The Magic of Ordinary Days doesn't belong to me.
Falling In Love
Ray tentatively reached out and touched Olivia's …his wife's… face, he could feel her draw back slightly at his touch and knew that this was probably the time to let her go, but he persisted and brought his lips down to touch hers softly.
She stiffened.
Clearly she was not ready to kiss him or to be kissed by him.
He was surprised to feel disappointment and not a little anger. What had he expected after all? She was way out of his league despite the circumstances that had brought her into his life. Still he couldn't stop himself from asking, from getting her to tell him that she didn't like anything about him.
As he made his way to the truck and drove to Hank's place, Ray was calling himself every kind of idiot there was in the world. Of all the things to go and do…he had fallen in love with his wife. He couldn't deny that he had always thought…hoped that it would be a possibility. He was a realistic man and since he expected to be married to one woman for the rest of his life he had expected that he would marry a person of his choosing whom he loved.
Of course he hadn't expected that the Reverend would get him a stranger to marry, moreover one who was in desperate need of a husband but being the easy going man that he was he'd taken all that in his stride.
Until he actually met her. Olivia Dunne.
She was beautiful. He couldn't understand why the man who'd made her pregnant wouldn't want to marry her.
A few days later Ray couldn't imagine coming home to a house in which Olivia wasn't waiting for him. She had somehow transformed the house back into a home. She was a pitiful cook, and they couldn't agree on many things but somehow he couldn't imagine himself being married to anyone else.
She had opened up his mind – he couldn't believe he had actually had a hole dug because she wanted to swim. He'd even borrowed books about archaeology from the library. At first he'd done it in order to have something to talk about with her that wasn't related to farming but he found it fascinating. No wonder she liked it.
If asked to pinpoint the exact moment he had fallen in love with wife, Ray would be at a loss to give an accurate answer. Somehow he couldn't remember not loving his wife. Was it the day she'd tried to cook and failed? When she'd chosen to stay with him instead of going back with Abby? When heard her crying out for her mama in the night?
Ray couldn't actually say when but he decided that while Olivia was still here, while they were still living in the same house he would make his move. It wasn't as if he had to ask her to marry him…no, all he had to do was to show her that he was willing and going to fight for her, for them.
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Martha was uneasy, wondering whether she should voice her doubted but Ray was determined and somehow Olivia had made her brother happier than he'd been in years. Maybe it could really work out after all.
Ray opened the box and took out the ring and smiled.
It was perfect.
He couldn't wait to give it to Olivia Singleton. His wife.
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