her heart buoyed. She didn’t know what the deal with the old truck and the overalls was, but he worked in an office. Farmers didn’t have offices.
Then she realized he had said “chicks.” Surely he didn’t run a topless dancing place or something. “Your chicks?” she asked.
He laughed. “Baby chicks. Peeps. You know. Gallus domesticus. Chickens. As in Kentucky Fried. I raise chickens.”
A chicken farmer? Her prince who was going to save her from a life of microwave popcorn dinners and lonely nights with Letterman was a chicken farmer? There was no way chicken farmer was going to fit on that itty bitty line on The Husband Finder checklist.
“Chickens?” she managed. “You raise chickens?”
“Actually eggs. These chicks are a new breed I’m trying out. I like to keep my eye on them myself. So how’s six?”
“Six? Six is good.” Elise felt numb to the tips of her toes and she didn’t think it was because her shoes were too tight. “I’ll be ready at six. I…I’ll meet you at the boat dock. I’ll have to come right from work.”
He gave her directions to the place on the bay where he put out his boat. Elise just kept nodding like a numb wit.
“Listen, I’d better get back to work,” Zane said.
“Me, too,” Elise answered, as if coming out of her daze.
“See you Friday on the dock?”
“See you Friday.”
She hung up and sat there in her car for a moment staring at the cell phone in her hand. A smile found its way to her face as she was filled with a strange sense of confidence. A chicken farmer? So what if he was a chicken farmer? He was still the finest looking chicken farmer she’d ever seen in a tux.
He was the only chicken farmer she’d ever seen in a tux.
She’d just squeeze it in on the checklist.
Smiling to himself, Zane hung up the phone on the wall by the refrigerator. He was looking forward to seeing Ellie on Friday; he was glad he had set aside his concerns about her occupation.
He opened the refrigerator and poured himself a glass of lemonade. Elise Montgomery wasn’t the kind of woman Zane usually dated. He tended to go for the earthy sort; flowered skirts, long, flowing hair, recycling fanatics. Kindergarten teachers. Social workers. He wished he’d asked Ellie more about her work. She had told him that she worked for a realty company. He wondered if selling real estate was just a job to her or if she was a “career woman.” He hadn’t had much luck with career women. In fact, he’d made a pact with himself to stay away from them.
First there had been his mother; she’d never been meant to have a husband, children. Then he’d dated Judy, one of his researchers for two years, and then asked her to marry him. They had actually been looking at wedding dates when she’d gotten the chance to take a job in Singapore. She had told Zane that she had deep feelings for him, but that she was at a point in her life when she had to put herself and her career first. As much as he hated to admit it, then and now, Judy had really hurt him. Now, as uncool and as backward as it sounded, he was looking for a woman ready to devote herself to a relationship. He wanted a woman to be able to devote her life to him the way he wanted to devote his life to someone he loved.
Zane finished off his lemonade and set the glass in the sink. He pushed open the screen door and crossed the back porch of the farmhouse he had grown up in. His father and his grandparents had made it a warm, welcoming home, and it was his hope that some day he would raise a family here.
Of course, first, he needed a wife. And he didn’t need a wife whose job was more important than her family. So far, the wife hunting wasn’t going so well. He was tired of casual dating however, the women he’d met just didn’t light his fire. But Ellie, there was something about Ellie that was different than all the others.
Her designer dresses and nice shoes somehow didn’t quite ring true. Didn’t quite fit. There was something innocent about her, despite her worldliness. In his mind’s eye he could see curling up by the fireplace in the front room with her in the evening, cuddled under one of Grandma’s quilts, sharing their day with each other. He could see making babies with her in the four-poster bed he now slept in alone. He could imagine sharing his dreams with her…his life.
Was he crazy? Richard had stood there at the hospital dinner and said Elise Montgomery was a high-powered broker. He might as well have looked right at Zane and said “This woman isn’t for you.”
But Zane really liked her. And their date really wasn’t a date anyway, was it? He’d just have to keep that in mind on Friday.
Chapter Three
Beware of sentimentalities. Stick with concrete facts when assessing your man. The contemporary woman of today doesn’t have time for trivial overromanticizing.
Elise waited nervously in the front seat of her car, glancing at the boat dock every few minutes. She was early. Zane said six o’clock, but she’d left work at five to run to the store.
Unable to suppress her delight, she glanced down at the bright white tennis shoes she was wearing. She’d been able to find an ancient pair of jean shorts and an old T-shirt in the bottom of her closet, but she’d been at a loss as to what to wear on her feet for this date. She had running shoes, racquetball sneakers and cross-trainers, but nothing suitable to wear on a boat.
On impulse, after work, Elise had stopped at the dollar store near the office and bought a pair of plain white tennis shoes. Only five dollars. She’d never been in a dollar store in her life and had enjoyed herself thoroughly. She’d come out not just with the tennis shoes, but a set of hot mitts, a refrigerator magnet and a box of Post-Its. The grand total of her purchases had been eight dollars. She hadn’t realized having fun could be so cheap.
Elise glanced up at the sound of tires on gravel and saw the now familiar Ford pickup pulling a boat that, like the truck, had seen better days. Zane waved out the window. Well, it was more like a salute.
Elise didn’t usually date men who waved or saluted out windows.
Delighted, she waved back. He didn’t act like a man who just wanted to talk about real estate.
Zane pulled the truck around and began to back the boat down the ramp into the water. Elise grabbed her cell phone and her purse, but as she locked the door, she hesitated. What did she need her purse for? They would be out in the bay. She popped her trunk with her key fob and tossed her purse in. She hesitated with the phone. She never went anywhere without the phone. What if her boss needed her? Or a client? “You don’t need it,” Zane hollered across the parking lot, seeming to know just what she was thinking. “Ringing phones scare away the crabs!”
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