Page 10 of The Wedding Ranch
“I’ve looked forward to this all week. It’s like a vacation for me.” Tinsley made her way over to Mister and pressed her hands to the sides of his face. “I love this guy. We’ll be just fine, won’t we?”
Mister’s face scrunched into fat wrinkles around her delicate hands.
“If I’m home he’s good as gold,” Lorri said, “but when I leave him alone for any longer than an hour he chews something up or rearranges the furniture. I don’t know if he gets stressed or bored, or if he’s punishing me.”
Tinsley wrapped her arms around his thick neck. “Are you inviting doggy friends over and throwing parties when Mommy’s not home?”
“That explains it,” Lorri said with a laugh. “One time he dragged the comforter off of my bed to the middle of the living room so he could sleep on it in the sun. I swear he had a master plan. Seriously, I’d love to be in that dog’s head for just one day.”
“I think you’re going to need a nanny cam to figure this one out. He looks innocent to me.” Tinsley gave him a little scratch. “Is someone framing you?”
Mister responded with a head toss that sent his jowls flopping. He shifted his gaze between them as if he knew they were talking about him.
“He’s pleading innocent,” Tinsley said. “He’s totally smiling at me. Look at that.”
“That’s because you spoil him as much as I do.”
Lorri and Tinsley had met the first Sunday Lorri attended the church around the corner. Tinsley had sung a solo that morning and Lorri had stopped her in the parking lot to tell her how much it had moved her. Two days later Lorri crossed paths with Tinsley again while walking Mister through the neighborhood. That’s when they realized they were neighbors.
Mister stared up at Lorri. With that black mask framing his face he always looked like a kid dressed up for trick-or-treat—well, mostly treats. “He’s still a puppy in so many ways. That’s easy to forget with him being so big,” Lorri explained.
“As a mastiff, he’s still a puppy until he’s almost three,” Tinsley said. She would know. She was in her last year of veterinaryschool. “I’ll take great care of him,” Tinsley promised. “We’ll be fine. You get on out of here.”
“Oh gosh. I hate to leave him.” All 180 pounds of him. He was so tall now that she didn’t have to bend down to pet him on the head.
“Don’t worry,” Tinsley said. “We’ll go out back and exert some energy.”
Lorri laughed. “Shouldn’t take long. He’s not much of an athlete.”
“I have to know, what made you select this breed?” Tinsley asked. “I love understanding how people pick a dog for their family. It must cost a fortune to feed him.”
“I wouldn’t have picked a giant breed. My ex-husband surprised me with him on Valentine’s Day. I’m glad he did though. He’s the best dog and he’s huge, but his heart is too. Leaving Craig behind was easy, but I couldn’t bear to leave Mister.”
“Well, I think you picked the right guy. You go have fun with your friends. You must be going somewhere very nice. I love that dress.”
Lorri glanced down at her outfit. Around here she was usually in jeans. This dress had been her last splurge at Kearsy’s Boutique before she moved from Raleigh. “It’s more for the company than the place.”
Tinsley’s brows shifted, and Lorri quickly realized she thought she’d meant she was going on a date.
“Not like that. Just an afternoon with old girlfriends. We used to meet up in the same restaurant every week. It’s been too long since we’ve gotten together.” Her friends would be dressednicely, like she used to when she worked from the office. Being home-based had spoiled her. These days yoga pants, comfy tops, and blue jeans were the uniform, and it had turned out to be a nice perk. Only if she showed up for lunch in jeans today, the girls—other than Pam—would think she wasn’t doing well after the divorce, and that was one rumor she didn’t want spread all over town.
“If you decide to stay overnight, no worries. Just let me know.”
“No. I’ll be back. It’s an easy drive.”
“You better go before your little boy here realizes something is up and starts whining,” Tinsley teased. “You know how kids can get at this clingy age.”
“You’re right. I’m gone.” Lorri turned her back on them. She had a pang of guilt as she started her car and backed out of her driveway.This must be what a mother feels leaving their child behind on the first day of school.
She loved her new little house. What it lacked in square footage it made up for in charm and acreage. It was like living a storybook life.
Every house in Mill Creek Highlands had a southern-style wraparound porch, and a healthy outdoor lifestyle was encouraged with amenities like the clubhouse and sidewalks. From the moment she saw the watercolor rendering of the neighborhood in a spread inOur Statemagazine, she’d daydreamed of living there. Each custom home was unique, but they were all farmhouse chic.
Lorri’s house had vertical wood and batten siding in a modern sage green with golden brown cedar shakes that set off thecolor of the stacked stone. The community had all the twenty-first-century luxuries, including a central solar-panel farm for the eighty-acre neighborhood and a hydroponics program run by students of North Carolina State at the farmers market. The off-campus curriculum yielded stellar results and the residents were rewarded with premium produce.
Tinsley, as a grad student, helped manage the hydroponic farm and market project. Her parents lived in the neighborhood and Tinsley stayed with them fairly often out of convenience.
Lorri fished her sunglasses from the bottom of her purse. She loved her new life and her more relaxed schedule, but her friends acted like she’d moved to another country. To be fair, it was different. A sleepy town with an old-timey Main Street and town square. People in Dalton Mill even had a different accent. It had taken Lorri over a month to get used to it enough to quit asking people to repeat themselves.
