Chapter 22
Little Rock, Arkansas
After Ben’s trip to Malvern, he had come home just long enough to drop his laundry and repack.
He and his father had been invited to a friend’s cabin on the Little Red.
They were going to spend a few days fishing and playing cards.
To Ella, that sounded a lot like a male playdate, but Ben assured her it was work and that his participation was not only expected but required.
Once again, Ben waltzed out of their condo with a suitcase, a kiss, a declaration of his love, and a loosely worded promise of when he would return.
As promised, Ben did call Ella every night to check on her.
Her marriage was starting to feel very much like their courtship had in the beginning—the main difference being that back then, they seemed to talk for hours about everything and nothing.
Now the calls were short, quick, and to the point—almost scripted.
Their sole purpose was to check Ella off Ben’s to-do list. She wished the calls left her feeling more connected to him and not like a checkmark.
What made all of this so much worse was the extreme boredom Ella battled almost every day.
She read constantly, but even that got old.
She had never been a big television watcher, but she was finding herself bingeing shows on Netflix and Prime in the middle of the day.
The worst was when her parents would call and ask about her life.
She was too embarrassed to admit that she was fast becoming exactly what her mom had so accurately predicted, a woman who lunched and shopped.
She had become an accoutrement to Ben, and she had no idea how that had happened.
As much as Ella hated how her life was going, for once she was glad to be home alone when Herman Waters’s secretary texted her with an opportunity she could not turn down.
Ella, hello, I am Sarah Lite, the personal assistant to Herman Waters and the Waters Family Farming Collective. I believe you two met a few days ago. Mr. Waters would like to speak with you today at 1:00 about possibly helping with our current soil study. Will that time work for you?
As Ella read the text, her mind ran wild with questions about what Herman might want.
She had no idea—other than he wanted to ask her more about the study she had done as her final senior project in December.
They had talked about it extensively that night.
She had really liked him and was curious to see what he wanted. She quickly responded.
Yes, 1:00 is perfect. We can talk then.
At one o’clock on the dot, Herman Waters rang her phone.
“Hello,” answered Ella, her voice calm but with an undertone of uncertainty.
“May I speak with Ella Carrington, please,” the gruff voice of Herman Waters roared through the phone.
“It’s me, Mr. Waters,” Ella responded. “Your secretary said you would be calling to discuss soil conservation. You already know that is one of my favorite things to talk about, but I was surprised to hear from you so soon. How can I help you?”
Laughing, the older man replied, “Well, little missy, I need your help. I don’t know if you recall, but I shared with you last weekend that we were starting a large soil study program on our fallow fields.
You may also recall that I have engaged one of the leading soil conservationists, Bobby Blesson, to head it up.
As I remember it, you were aware of Blesson’s work. ”
“Yes,” replied Ella. “I attended a student conference on green sustainability during my junior year in Stockton that he spoke at. He was very impressive.”
“That he is,” replied Waters. “Well, the thing is, we have ourselves a little issue. Blesson has had a heart attack.”
“Oh no, that is terrible. Is he going to be alright?” Ella was shocked to hear the news. She remembered Blesson as a healthy-looking guy in his early forties.
“Yes, his doctors feel he will make a full recovery. In fact, the heart attack was rather a mild one from what he has told us, but his doctors and his wife are insisting that he takes things a bit easier for the next few weeks. That has left us with a real dilemma. We don’t have anyone to head up the study.
We need to know the information that study is going to provide.
If we wait, we will lose another whole season and may miss viable growing time.
To avoid that, Blesson has agreed to direct the study remotely.
We need someone local who can communicate with the workers, make sure the correct samples are being collected, and be a liaison between Blesson and the crew.
” Waters stopped speaking for a moment, and Ella was not sure exactly what he expected her to say.
After a second, she said, “Okay, but what does all that have to do with me?”
Waters laughed and said, “Well, little missy, I mentioned you to Blesson and shared our conversation from last week. He knows some of you professors from Cal Poly. He contacted them, and you got a glowing recommendation.”
