The Boss Lady's Man

{Chapter} 15

{Chapter 15}

Erik rolled over on the hard floor of the front room of Toni’s shack. She had insisted that he worked harder, so he should take the bed, but Erik wasn’t about to have that, and she knew it.

His eyes were level with the worn, leather-bound book lying beside him. He placed his hand over the top of it, feeling the same emotional attachment to it he always had. He’d worn out the pages over the years, wept over its verses, and even ignored it a few times. Over the years, it had been his closest friend and his worst enemy at the same time.

Now he crushed the book to his chest before opening it to a random place. It opened to second Corinthians chapter six verse fourteen.

Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness?

He smiled. Judd was definitely a believer, so Emily was doing the right thing. Then it hit him between the eyes. Had he made a grave mistake by marrying Toni? Even if it wasn’t real? They weren’t really “yoked” so it wasn’t necessarily against the Bible, was it?

Suddenly, the worst racket he had heard in his life came from out in front of the little shack. What sounded like pots and pans banging together brought him into a sitting position with no help from his hands. Then it came to him.

A shivaree. He should have known.

“I’ll kill ‘em all” he heard Toni mutter from the other room. “Erik! Bring me my gun.”

Erik smiled and stood up, buttoning on his shirt and grabbing his crutches and Toni’s .44 from the gun rack above the door, careful to stay away from the windows. The lyrics to “Clementine” filled the night air and Erik could sense Toni’s agitation growing. She snatched the gun from his hand and stuck the barrel out of the window. He noticed that she hadn’t even undressed. Then again, he hadn’t either.

“Oh my darlin’

Oh my darlin’

Oh my darlin’ Clementine.

You are lost and gone forever,

Dreadful sorry, Clemen…”

Toni pulled off a shot, sending a bullet into the ground somewhere near Tiny’s feet, judging from how the man yelled in fright.

The other laughed and continued their banging, but not for long. Toni shot again and they all scrambled toward the bunkhouse leaving the pans where they were.

“That has to be the stupidest bunch of idiots I’ve ever laid my eyes on” Toni grumbled as she propped her gun against the window.

“We’ll get ‘em back sometime” Erik smiled.

She shook her head and sighed. “One of these days I’m gonna bend ever’ one of ’em over my knee, that’s what I’m gonna do.” Toni said before yawning and rubbing her eyes with her knuckles.

Erik figured it had been a long day for the both of them. He headed for the door and turned around. “Goodnight” he said.

“’Night” Toni mumbled as she brushed a petal off her pillow.

A petal?

Erik looked around the room and noticed flower petals and unlighted candles everywhere. Making no comment, he shut her door and lay back down.

Katie.

**********

A few days passed and Erik and Toni locked themselves up in the shack as was expected to not arouse questions, playing cards or checkers until they grew sick of it. Toni took the bed at night, and Erik slept on the uncomfortable floor in the main room, but never once did she hear him complain. He kept his respectful distance and was the perfect gentleman. After three days, they had ran out of things to do, so when the day of leaving for Georgia finally came, Toni couldn’t believe the excitement she felt welling up inside her.