Page 85 of The Wedding Ranch
Why is this bothering me so much?
Even Mister’s silly antics couldn’t shake Lorri from the foul mood.
She went to her purse and pulled out all the cash she had and stuffed it into the forget-about-it jar. “That should cover me for the whole doggone day.”
She forced herself to go upstairs to the loft and work on the painting of the mill that she’d started, but nothing came to her. She’d sat there with paint on the tip of her brush so long that it became tacky. She dabbed one spot on the canvas, then got up to wash out the brush. She went back to her bedroom and closed the door. Mister whimpered from the hallway as she crawled into bed.
Tears over the marriage that was behind her now continued to fall. She couldn’t make sense of the sorrow she was feeling.This is what I wanted.
She woke up an hour later, feeling sorry for herself.
She dragged the box she’d tucked on the top shelf of her closet down and sat on the bed with it. It held all kinds of memorabilia that she hadn’t been able to part with. From the corsage Craig had given to her for homecoming, to their old marriage license, almost too faded to read.
My wedding day had been no more special than paying the water bill downtown.
They’d driven to the courthouse. Craig had refused to wear a suit, instead wearing khakis and a purple polo shirt. She wore a flowered dress she usually saved for special occasions. They hadn’t even taken the whole day off work, instead meeting on their lunch hour that Friday afternoon. But she’d been happy with it then. She still remembered how her excitementhad pushed her up the steep city building steps as she clung to Craig’s hand. All she wanted was to be out of her parents’ house, away from the drama that pulled all the attention onto Jeff. That marriage license had been her ticket out.
Their wedding day had been a nonevent. Not horrible, just not special. Her relationship with Craig had been more like roommates than a marriage. There had never been any fireworks. No special thoughtful gestures just because, but Craig had been there when she needed him. He’d comforted her when things went wrong and he’d been there through the worst of times. Maybe some of that was because their relationship had started so young. Each other’s first, and both desperate to grow up and have freedom.
It had rained earlier. Shamefully she’d hoped for a hurricane to dampen Craig and Tiffany’s day, but of course that hadn’t happened. It was a beautiful blue-sky afternoon.
She wondered if Craig would wear a tux. Would there be lots of guests? Would she know most of them? How many tiers would the cake have?
Did we even have a cake to celebrate our wedding? Certainly we must have.
Something happened while those questions rolled through her head.
The need to know consumed her.
She’d been to Ryder’s often enough now she knew how to get to The Wedding Ranch the back way. He’d accused her of crashing Cody’s wedding, so certainly crashing this wedding shouldn’t be that hard. There wouldn’t even be security.
It wasn’t like she planned to stand up and object to the wedding. She just wanted a little peek. What was wrong with that?
She didn’t have much time though. Lorri leapt into action, showering and putting on makeup, fluffing her hair. She slipped into a simple buckskin-colored dress, black belt at the waist, and black shoes.
She twisted in front of the full-length mirror. Tasteful, she thought. Subtle enough to blend into the background, which is exactly what she planned to do. Five more bucks in the forget-about-it jar was not going to cover this.
The whole drive to the back entrance of Ryder’s property Lorri told herself this was a bad idea, but that didn’t stop her. She parked and started walking toward the venue.
Hopefully, no one noticed her tromping through the field. Leaves had started to fall from the trees, and there wasn’t near the coverage there had been when Cody and Kasey got married here.
She stepped out of her shoes, carrying them before she broke an ankle. That would be awful. She could see it now. The ambulance four-wheeling through the hayfield to get to her. Way worse than almost being run over by a runaway steer. At least there’d been a silver lining in that. If it hadn’t been for that crazy cow, she might not have ever met Ryder.
What am I doing here?
But she’d already come this far. Satisfying her dying curiosity wouldn’t take but a few minutes.
She quick-stepped between two buildings, and tucked herself inside the tall tobacco barn. There were no benches set up outside like there had been at Cody and Kasey’s wedding. She remembered Tinsley talking about how creative the twins were, switching up the venue to make each event unique. Today the venue had an enormous amount of pink.
She turned, and standing only a few feet away from her was the bride with her back to her. She’d recognize her a mile away even if that little Yorkie hadn’t been dancing along the edges of her lacy train.
Lorri skirted back outside, almost sick to her stomach. Tiffany’s wedding gown was beautiful. Soft off-white, simple, and elegant. Even though summer was over, Tiffany’s body was still as tan as if she’d walked off the beach under the tropical sun yesterday.
Leave. Just leave.
But her feet had other ideas. Crouching slightly, she walked around to the other side of the tobacco barn. Her heart pounded so loud she was certain anyone within three yards could hear it.
She slipped her shoes back on, and tried to look like she belonged as caterers rushed past her carrying covered pans into the old barn.
