* * *

Ginger felt there was an almost magical quality to her life. She put Matt in his truck and sent him on his way home before calling her mother. Sue Dysart cried, she was that happy at the news. Or maybe she was relieved that her only daughter wasn’t going to rot on the vine, after all. Or choose another deadbeat like Mick.

It was true, Ginger had a new hope—a second chance. “I hope you never know the agony of watching your daughter suffer through such terrible heartache,” Sue said. “I don’t think there’s any pain worse than the pain of watching your own flesh and blood struggle. I was so afraid you’d be alone forever. Not because you’d never find the right man to build a life with but because you wouldn’t let yourself find him.”

“You’re going to love Matt,” Ginger said. “He’s the sweetest, most loving man I’ve ever known and he’s so unselfish. I honestly don’t know how I found him.”

“Tell me every detail,” Sue begged.

“I can only tell you the details of our courtship, which has been so romantic even if it hasn’t been very long—just three months. But three of the most lovely months I’ve ever had. From the time the lambs were born and the sheep sheared until now, the onset of the harvest, we’ve had almost every weekend together. Long weekends. And soon the chaos of the harvest begins with the gathering of extended families every moment they have to spare, helping each other bring in the crops.”

“My goodness, you sound like a farm wife already!” Sue laughed.

“I’m already starting to feel like one.”

She gave her mother all the details she knew of a big farming empire. It would be such a busy few weeks she and Matt weren’t sure there would be enough time to shop for and buy a proper ring, but he promised her she would have a beautiful one before they were wed.

Sue wanted to know what kind of wedding Ginger hoped for.

“Are you a little afraid I’m going to ask you to get me married a half dozen times?” Ginger asked.

“I expect you’re looking for entirely different things in a man this time around,” Sue said.

“I know I already apologized to you and Dad for the debacle of Mick,” she said. “I don’t know what to blame that failure of good sense on. I was young, but not that young. Not young enough to be that blind and foolish.”

“I guess love isn’t always brilliant even though it seems so at the time.”

“You have no idea how I wish I’d been smarter,” Ginger said. “I guess once you cast your lot with a partner you hang in there until it’s entirely hopeless.” And as she said that she couldn’t help but think about Matt and his brief marriage. It wasn’t dissimilar, only shorter. “Since we’ve both been married and divorced, we don’t really feel like a huge celebration. Just something meaningful and modest, something to match how we feel about moving forward, that’s all. It feels very safe and solid.”

“Just safe?” her mother asked.

“Oh, Mom, I’m not settling for Matt, please never think that. Matt is like a dream come true, a man and husband I was never wise enough to long for.”

“Just tell me you’re completely over Mick,” Sue begged in a tense whisper.

Poor Mom, Ginger thought. The whole family thought she’d lost her mind when she brought home this musician, this wannabe star. “I don’t blame you for having doubts about my ability to make a sane decision after what I put all of you through. I’d love to explain it—it was all the glitter that he promised me day after bloody day. The irony is—I don’t even like a lot of glitter! I wanted it for him. If he fulfilled all those dreams, it would mean I’d been right to believe in him. But I wasn’t,” she said. “He lived in such a crazy dream world. It took me too long to realize it was nothing but pipe dreams, nothing but smoke and mirrors. Am I over him? Mom, the shock of reality is not only permanent, it’s a little hard to live with. I wish I’d been wide-awake much sooner.”

She was not only over Mick, she was certain he was completely over her. By now he had certainly found someone to share his fantasies. “You’ll see, Matt is nothing like that. He comes from a large, hardworking family that values commitment and loyalty, fidelity and sound judgment. They’re steadfast. Genuine and completely sincere.” She laughed. “Also loud, a little crazy and noble.”

Ginger went down the list of Matt’s siblings, each one she had met and those she only knew about, all so different, from medical practitioner to public relations specialist to vintner to PhD candidate. “I think only his youngest sister married in the culture. Her husband is a Basque chef in San Francisco.”

“They’re not the easiest people to negotiate with,” Sue said. “But they’re good to their word. Maybe you’ll end up with some good Basque recipes.”

“Maybe so. But I bet not a day before we’re married,” Ginger said.

Her brother Richard had the largest home in the family and wanted to host the barbecue to officially introduce Matt to everyone. It almost rivaled a Lacoumette family gathering, it was that busy and loud. Ginger’s sisters-in-law, Beth and Melissa, provided almost all the food with Dick buying excellent meat for the grill and Sue providing dessert that she bought because she was not into cooking or baking at all. The men all knew Matt and had dealt with Matt, George and Paco when negotiating trucking contracts for their crops but they were meeting a social Lacoumette this time, not a shrewd businessman.

The conversation was reduced to jests about business associates socializing together as in-laws.

“I suppose the elder Lacoumette will begin to take into consideration that we’re now family when we write our next contract,” Dick Dysart said. “Or maybe he’ll hire an agent to do his negotiating.”

“I think you’ll be lucky if Paco doesn’t insist on driving the trucks,” Matt said. “He’s a very hands-on businessman. My advice? Look at his own truck before you even consider the idea. It’s a hundred years old.”

“We know he has plenty of money, Matt,” Richard said. “He’s getting it from us and our low prices!”

“Is that a fact? Paco said you robbed him blind!”

Ginger, who had never been a part of the trucking business, learned something. These men were happy to have come to terms that satisfied them and allowed them to call each other thieves. It was an old and time-honored system.