Chapter 12 Gwen
GWEN
Delilah was waiting for me, so I tried to get ready as quickly as possible.
I could’ve asked Simone to do my makeup, since the night would end with mine and Sebastian’s maybe-date. She would’ve done a much better job. Also would’ve pestered me to talk about my feelings. Which I had no interest in.
After scurrying past Simone in the living room, I clipped on Honey’s leash. She hadn’t gotten her walk yesterday. I knew she was craving it.
Once I broke through the pine trees after a half hour, the view of town had my heart rate softer, my mind quieter, and my body warm with comfort. No matter the icy wind that slithered past my balaclava and leather gloves.
Even if I didn’t get away with what I’d done, this place was worth it.
A quarter mile ahead, tucked between conifers and snow doused mountains, a dozen buildings perched with pride.
The ones in the heart of town matched the natural aesthetic of the ranch.
Only a story high, two log domes crouched low in the valley.
The rec center and the cafeteria, built to feed well over a thousand residents.
There was something poetic about those log structures next to the new buildings.
The roots of the ranch that had watched so many women come, heal, and go to lay down roots of their own.
At a glance, the stone apartments, the new builds, lacked the character and charm of the original structures. But a careful eye would catch the fairy lights that twinkled around one apartment balcony and the Edison bulbs that illuminated another.
All the hand painted suncatchers that dangled from the windows of the daycare, and the paper flyers that fluttered on the gym doors, saying, Volunteers needed for Light Up Night Decorations!
compensated for the boring brick. The women of Rhiannon’s Ranch, the community, gave this place charm a construction crew could only dream of.
The buildings were only that. Buildings.
We were the warmth that brought them to life.
But we were dominoes.
Simone had nearly fallen the other night. I’d caught her before we all crashed down.
It was the right thing. I had done the right thing.
Once inside the cafeteria, I scanned for Delilah. At a little past noon, half the damn town was in here for lunch. Delilah may have been swallowed in the crowd somewhere.
This was one of my favorite parts of the ranch. The ceiling came to a point in the center of the room, a circle of windows framing it. During the warmer months, they let in more light than the white hanging globe lights, spaced every few feet apart.
Cafeteria tables, like those used in a school, took up most of the floor space. Buffet bars framed the exterior walls, featuring soda fountains on either end. To feed over a thousand people at a time, buffets were a necessity.
“Gwen, right?” Someone said behind me, tapping my shoulder.
I turned around. Delilah looked better today. The dusting of foundation over her blue eyes covered the bruise. Her dark circles were still visible if I squinted, but a light smile brightened the rest of her features.
“Right,” I said. “Rhiannon told me I’d find you here.”
“She told me the same.” Glancing past me at the buffets, she tucked her arms against her chest. “Are you hungry? Did you come to eat?”
“No, actually, I’m supposed to show you around.” I gestured to the buffet. “What about you? Have you eaten?”
“I did, yeah. Surprisingly good for cafeteria food.”
“Except for meatloaf day,” I said, wincing. “Always skip meatloaf day.”
She chuckled. “Noted.”
“You ready for the tour, then?”
“Excited for it. I almost got lost walking here from the apartment this morning.”
Together, we started for the double glass doors. I held one open for her. “Which one are you in?”
“B, I think.” She tugged her jacket in closer as we stepped out into the cold. After two feet forward, Honey sidestepped her, spinning to look at her. Delilah gasped, pressing her hand over her heart. She laughed and squatted to greet her. “Where did you come from?”
“She’s short,” I said. “Easily overlooked.”
“Sweet as pie, though.” After giving Honey one more scratch on the head, Delilah straightened. “You’re allowed to bring your dog into the cafeteria?”
“As long as she’s not being a nuisance, I’m allowed to bring her anywhere on the ranch. A few girls have phobias. Rhiannon encourages exposure therapy, but if anyone’s having too hard a time, I just take her somewhere else.”
“Wow,” Delilah murmured, gazing down at Honey.
There was a certain kindness in her eyes, an affection for animals. But some distance as well. Like it was hard for her to be around one, not because she was afraid, but because she was sad.
“Do you have any pets?” I asked.
“I did, yeah. When I left, I couldn’t—” A deep breath. “I don’t have them anymore.”
