Page 17 of Searching for her Heart
“Wow,” I say when she finishes that dump of information.
“You don’t believe me, do you? You’re going to ditch me now. Can you at least help me get down from this mountain so I don’t freeze to death?”
“Penny, calm down. Give us a minute to absorb what you just said. Of course we believe you, we’re just trying to process what it means,” I tell her as I wrap my arm around her shoulder and pull her into my side.
“You do?” she asks, looking at me with hope and surprise before turning to look at Braxton.
“Of course, why would you lie about that?” he asks, looking at her in confusion.
“How are you guys so perfect? For that matter, how are you single? I would imagine any girl would be frothing at the mouth to sink her teeth into either of you.”
“Is that what you want to do, Baby? Sink your teeth into me?” She squirms in her seat at Braxton’s heated words, and I can’t help but rub my hand over her shoulder, providing her comfort.
I try to process what she’s told us, and the conversation we had before this all started. She was confused about the idea of not having to choose between us. Perhaps things work differently where she was from. The most important thing right now was clarifying exactly what she meant to me.
“Pen, tell me, where you’re from, do women normally haveto choose between men?”
She turns her confused face to mine. “Of course, I don’t just go around having casual relationships with the entire male population. If I want a serious relationship, I have to choose one man to have it with.”
“One man,” I repeat as I look over her head and meet Braxton’s intense eyes. I knew he was thinking the same thing as me.
“Pen, what does your population of men and women look like where you’re from?”
She scrunches up her face as she replies, “What do you mean?”
“What’s the ratio of men to women?”
“Oh, one to one.” she looks between us both before something seems to click for her. “Wait, why? What’s the ratio here?”
“Nobody knows the exact numbers, but it’s at least ten to one, if not twenty to one.”
Her eyebrows almost touch her hairline in shock. “You mean there’s only one woman to every ten men?”
I nod. “So what ends up happening is multiple men marry the same woman.”
Her jaw drops open as she stares at me, speechless for a moment. “How… how does that even work?”
“Well,” Braxton starts to answer for her. “Normally a group of brothers will marry together. It gives them the best chance of carrying on their family line with any children they might have. Even if a child isn’t theirs, it will belong to one of their brothers, therefore carrying on their bloodline.”
“But—” her head rallies between us for a moment before she continues. “What about men who don’t have brothers, what do they do?”
“You’re looking at them. We’re the lonelings, men without brothers.”
She furrows her eyebrows at me again before asking, “But what does that mean in terms of marrying someone?”
I sigh as my gaze meets Braxton’s sad eyes. This is the part I’m not looking forward to explaining. This is the part where she realizes she’s stuck with the outcasts of this world, a world in which she could have pretty much any man she wants.
“Women want men who can provide for them. A group of brothers offers stability in many ways. They are bonded by blood and deemed more reliable, often having better jobs, income, and overall stability and security. They would have parents who would fully support them and be grandparents for their kids. They were brought up knowing that they were going to be good providers for their future wife.”
“Umm… that sounds like a load of crap to me.”
“What?” I ask her, a little shocked.
“I’m not sure why any of those things matter. I don’t want a man because of his money or because he has parents. Because he’s looked at better by society. That’s just… dumb.”
“What do you want from a man, then?” Braxton asks, sounding both nervous and hopeful. I couldn’t help mirror his emotions.
She looks at the fire and seems to be thinking heavily on her words. “I want a man who loves me for me, and not because of what I bring to the table financially. Just as I would love him for who he is and not his possessions. I want someone who truly cares for me, who won’t quit on me or run away when things get hard, a man who genuinely just wants to spend time with me. Someone who’s not afraid of commitment or the thought of a future together.”
