Page 49 of The Lover
“Iknow that. I’m just saying it looked… funny. From the outside. You have to admit that.”
I shrugged. I really didn’t care what people thought about us.
“So do you want the gig or not?” I asked.
She smiled then. “Yes, I would love to be your maid of honor.”
“It’s not going to be a big thing. The wedding, I mean. We’re going to do it at the court house. But I don’t want it to be like last time. I want friends there. I want it to be an occasion.”
Karen, Lisa, Maryanne, Denny. Howard and Mirry. Frank and Bernie. Don Simpson and his wife. Rich. A small gathering. A nice dinner back at the house. It wasn’t a lot to ask. I hadn’t told Jake about my idea yet, but I was planning to next time I saw him.
This time I was going to get a dress. Not a real wedding dress or anything, but something nice and new. I was going to hold flowers. Because this time it was for real.
“You can pick out the ugliest dress in the world and I will wear it. I promise.”
I swiped another fry. “Thank you.”
“You know, if you were going to get knocked up by anyone, at least it was Jake Talley.”
“That’s why you’re my maid of honor, Chrissy. You always see the silver lining. I better get back to work.”
I slid out of the booth, but she caught my hand as I walked by. She had this strange expression on her face, like she was trying to be serious. Only Chrissy was never serious.
“Ellie… I hope… I really super hope… you’re happy. After everything. You deserve it. You both do.”
Deserve. It was such a crazy word. What someone deserved in life was pointless. Because what someone got in life… well, that was out of anyone’s control really.
I squeezed her fingers. “Thanks. But I’m still going to make you wear yellow or maybe orange.”
She laughed, which was my intent, and I went back to work.
* * *
Jake
“You needto tell Frank he has to find a replacement.”
It had been two days since I had seen Ellie. There was a problem with a bad birth and we lost a both cow and calf. I had been dealing with that, so I hadn’t been able to make it into town. It dawned on me this morning that I needed to fix that.
Ellie was taking her lunch break with me, and I watched her picking at her food. Ellie wasn’t a picker. She worked hard at anything she did, so she always had an appetite.
I wondered if she was feeling sick.
“Why?”
“What do you mean why? You need to move back to the ranch. Hell, I would have had you back there today, if I didn’t know how much everyone in town would be pissed at me for inflicting Bernie on them again. But that’s Frank’s problem to solve. I’ll give you two weeks and that’s it.”
“You’llgiveme two weeks?”
I sighed. I hated when she did that. Like what I was saying wasn’t totally reasonable.
“Ellie, we’re getting married.” I leaned in closer because I didn’t want anyone to overhear. “You’re pregnant. We need to pack up your stuff and you need to come home. All of that has to happen in the next few weeks. Telling Frank now you’re leaving only makes sense.”
“We have some time, Jake. It’s going to be at least another month, maybe two before I start to show anything.”
I shook my head. “Ellie this has nothing to do with you showing anything. You need to be at the ranch so I can take care of you. Fuck that, you need to be at the ranch because it’s your damn home.”
“You’re getting mad.”
