“I thought you might.”
“I might have.”
Mara nodded.
“That is why I was afraid.”
She finally looked at him.
“I was tired of waiting for men to decide whether I was useful enough to deserve security.”
Elias stepped closer.
“I don't want you useful.”
Her expression changed.
“That sounded insulting.”
He almost smiled.
“I mean I don't want you here because you are useful.”
Mara waited.
“What do you want?”
Elias reached into his coat.
He removed a small wooden ring.
It was carved from apple wood.
The surface was smooth, but the circle was slightly uneven.
Mara stared at it.
“You made that?”
“Yes.”
“It appears you made it with a pocketknife in the dark.”
“I made it with a pocketknife in daylight.”
“That is more concerning.”
Elias laughed.
Then his expression became serious.
“The first time I asked for a wife, I asked for someone who could survive bad weather.”
Mara said nothing.
“I thought that sounded practical.”
He looked at the ring.
“Truth is, I was afraid to say I wanted somebody who might choose to stay after the weather improved.”
Her eyes softened.
“You married me because you needed legal standing.”
“Yes.”
“I married you because I was lonely and too proud to admit it.”
Mara breathed slowly.
“Both things are true.”
“Yes.”
“I can live with true things.”
Elias stepped closer.
“You stayed through broken fences, bad roofs, Brutus, Gideon Voss, Silver Creek gossip, and all the foolish parts of me that wanted you to be smaller because smaller would have been easier to understand.”
Mara's eyes filled.
She did not look away.
“I do not want gratitude from you,” Elias said. “I do not want obedience. I do not want you trapped because a paper says Mercer behind your name.”
He held out the wooden ring.
“I want you here because this ranch feels like a home when you are arguing with it.”
Mara looked down.
Then back at him.
“Ask properly.”
Elias nodded.
“Mara Whitfield Mercer, stay.”
She waited.
“Not because of Nebraska.”
Another pause.
“Not because the law already says you are my wife.”
His voice grew rougher.
“Stay because you want a life beside me.”
Mara extended her hand.
Elias slid the wooden ring onto her finger.
It stopped at the knuckle.
They both stared.
Mara began laughing.
Elias closed his eyes.
“I measured.”
“Apparently another woman.”
“I used string.”
“Poorly.”
He started laughing too.