Ella was still not sure she understood. Did Waters want her to work on the study? She could feel her excitement growing at just the possibility. But she had to be wrong. She was in no way qualified for such a big job.
Before Ella could ask any questions, Waters added, “This is where you come in. We need someone who has already done a full soil study like the one you did last fall. Blesson would be directing and helping you, but you would be in charge of the daily study operations. Six crop crew guys will be assigned to you and to help you collect the samples at your direction. Plus, the office assistant who was already hired has already been talking to Blesson. She will work for both of you.”
Barely taking a breath, Waters continued, “Of course, we will compensate you for your time and efforts. The job is full-time, but if things go as planned, it will end by the middle of May. When exactly is your baby due? We could try to work around that date to make sure we get everything done before that little feller makes his arrival. What do you say? Are you interested in helping us out? I know it is a last-minute thing, and I will totally understand if this is not something you are up for. I can always ask Blesson to send down one of his guys. But that might take a week or two, and I would really like to get the ball rolling.”
As exciting as the study and job sounded, Ella was unsure it was something that she was even capable of doing.
Cautiously she said, “Mr. Waters, I am very flattered you remember me and even thought of me. But I live in Little Rock. I don’t really see how I can drive back and forth every day to Des Arc.
Yes, I have done a study much like yours, and it took a lot of time.
If I lived closer, I would be interested.
But living almost two hours away, I don’t think I am up to driving three to four hours a day for the next few months. ”
Waters laughed again in his grandfatherly way and said, “That is not an issue. We had already prepared living quarters for Blesson that he is not going to need—a small house near the soil site. It is yours if you want it. Millie even had that good guy over at Guess he was her husband and needed to know where she was and that she was okay.
She could tell him that in a note. It was a coward’s way out, but she took it because it was the path of least resistance.
In less than an hour, Ella was packed, left Ben a note about where she was, and typed the address that Sarah Lite sent her into her GPS.
For better or worse, Ella found herself on the road to a new adventure that had nothing to do with marriage, babies, or campaigns and was actually something she was interested in.
For the first time in weeks, she felt alive and excited about her future.
She did not let herself think too deeply about what that said about her and Ben’s hope for future happiness as a family.
Instead, she let her mind fill with all the little details she would soon need to focus on to make the study successful.
When Ben arrived back in Little Rock the next night just after midnight, he was exhausted, but it was a good kind of tired.
Instead of coming home that morning as he had planned, Ben and his dad had flown to DC.
There they had met with Joules, his father’s former chief of staff, and got her to commit to joining the campaign.
The trip had come out of left field. Ben had not even had a free minute to tell Ella about it.
He had tried to call her late the night before, but it had gone to voicemail. He assumed that she was already asleep.
Ben had planned to reach out all day but never found the time.
He figured if Ella needed him, she knew how to get ahold of him.
He felt guilty about not checking on her right up to the moment he walked into an empty, dark apartment.
The moment of fear that he felt at not finding Ella asleep in their bed almost sent him spiraling.
He ran through the condo screaming her name.
His first thought was something terrible had happened.
Then he wondered if she had left him and gone back to California.
He was two seconds from calling the police when he saw her note.
He had to read it twice before it began to sink in.
As crazy as it sounded, evidently Ella had been offered a job in Des Arc.
And even more ridiculously, she had taken it.
Was she insane? No way could she think taking a job while pregnant was a good idea.
They did not need the money. What was she thinking?
Ben’s first instinct was to call Ella and demand she come home.
But it was after one in the morning. Instead, he decided to get some sleep, then drive over to Des Arc in the morning to bring his wayward wife home.
He was so pissed. What was wrong with Ella?
Did she have any idea the position this put him in?
He had meetings scheduled all day—meetings that had already been rescheduled because he’d flown to DC.
Now he was going to have to put them off again.
The last thing he had time for was to go traipsing all over Arkansas, looking for his wife.
Ben was sure his anger would keep him up, but he was so exhausted, he was out almost instantly.