Chapter 5
Chapter Five
Louisa
I can’t believe I’ve been at Ellis’s farm all day, and Olivia was barely a mile up the road the whole time.
What I can believe is she already has a fiancé.
“Look!” Olivia holds out her left hand, flashing a simple silver band with a trio of inset diamonds.
“It looks vintage, and I love it,” I say.
“It was his grandmother’s ring,” Olivia says, introducing me to her fiancé, Wylie, who towers over her on the opposite side of the booth. I’ve moved over and slid in next to Ellis so Olivia and I can sit face to face.
“When are you getting married?” I ask.
Olivia flashes me a mischievous smile. “Tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow!” I shout.
She shrugs. “I wanted it to be sooner.”
Wylie interjects with, “I said to wait until after calving season, giving things time to calm down on the ranch. And to give Olivia a few months to plan while the rest of us were busy with the calving. She deserves something nice.”
Olivia blushes. “He’s so bossy.”
The rumble coming from the other side of the booth feels like a private message only meant for Olivia.
I long to have that kind of connection with someone someday.
“I mean,” Olivia goes on, “the second Elder Nevyn was released from jail, I knew what we had to do. If I’m married, they won’t have a reason to bother Wylie anymore.”
My gaze goes to Wylie, who has an intense look on his face as he reaches over to take Olivia’s hand. Seeing someone care for her in this way makes my heart melt.
“What do you mean? Has Elder Nevyn been here?”
Olivia and Wylie exchange a look. “You tell her,” he growls, his jaw ticking. “I don’t want to relive the moment I thought I was losing you.”
For some reason, I glance left and catch Ellis staring at me. The intensity in his gaze tells me there’s something lurking under that friendly, nice guy exterior. He has depths that I’ve not plumbed yet, making me even more hesitant to move on.
I let him look at me and absorb everything he transmits as Olivia relates the whole horrible confrontation between her and Nevyn, and between Wylie and Prophet Orlyn.
I drag my gaze away from Ellis when something Olivia says catches me off guard.
“…And then I shot him in the leg.”
“I’m sorry, what?”
Olivia lifts an eyebrow. “Well, I had help from an unruly stallion. But yeah, I shot him.”
My jaw drops. “Is that why he went to the hospital and came back with a limp?”
Olivia shrugs and scoops a huge bite of brownie sundae into her mouth. “I just wish I would have taken a picture of him pissing himself.”
I cover my mouth. “Olivia!”
“Are you shocked at my language or my actions?” Olivia asks, laughing.
“Both!”
The two of us cackle like old crones until my body catches the energy coming from the other side of the booth. Wylie’s top lip is sweating. Ellis is leaning forward, trained on every word. Even so, his big hands are braced on either side of his face like he’s in shock.
Olivia winks at me. “I think our big tough ranchers underestimate what girls like us can handle.”
I nod, waffling between thinking about comforting Ellis, horrified by this story, and being overjoyed that my friend is more than just surviving but thriving.
“Well,” I say, “all that matters is we’re both safe and sound.”
Olivia asks, “Where are you staying? With Ellis?”
I blush. “Um…” I start. “Well, not exactly. I just started. I mean, he just hired me for the day. So…”
I trail off, feeling like I’m being ungrateful to Ellis. His face is unreadable.
I don’t miss the look that Wylie and Olivia exchange.
Olivia clears her throat. “You can stay with us!”
“What?” I ask.
Ellis blurts out at the same time, “With you?”
Wylie nods. “We’ve got lots of rooms. It would only be neighborly.”
Olivia claps her hands and squeals. “You can help me get ready for the ceremony tomorrow!”
The idea of spending a whole day with one of my best friends--outside of the compound--fills me with unmeasurable excitement.
So why is it when Ellis nods and says, “You should definitely do that,” do I feel like he doesn’t want me to go?
Wylie fidgets with his hat and shifts toward Ellis. “You’ll come to the wedding too? And don’t worry about your animals. I’ve got ranch hands to spare if you need help. I’ll ask them.”
Ellis looks from Wylie over to Olivia. “If that’s alright with your bride.”
“Of course it’s alright! In fact, I was going to ask if the farm could spare Louisa tomorrow so she could be my maid of honor.”
“Really?” I say, feeling equal parts honored, excited, and scared. “I’ve never been involved with a normal…I mean, a traditional type of wedding. I wouldn’t know what to do.”
“You’ll do great. Heck, I can tell everyone exactly what to do and where to be and at what time,” Ellis says.
