thought she was dumber than a post. She laughed softly. “I discovered a long time ago that the only way to be sure you’ll lose is to quit before you reach your goal. That’s why I never give up. It’s not in my nature.”
“Not even if you’re fighting a losing battle?” James asked as he dragged a huge bundle of dilapidated mattresses toward the door.
“In whose opinion? Yours? Mine? That’s not nearly good enough for me.”
Watching him work, Megan couldn’t help continuing to appreciate his natural appeal. Not that she ever intended to reveal her thoughts. Or act on them. She simply had an ingrained admiration for all of God’s creatures. And she had to admit this particular creature was pretty close to perfect, at least on the outside. What was inside was the problem. He’d looked after her by providing gloves and drinking water, sure, but his lack of open-mindedness spoiled his overall image.
“So,” he asked, “what does it take to influence you? A lightning bolt from heaven?”
“Something like that.”
The dust they’d stirred up was making her nose tickle. She slipped off one glove and pressed her clean forefinger against her upper lip to stifle a sneeze. “Sometimes it feels like the good Lord has to drop a brick on my head to get my attention. Once He does, I try to listen before the second brick comes along.”
“Does that happen often?”
“Fortunately, no,” Megan said, “or I’d have to go into the chimney-building business.” She sneezed twice and sniffled. “As anyone will tell you, I’m just about flawless by now.”
Her quip, coupled with the look of disbelief on his face as he turned away, made her giggle.
James made it as far as the back of the truck before he, too, began to sneeze. Repeatedly. By this time, Megan had joined him on the porch with the first of the storage boxes.
Her next “Achoo!” blew a puff of fine dust off the top of the box and left them standing with their heads in a cloud of it. “Sorry. I guess I must be allergic to whatever’s in this dirt.”
“You and me both,” James said. “I should have thought of that. My allergies aren’t usually too bad this time of year. It slipped my mind.”
Heaving the bundle of mattresses into the truck bed he followed it with the box Megan had been holding, then jumped down off the porch. “Stay put. Don’t move anything else till I get back. I’ve got a couple of disposable masks left over from when I painted the dorm. Wearing those should help. Anything’ll be better than sneezing our heads off like this.”
“Bring a box of tissues, too. And if you run into my sister, tell her I’m just about ready to send her home to face the music.”
“She might like that. She said she didn’t want to come with you in the first place.”
“True.” Megan stifled another sneeze. “This trip was the best of her options though, even if she won’t admit it.”
“I don’t want any trouble here,” James warned.
“There won’t be. Roxy’s as sweet-natured as she is pretty. She just needed to get away from home for a while. I expect her to be a lot of help to me.”
James chuckled, glanced down the hill and said, between sneezes, “Oh, yeah? When?”
By the time James returned, Megan had discovered an abandoned mouse nest and had deposited it on the porch.
Handing her the box of tissues and one of the white paper masks, he scowled at the matted nest. “I told you to wait for me.”
“I did. Sort of.”
“Then what’s that?”
“Well, it’s not the latest in porch decor,” she quipped with a smile. “I prefer pots of petunias, myself.”
He eyed the jumbled mass of leaves, twigs, fabric and mattress ticking. “What’d you do with the mice that lived in there, make pets of them?”
There was something about his glib attitude that brought out her sense of rivalry, made her want to best him, wit to wit. “I would have, if they’d been around when I found their house. I thought I’d teach them to ride tiny bicycles and juggle little balls, maybe made out of dried peas. I could paint the peas bright colors. They’d be lovely. What do you think?”
James slowly shook his head and looked down to hide his smile. “Believe me, you don’t want to know what I think.”
“You’re probably right about that. So, shall we put on our masks and dive in again?”
“No. I’ll do it alone,” he said. “You just stand here and hold the door for me.”
“The door is fine. It doesn’t need holding.”
“Put on your mask so you don’t eat any more dust and do as I say.”
“In a pig’s eye.”
“Don’t tell me you have a pet pig, too.”
“Nope. Just a horse, a burro, a couple of rabbits, a herding dog and Rocky.”
James had already donned his mask, which muffled his reply, but Megan got a general idea of what he was asking so she explained, “Rocky’s a flying squirrel. I rescued him from a tree that had been cut down when he was just a baby. I’ve tried to release him back into the wild but he keeps coming home and sneaking into the house. Apparently, he likes living in my menagerie.”
“Guess there’s no accounting for taste.”
“When you’re right, you’re right.” Megan put on her paper mask and went back inside.
Removing the stored supplies didn’t take nearly as long as Megan had thought it would. Cleaning the cabin until it looked and smelled as fresh as a summer breeze, however, took her and James the rest of the afternoon.
Finished, she plopped down on the edge of the small porch and dangled her feet over the side. “Whew! I’m bushed. We used up all the cleanser you brought.”
“You should be tired. You worked hard.”
There was a tinge of admiration in his voice. She leaned her head back to glance up at him. “Hey, if I impressed you, it was worth it.”
“You did. So, what’s next? When are you going to bring the animals and set up your zoo?”
“It’s not a zoo.”
“Whatever. I’d just like to know if I should expect any other big surprises.”
“Big? Like what? An elephant?”
His eyes widened. “Tell me you’re kidding.”
“Okay. I’m kidding.”
James heaved a sigh and joined her. “That’s a relief.”
Pretending
