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I plugged in my seat belt.“They’re classic for a reason.Hi, by the way.”
“Hi, darlin’.”He leaned over and I met him halfway, eagerly accepting his kiss of greeting, both reassuringly familiar but new enough to have nervous butterflies come to life inside me.I wanted to kiss him forever.His hand slid into my hair, cupping the nape of my neck, and I settled my palm on his thigh, firm and warm beneath the denim.Touching him was addictive,hewas addictive, a sugar rush in madly compelling human form.
Finally he pulled back.“I can’t believe I’m sayin’ this,” he reluctantly pulled away, “but we’d better stop.Gonna be late.”
I nodded, although I wanted to tug him back toward me and carry on kissing his mouth—and everywhere else.“Can’t stress out a bride on the week of her wedding.”
“Yeah, Cathy’s always been nice to me, but I don’t wanna be on the end of her wrath.”He chuckled, putting the truck into drive.
He told me about his day as he drove the handful of miles up to Two Rivers, run by the McLeod family.I told him about Aunt Laurie’s determination to come back to work only three days after fracturing her arm.
“It’s the way most people here seem to be.”He nodded.“We’re doers, not waiters.This isn’t a big city where someone else might be providing the thing you want or need, so you’ve gotta be self-sufficient.But generally, we look out for each other.”
I was about to tell him that Jenny had shied away from a couple of people who seemed to have had ill intentions at the bakery today, when he turned onto the road that led up to the ranch.The truck passed under a simple metal arch with TWO RIVERS engraved into a wide band at its apex.
“The ranch was floundering a little while back,” Rick told me as we got closer to a big house.The clapboard looked a little worse for wear, but there were cheery fresh flowers growing in the window boxes.“I went to school with the Lewis McLeod, the eldest son of the owners.He came back from his job in the city, restored the old barn and turned it into a wedding venue.”
“Wow.That must’ve been a lot of work.”
“It was three years ago.My dad did a lot of the woodwork.I think you’ll like it.It’s real pretty.”
We passed the ranch house and drove through an avenue of very young trees, up to a big barn.It was two levels tall, the wood honey-coloured.Mature shrubs of lavender, their flowers a deep purple and beautifully fragrant, ringed the open doorway.
Rick came around and opened the passenger door for me, and I hopped out.I was wondering if I could sneak in a kiss when the woman who must have been Cathy appeared in the barn doorway, followed by a tall, blond man in a gray Stetson and a black and white plaid shirt.
“Maddie, Maddie Liu?”she called.She wore a cute sundress and leather flats.Her make-up was immaculate.I felt very plain in comparison.
I walked towards her, my hand outstretched.“Hi, Cathy.”
“Hi!”She shook my hand vigorously.“Oh, hey, Rick.”
Rick, who was now leaning against the side of the truck, just nodded.“Hey, cuz.”
“Thankssomuch for making the cake on short notice,” Cathy was saying, talking quicker than anyone I had ever met.“How are the fondant hearts coming?Laurie did have the measurements, but do you need them again to check?Do you have a hundred?Come in and see the barn!”
It was tricky to imagine her married to the softly spoken giant whom I’d met at the ballgame on Sunday, but, after all, opposites did attract.
“Excuse me,” the man a few paces behind her began, taking off his Stetson and offering me his hand.“I’m Lew McLeod.My family owns Two Rivers.”After we shook hands, he slid a business card from his back pocket and offered it to me.“Y’all need anything in the run up to the wedding, don’t hesitate to call.Rick,” he added, nodding toward the truck.
“Lew.How’s it going?”
They started to have a conversation, but Cathy tugged me inside the barn to see everything she’d done, so I didn’t catch any of it.
* * *
Cathy was a whirlwind who talked at the speed of light.She was friendly and eager to answer my questions, but even so, I was exhausted by the time we finished, thirty minutes later.
I’d photographed the location the cake was to be placed in, and Cathy had drawn chalk arrows on the floor for where the cake table would be.She hadn’t left anything to chance for her wedding, and I had to admire her stellar organizational skills.
After she climbed into Lew’s pickup truck and he drove her back down to the ranch house, I walked to Rick’s truck on tired feet.
He opened the driver’s side door and came to enfold me in his arms.I went willingly, breathing him in; sawdust, clean sweat, minty soap.A combination I knew I would very much miss when I arrived back in London.
I put that out of my mind as I settled my face into the hollow of his chest.
“It go okay?”he asked, his accent rumbling under my ear.
“I think so.She’s so organized, Rick!”
