The Shocker

Chapter 9 - The Farm

I have always respected Loretta's opinion. I have admired her since the first day that I met her. She was another woman in a nontraditional field where few women work.

She made us tea while I was staying at her house a few months ago and told me a little about her own marriage and how it fell apart. Her last comment to me that day was a reminder not to close my heart to love.

The Captain put on the fasten seatbelt sign and soon made his announcement that the plane was landing

It was not hard to pick out Chris. He was the one with the biggest smile and the bouquet of yellow roses. We recovered my weapon and then went on to find his rental.

I have to be honest that I would have rather stayed in a hotel, but felt that I needed to make an overture toward Chris' family

Chris' mom's house was rather quaint. I'm sure that the wood floors were the originals. The furniture was well worn and looked out of place with the large plasm TV in the living room.

The smells were wonderful. Mrs. LaSalle assured me that the pheasant fell into my vegan diet. There were plenty of vegetables to fill my plate up with as well. Also on the table were several bowls of watermelon, cantaloupe and honey dew melons.

I offered to help Mrs. LaSalle with the dishes but she shooed us out of the house.

Chris whispered in my ear causing me to go find my suitcase. He led me to this beautiful spot in the pasture and proceeded to let me know how much he had missed me. We lay wrapped up in each other's arms for the longest time. He had me cracking up when he realized he had lost one of his shoes. I tripped over it while laughing at his intense search in the near darkness.

Later at the house I walked out of the shower to find Chris lying in the middle of my bed. "Hey, it's either here or my room" he says laughing. "I guess here then" I responded.

I had had a long week so I was more than ready to go to sleep. I opened my eyes the next morning to see Chris flashing me his million dollar smile.

"Good morning beautiful" Chris says

"I doubt that" I responded. "I never look beautiful anything first thing in the morning"

Chris went to reach for me "wait, give me a minute" Returning back to my bed, Chris held the sheet back to encourage me to rejoin him.

We could smell breakfast as we came out of the shower. I took my time getting dressed wanting a few minutes to myself. When I came out to the kitchen to join Chris, I found the table full of waffles, ham, bacon and fruit.

"So what do you have planned today?" I asked quietly.

"I thought that we would go out to my father's ranch and ride horses." Chris responds.

"Really!" Sonja responded with her big beautiful eyes. "I have never ridden a horse"

"We'll find a calm pony for you."

Before we went to the barn, we stopped to have coffee and lemonade with Miss Rose, my father's widow. I had to take a deep breath when I drove up seeing Rachel's car.

Rachel answered the door. I happily enjoyed introducing Sonja as my special lady. No one could have missed the disappointment on Rachel's face. I guess she assumed when I had asked Hal to have two horses ready that I meant that she would be the other rider.

Hal had went ahead and left our lunch at the cabin at the top of the mountain.

Sonja was just a size smaller than my sister so the riding gear fit her just fine. I took care to slow walk the horses up the trail. The horses got spook for a minute giving me a little concern about what was out there. Finally I caught sight of a coyote which put me at ease that is was that rather than a 'cat'.

The view from the top of the mountain looked like a storybook. Sonja marveled at the many small animals and the mares and ponies. Hal had left a box of food and other items for our meal in the small warming cottage that my father had built for Cade and I.

Marie, the cook, had included a cloth table cloth, candles, glass plates and silver wear. The table looked like a storybook after Sonja got everything sat out. We made ourselves the desert and laughed and giggled as I tried to get my boots off. I hadn't worn them for over a year and only then remembered that Cade had to help get them off then.

Dinner time was approaching. Sonja got up with the intent of packing up the leftover food and dishes.

"Sonja?"

"Yes."

"Do you see that box of tooth picks in the basket?"

"Yes."

"Could you bring it here please? Here, sit back down. Now open it."

Sonja burst into tears at the contents of the box. I had found the beautiful emerald cut engagement ring at a jewelry store in New Orleans and knew immediately it was the right one for her.

"So – does that mean that you will marry me Sonja Percy?"

Barely able to get her response out I finally heard her say "Yes Chris, I'll marry you".

We managed to find another hour of light before I knew that we had to get back on the trail before it was completely dark.

During the next few days we sat at different places on the grounds and momma's farm to hash out the details of our future. I could not find the words to ask Sonja to give up her job so I had to think hard how I could make this work. It was clear that I needed to be the one to relocate. The snow and ice were not anything that I wanted to face but I had done some serious reading about marriage when I decided that I was going to ask Sonja to marry me. There were more than enough jobs like those in the office where I worked. It would be the agents that would be different. Certainly I thought the agents at the other NCIS offices were as well trained as we were. A couple of agents from Gibb's team had worked with us and did an excellent job fitting into our team and our way of doing things.

I broached the subject. "So Sonja, if I would agree to move to Washington, would you agree to live on or near a body of water?"

"If you agreed to move here, I would even let you buy a boat." She responded.

Well how could I ask for anything more I thought? I hadn't even considered a boat.

The very next week Sonja sent me a job announcement. Evidentially someone on her task force had a co-worker who was going to retire. While it was a local law enforcement agency, I figured out that reinvestment of my federal retirement payments into an IRA and use of my own municipal years toward the new city's retirement plan would allow me to reap the same dollar amount at the date of my mandatory retirement.

I took vacation the last two weeks with the feds allowing me to retain my government health insurance. The day after we were married, I went onto Sonja's plan to cover the gap in coverage before my new health insurance plan began. While I had to stay on it for a year, it cost us less than $100 a month. We figured it was more than worth it given the danger of my job.