Laurey

"Saw Curly's back from the round-up." Aunt Eller greeted Laurey as she walked in the door. "Be nice for you havin' him around again."

"I s'pose so."

"You s'pose so? Fine way to talk about your sweetheart."

Laurey took an apple from the basket on the kitchen table. She couldn't help but bristle when everyone acted like they were married, like she didn't still have time to make up her mind some other way if she wanted. It was fine for Curly to act close to her, she could chalk that up to flirting, but when other people acted like that, it was different. "He ain't my sweetheart. I like Curly fine, but there's other fellers in the Territory. Ain't like he's the only one."

"What other fellers do you have on your mind, Miss Laurey?"

"Well, there's Jace Hutchins, for one."

"Laurey," her aunt scoffed, "what you'd want with a man like Jace Hutchins is beyond me."

"What's so bad about Jace Hutchins?" Her aunt's dismissal of him made her feel more passionately about him than she ever had before. In person, he was dull, hard to even talk to since they had so little in common besides farming, which was the most unspeakably boring topic anyhow. Even after the one time they kissed, Laurey couldn't consider him a sweetheart, he was so awkward around her. But when Aunt Eller decided to insult him, it was in Laurey's contrary nature to stick up for him. "He's a good farmer, and he's always polite, and he's…well, he ain't smart-alecky like some folks."

"That me or Curly you're talkin' about?"

Laurey rolled her eyes. "I just don't see why people keep actin' like me and Curly are engaged or somethin'"

"Sure beats me. You only spend all your time together singin' away when he's here, you dance with him every party, always take the trouble to do him favors and bake him pies, and-"

"All right, all right…I just don't wanna rush anythin'"

"Rush anythin'? Laurey, how often does God hand you a good-lookin' cowboy with a voice like an angel and a tongue almost as smart as yours? If you don't rush things, he's gonna find himself another girl who will."

Laurey's answer came quickly. "But he ain't a farmer, how's he supposed to provide for me? Cowboys don't make any kinda money and if he took just one bad fall, he'd be out of a job altogether. And then where would that leave us?"

"So you have thought about marryin' him."

"That ain't what I said"

"Honey, anyone can be a farmer. Don't have to be a stuffed shirt like Jace Hutchins. 'Sides, all it takes is one bad season for a farmer to lose his money too. Nothin's a safe bet when it comes to money, you oughta know that. But findin' a person who's reliable, who'll stick by you, no matter what, that's worth havin'. You can't meet every man in the world, and even if you could, I've met plenty of men, and you could do a lot worse than Curly."

"I know," Laurey conceded, tired of fighting. "Well, he ain't asked me yet, so it don't even matter right now."

"Box Social's comin' up in just a couple weeks, you think he might ask you then?"

"Maybe. We'll see, I guess."

It did sound like something he would do, propose to her in front of everyone in Claremore. And she would be happy, that was undeniable. He'd learn to work the land, maybe they could travel together, she'd have his children—all boys, she just knew it—it would be exactly the life she wanted. She'd have him around all the time to sing to her and tell her his wild schemes for the future, his big, wonderful dreams that he made seem so real, no matter how farfetched they were.

Not wanting to discuss it with Aunt Eller anymore, she took her apple up to her room, where she could think more clearly.