Maybe her ex wouldn’t let her take them. “If you ever wanted to get one again, just let Rhiannon know. They all have to be up to date on vaccinations, but as long as you clean up after them, you’re allowed one.”
“Maybe I will.” She glanced out over the street. “Where do we begin?”
“How about we start at the farthest end and work our way down?”
“Sounds like a plan.”
There were a total of five streets on Rhiannon’s Ranch. First, Second, Third, Main, and Hilltop.
We started on the intersection of Second and Main at the gate and ended at First Street. First was still nearly a mile walk from the café, separated only by two fields.
“Most of the other stuff in town is close together,” I explained, watching Honey hop through the snow on the left of the gravel road. “This area through here is spread out because of the types of buildings. If you’re in the apartments, you probably won’t hang out around this area too much.”
Delilah squinted around, eyeing the road toward the mountain peak on our right, the building at the hill beneath it, then the stone building on the far left corner. “What are these places?”
I pointed to the stone building. “That right there, with the green metal roof, is the meat-packing plant. That’s where Rhiannon processes cattle, venison, and chickens.”
“Processes?” Delilah’s nose scrunched up in disgust. “She kills them back there?”
“Oh, no.” I shook my head. “That happens at the farm in the back. This is just where they get butchered.”
Her eyes bulged.
I laughed. “Are you a vegan?”
“No, but it’s still gross.”
“If it helps, the animals we eat around here are well taken care of before they die. But yeah, I couldn’t kill one either.”
The irony of that statement was not lost on me.
“That”—I pointed to the glass building on the far right of First—“is the greenhouse. That’s how we get a chunk of our produce through the winter. Some of the girls like to hang out in there and take care of plants.”
Delilah eyed me as we walked. “No green thumb?”
“Dirt and bugs just aren’t my thing,” I said. “You?”
“I like to grow a garden in the summer.” Squinting at the greenhouse, she pointed past it to the gravel path that snaked up the mountain. “Is that an access road to the farm?”
“That’s Hilltop Road,” I said. “There’s a trailer park up there. On the other side of it is one of Rhiannon’s farm areas. I think that’s where she keeps the horses. It’s part of the ranch, but I don’t go back there much.”
“The trailer park is part of the ranch too?” she asked, still squinting at the mountaintop.
“It is. It’s one of the earliest parts of the ranch, actually.
” I spun around to head back down Main. Delilah followed.
“Rhiannon started this place, like, fifteen years ago? She just had the campground then. So Main Street, the cabins, the cafeteria, and the rec center. All the other buildings came later. But then she bought more of the land, including the trailer park. Now, some of the women with children stay up there. Gives them a bit more space than the apartments.”
A moment of silence, followed by a bewildered, “Wow.”
Halfway back to Second Street, I gestured to the cafeteria on the right. “Obviously, you know what that is.”
“And a little bit down that road”—she gestured the rest of the way down Second—“that’s the legal building?”
I glanced at the little wooden cabin, no different from my own, and nodded. “Yep. You go all the way to the end of that street, and you’ll get to Rhiannon’s house. It’s tucked back in the woods a little, so you can’t see it from here, but if you ever need her after hours, that’s where to knock.”
“Is that okay though?” Her voice was timid. “She seems nice and everything, but she has a lot of responsibility here. I don’t want to be a bother or anything.”
That was a tightrope to walk. Rhiannon gave us a chance no one else in our lives ever had. A free place to live, a community out of a fairytale, a fresh start.
“I don’t know many people who are comfortable begging for help at someone’s door,” I said. “Especially when they’ve already given so much. But Rhiannon would open hers at any time of the day and make you feel like you just came home.”
“I guess she would have to be that kind of person to run this place like she does.” Delilah’s eyes caught on the circular log building across the street from the cafeteria. “That’s the rec center, right?”
“It is,” I said.
Eve, the girl who’d told her story on Wednesday night at group, stepped from its entrance. When she saw the two of us, she gave a smile and a big wave. I returned it.
“What’s it for?” Delilah asked.
“I go down to play the grand piano when I’m bored, as long as no one else has signed up for a specific event that day.
The kids do chorus concerts once a week.
Every couple months, they put on a play of some kind for us.
During the holidays, we throw big parties there.
Dances once in a while. And downstairs we have the community closet. ”
I stopped walking for a moment and looked at Delilah, keeping my voice soft. “Did you bring any clothes? Or did you get out in a hurry?”