37. Independence Day

Two days later, the veterans began to descend on the farm for the Fourth of July weekend.

Sarah Bell was in her kitchen, baking apple pies from the bushels of apples and bags of flour and pounds of butter and an enormous bottle of really good cinnamon they'd bought at Costco with absolutely not a second thought for how much it was costing.

The dough came together under her fingers like magic with just a sprinkle of ice water, and she rolled out the crusts for the five beautiful ceramic pie plates she'd bought with, again, absolutely no thought in her head about how expensive they were.

Blaze leaned in the door of the kitchen, smiling at her. The bruises from the fight in that very kitchen only a few days before were already fading to purple and yellow. "We could have just bought the pies."

"I like baking pies. Besides, I'm perfecting my recipe for the Iowa State Fair next month. I'm going to win the apple pie division this year."

He wrapped his arms around her from behind, bending to settle his chin on her shoulder. "I'm sure they'll appreciate it."

"I really don't like how most of them are sleeping in tents outside," she said, crimping the edges of the piecrust with a twist of her fingers.

"Most of them prefer it, but I was thinking about taking contractor bids to build barracks if you wanted to continue doing this."

"Or we can take a few acres out of cultivation and build individual cabins," Sarah said, rolling out the next bottom crust. "Then they can have their own little place. That would be good for people who stay for longer periods."

Blaze kissed her on her temple, but he didn't move away. "That sounds pretty permanent."

Sarah dropped the piecrust into a dish and spun in his hands, looping her arms around his neck. "If you want it to be. Since we don't have to worry about corn and grain contracts, we can re-wild the farmland and have our own little house on the prairie."

His slow smile warmed her. "We wouldn't want to give up the garden, though. It's good for them. Those guys are out there weeding between the strawberry plants with tweezers."

"I will have the best strawberry pie at the fair this year, too. Hey! We can round them all up and take a field trip to Des Moines for the fair!"

"They would love that."

"And there's lots of field trips they could do here in Kalona, too. Only a few of them will probably be interested in the quilt show, but it's really important to us. And we can have farriers and some Amish people over to talk about the simple life, maybe show them how to weave baskets or work leather. There's a lot of people here in Kalona who would share their lives and their skills to help people heal."

Blaze crowded her back against the counter and lifted her to sit on it. "I knew you would figure out how to integrate them into the community."

"Well, it's important. Kalona has to accept them as well, but we will. I'm sure of it."

"If anyone can integrate them, it's you," he said.

"How are they getting along with HowNow?" The brown cow had been stomping her hooves that afternoon when Sarah had gone out to see her.

Blaze chuckled. "I'm still milking her. Most of them are too nervous to ride Charlie, too, so they're leading him in circles in the paddock."

She gestured in the general direction of the outside. "I have a saddle. It's in the barn."

"Maybe we'll pull that out tomorrow. I think they've had enough excitement for today."

From her vantage on the countertop, Sarah could see Marcy, a soldier who'd done tours in the Middle East and Africa and was more twitchy than the average soldier, curled up on the couch in the living room with Muffintop on her lap, gently stroking the cat between the eyes.

Muffintop was dazed with ecstasy, gasping purrs.

Sarah asked, "But we're going to have everyone inside the house tonight, just in case we can hear the fireworks from Cedar Rapids, right?"

Blaze nodded. "No use taking chances."

Sarah turned back to her pies. "We can start taking bids on the barracks and cabins tomorrow. This is definitely the direction I want to take the farm."

He settled around her again like a big human shield, rocking her as she made the pies.

"Oh, and by the way," she said. "I talked to the counseling and social work department at the University of Iowa over in Iowa City this morning. They said as a local, I can start classes next month."

Blaze kissed her temple again. "I'm proud of you."

His words warmed her because she didn't think she'd ever heard them before in her life.

She was holding the piecrust in her hands, thinking about it, and she finally worked up the spirit to say, "I'm proud of me, too."

"Marry me," Blaze sighed.

She leaned away from him and stared at him. "What?"

He stepped back and then lowered himself gingerly on one knee, holding onto the counter because she knew his leg was still sore from where he'd been shot. "Sarah Nevaeh Bell, I know it's too soon, but I am ready to make changes in my organizational philosophy at a moment's notice. I am begging you to be my wife. I love you more than the whole world. When we were held prisoner at Logan's apartment in New York, I was obsessed with getting you out. I didn't think I would survive, and I didn't care about anything other than you. I needed you to survive. Make me the happiest man in the world, and allow me to obsess over your safety for the rest of our lives and burn down anything that threatens you, whether it's a Russian Vor or a vole in your garden."

He had been shot in the leg only a week before, so she didn't make him wait. "Yes."

Blaze pulled a black velvet-covered box out of his pants pocket and flipped open the top, showing her a blazing white heart-shaped diamond set on a gold band.

Thathad not come from the Zales in the Coralville Mall.

Sarah gasped. "Where the heck did you get that?"

"Micah knows a guy in the diamond trade."

She laughed at him. "Well, at least you're calling on your community."

And he settled the ring on her finger and kissed her.