Page 6 of The Bride
“What do you mean?”
“I want to talk to Howard. Tonight. I don’t want to wait.”
“Ellie…”
“No. I know you’re going to say I need more time. But the thing that’s going to happen me after all of this,timeisn’t going to change that. I need to know now. The sooner I know my options, the better.”
I looked at him then. I needed him to see I was serious. As I said before, I’m a pretty nice person who gets along with everyone. Very easygoing about most things. Until I wanted something hard. When something really counted and I really wanted it, I got stubborn.
My dad had said this was a good thing. He’d said I had grit, and for a person to get what they wanted out of life they needed grit.
I’d told him he watched too many John Wayne movies.
All I knew was in that moment I wanted to know what was going to happen to me. Only Howard had those answers.
“I’ll go find him,” I told Jake. “But we should probably both talk to him together.”
Because it wasn’t just my life. It was Jake’s too.
Our life.
“He’s in the dining room with Mrs. Nash. I think we should wait until everyone leaves first, but I’ll ask him if he can stay after.”
I nodded. “Thank you.”
Jake stared at me hard but I couldn’t tell what he was thinking. Maybe trying to see if I was strong enough to handle whatever Howard said. I had no clue. How do you know if you can handle anything until you have to… handle it?
* * *
It wasthree more agonizing hours of tears, whispers,sorrysand hugs. I was like a hugging machine. Which is weird for me, because outside of animals I’m not really a touchy feely kind of girl. I found this out when I was going steady with Mick last year, because he always wanted to hold hands.
He had this thing where he would show up at my class as the period let out and walk me to my next one, which was sweet but he had to hold my hand the whole time. This meant I had my backpack on my right shoulder and my books in my right arm so my left hand was free for holding. Mick was a right-hand hand holder. Anyway I always felt overloaded on my right side.
Mick and I didn’t last very long.
When the last guest left, it was me, Jake, and Howard. I called him Howard like I used to call Jake’s dad Ernie. Because they were part of the family. Like Ernie, Howard had grown up with my dad. They had been a posse for a long time. Howard had tried to save Ernie too, only he stopped trying long before my father gave up.
I don’t know if Jake resented him for that or not.
We made our way to my dad’s study. It was a typical man cave, with a lot of brown leather and a big old cherry wood desk. There was a bar in the corner and Howard helped himself.
“Make mine a double,” I said, and Howard turned to glare at me disapprovingly. “What? I’m kidding.”
I sat on the couch and Jake sat next to me. Not close, but close enough I knew he was ready to act in case of emergency. If he needed to hold me or catch me if I fainted.
Not that I had ever fainted in my life, but who knew what was coming next. I guess I felt slightly lightheaded.
Although thinking about it, that was actually kind of sexist of me. I mean, his whole life was possibly about to be upturned too. What if Jake fainted?
“I just want you to know, I’ll catch if you faint,” I told him.
“Ellie, this is serious,” he replied as if I had been making a joke.
Right. He was probably too heavy for me to catch.
“Okay,” Howard started. “Let’s cover the basics. Obviously the ranch and all its property goes to you, Ellie. The will is very straightforward. There is a provision to continue leasing the Talley property until such time that Jake can afford to buy it back. To that end, Sam bequeathed you twenty thousand dollars, Jake.”
Jake let out a whoosh of breath.