All eyes go to him. Looking self-conscious, he explains, “My parents divorced, then married other people, then remarried each other. On top of that, my two older sisters run a wedding coordinating business in Billings and they’ve hired me to hang lights and whatnot. Long story short, I’ve been to a lot of weddings…and why did I just say all of that out loud, because I can see from the looks on your faces that now I’m gonna get recruited to help out.”
He blurts that last part out in one long sentence, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. I find myself pressing my thighs together at the sight of his scruffy chin being rubbed raw. I wonder how that would feel inside my thighs. Yeah, right. My thighs have never seen the light of day. What makes me think a sexy farmer would ever want to give me beard burn in interesting places?
“Then I guess you don’t need an engraved invitation, do you?” Wylie jokes, ribbing Ellis.
“This place is huge.”
Standing in the great room of the log cabin-style ranch house, I don’t know where to look first. The tall ceilings and sweeping stone fireplace make me think of a mansion in a magazine, but the worn-in sectional sofas, massive TV, and shelves stuffed chaotically with books and board games make the place feel cozy and lived-in. A bunch of bachelors live here, that’s obvious. Clean, but not museum clean. Pretty, but not much thought put into art or coordinated accents.
“Isn’t it great? Doesn’t it just feel like home?”
I nod and smile, but I silently think I prefer something less masculine. More snug and quaint, with pretty curtains, and walls that I can paint every color of the rainbow. A wide porch on which to sit and watch the birds, knit, and read books. No, a house made of rough timber, with antlers on every surface is not for me, but perfect for Olivia.
I’m more suited for a farmhouse. Not exactly like Ellis’s house, but something close to that.
“It suits you perfectly,” I say. Olivia takes my backpack and leads me past an enormous dining area with a pretty, two-tiered white cake decorated with sugar flowers.
“Is that your wedding cake?” I ask. “I can’t wait to taste it!”
Olivia laughs. “It is. But don’t get your hopes up. I made it myself.”
“You?”
“What can I say? I have a lot of time to myself when I’m not caring for the horses, so I’ve been practicing. Wylie said I should order a cake, but it’s been a fun learning experience. Oh, I can’t wait until we leave for our honeymoon. He’s taking me away for two weeks, and I get him all to myself. This way!”
“So many bedrooms to clean,” I point out, marveling at all the rooms.
Olivia explains that in earlier times, all the workers lived together here in the main house. Now, the ranch hands that choose to live here stay in cabins on the property or commute from town. “The rooms in the house are now mainly for family and entertaining guests. Here we are.”
I have so many questions about her life now. I want to ask if she’s been in contact with anyone else from the church. I want to ask what it’s like being engaged to a real-life cowboy.
She opens a door into a spacious but spartan bedroom with a queen bed with a rustic wood frame and a matching dresser. Her wedding dress hangs from a hook high on the wall, and I instantly forget all my questions.
“Oh…Olivia…”
The truth finally hits me: my best friend is getting married tomorrow, and just hours ago, I had no idea what had become of her.
“It’s pretty, right?”
My mouth agape, I touch the delicate lace bodice and run my hand over the simple flared skirt. “It’s beautiful,” I breathe.
“I just wish Goldie was here to see it.”
When I turn around, Olivia’s eyes are shining.
I’m so shocked to see the tough-as-nails Olivia near tears that I don’t know what to do with myself. “When we get everyone out, we’ll have a big party.”
She nods. “We will. And I know it’s for the best that we get married quickly. But sometimes it feels wrong. I thought the three of us would be together for all the milestones once we got out of the church. Guess I screwed it all up by running away like I did.”
I grab her hand and urge her to sit on the bed next to me as she gets more emotional. “You did what you had to do, and now it’s all working out exactly as it should. You know what Goldie would say.”
She laughs and dabs her eyes. “She’d tell me to dry it up and quit worrying because what’s done is done.”
I nod. “Now, how about I make you some tea, and you tell me all about the wedding plans.”
Olivia’s eyes sparkle. “Thank god you’re here. Curly, the ranch cook, makes tea in the microwave and nobody understands why that makes me want to die.”
“Well, I’m here to fix that situation immediately,” I laugh.
She grabs my arm. “You’re staying forever as the official maker of tea in this house.”
My laugh fades when a tiny speck of sadness pulls at me.
“Of course, I’ll stay as long as you all want me to stay.”
We stay up half the night talking, just like we used to at the compound, whenever we weren’t being monitored like prisoners. We laugh, we cry. She tells me about the wedding flowers. We gorge ourselves on scrap pieces of the wedding cake she made. I listen in amusement and fascination as she tells me about her first time with Wylie.
All the while, I think of Ellis, and wonder what he’s up to right now.