Page 40 of First Date: Divorce
“—isthat a basil leaf you’ve wrapped around—”
“—that incredible meat — that’s no hot dog.”
“No, it’s a special sausage, with a little twist I wanted to try.What do you think?”
“As far as I’m concerned, this should be the entire menu,” said Eric.“Piles and piles of these little guys.”
“Amen,” said Luke.“Do you have another platter stashed away somewhere?”
Ellyn chuckled.“Sorry, no.But I’ll get on it this afternoon so we have them for tomorrow.But you have to eat other things, too.”
“Twist my arm.”Grif said.
Ellyn chuckled, then said “So…” By the way everyone turned to her, K.D.knew this was her down-to-business voice, “the menu is set, the dress is on track, the flowers—?”
“All set,” Kendra said.
“Good.Music?”
“Check,” Luke said.“Once I axed Eric’s Most-Depressing-Wedding-Ever suggestions.”
“I still likeYour Cheating HeartandLove Stinks,” Eric protested, drawing chuckles.
“I think we have everything covered— Wait.No, we don’t.”Ellyn’s right hand touched her left.“Rings.”
“Rings,” echoed several voices.
Eric cut K.D.a look.“More shopping.”His words recalled their differences during yesterday’s shopping in Billings, but also … other moments.
“Not around here,” she said.“We don’t want anyone seeing us buying rings.”
“Good point.We’ll go down to Casper.”
It was the opposite direction from Bardville, being some distance south of Far Hills Ranch.
Ellyn consulted her watch.“You better go now.You won’t have much time tomorrow.K.D.has her final fitting in the morning and we need everyone ready to go at 4 p.m.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
It was a beautiful afternoon for a drive, with the Big Horn mountains on their right seeming to hold up the sky of brilliant blue like the puffed-up sheet from when they’d made the bed together.
“Want me to look for jewelry stores?”She gestured to her phone.
“I got a recommendation from Grif.”
“Then we better practice our memorization, so we can pass Pauline’s next inspection.”
They tossed questions at each other from Pauline’s questionnaires, only occasionally going astray into discussion of the answers.
The longest digression was how he’d met Grif and Cully — more discreet than Pauline, he said their paths crossed on a legal case involving someone in the military that he couldn’t say more about — and her most outrageous case — a raccoon with such a felonious bent they’d had to put him behind bars in a zoo.
At last, he pulled into a neat parking area and led her through a passageway between stores into a shopping mall’s version of a town square.The first store on their right had jewelry on display.
“Here?This is way too expensive,” she protested.“We can’t—”
“We need rings.They have rings.And we’re already here.Let’s go in.”
She let herself be ushered deep enough into the shop to catch a glimpse of the prices.
