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As he drove along the road that led toward the buildings, he could look across and see a white car coming down the driveway.
He had to do a double take because it looked an awful lot like Sondra’s car. But, he just talked to her yesterday, and he’d broken up with her like he planned, although it hadn’t been any easier than what he thought it was going to be. He hated the conversation, that he even had to do it, and was glad that part of his life was over.
Maybe part of marrying Alaska was because he knew he wasn’t good in this area of his life. He’d found someone he could just marry without trying to go through the awkwardness of getting to know her, figuring out what she liked, and wondering if she was going to break up with him.
He could just focus on work.
Even when he thought about that, he had a nagging voice in the back of his head reminding him that he couldn’t expect to have a strong marriage if he didn’t want to put any effort into it.
He knew it, he just...probably like any human didn’t want to spend a lot of time doing something that he was uncomfortable doing, and wasn’t any good at.
He squinted at the car, looking out from under the brim of his cowboy hat.
A brisk breeze, never ending in North Dakota, stirred the grass, making the shushing sound that he loved. But he didn’t notice. Because, he was absolutely sure that was the exact make and model of Sondra's car.
He didn’t know anyone else in Sweet Water who drove that kind and color, and he tried to think of what time it was when he had spoken with her the day before.
Would she have had time to drive all of this way?
It didn’t take much thought before he realized that she absolutely could have. It was only about eight hours to where they’d lived in Wyoming.
Sondra could have made the trip easily.
Just because it was the way things usually happened, he wasn’t surprised when in the distance, he could see another car turning off the main road and pulling down the drive. He almost laughed to himself. That would be Bernadine bringing Alaska home.
A couple of his brothers had come back from lunch and said that she had gone with Bernadine to take a meal to Agathe, but that she would be back in plenty of time to get married.
They teased him about it a bit, when they’d stopped in where he and Caleb were fixing the float on the water trough.
He let their teasing roll in one ear and out the other, but when he saw the car pull in, he was sure that was who it was, even though he didn’t know what kind of car Bernadine drove.
He wanted to turn the four wheeler around and take off to the furthest part of the ranch.
But he didn’t want to be a coward.
He had been the head of the house for a long time now. Even before his parents had passed away, his dad had put a lot of responsibility on his shoulders, not just because he had an aptitude for it, but because he didn’t turn around and run when things got hard.
He squared his shoulders, lifted his chin, and said a short prayer. He didn’t even know what to pray, other thanhelp me Lord. This was not something he was good at, and a confrontation between the woman who thought she was engaged to him, and the one that he was supposed to marry today, was not going to be pretty.
And then he knew what to pray for. Wisdom. Compassion. And that elusive quality that enabled a person to smooth things out, to calm someone down, even when they didn’t want to be calmed down.Charm. That’s what he needed. And that’s what he lacked. That’s what he’d always lacked. He was conscientious, dependable, the kind of person that got things done, and responsible, but he didn’t typically do it with an abundance of charm. That was Caleb, or one of his other brothers.
Lord, I feel like I might as well ask you if you could help me learn to fly. But, right now, I could really use some charm.
It wasn’t that he didn’t have faith that God could work miracles, because he did. He just kind of figured that God wanted him to muddle through his life with the personality that God had given him, and not always need something extra.
Regardless, he continued driving toward the house, arriving after Sondra, who had already gotten out of her car, and was not in a good mood, if the storm clouds on her face were any indication, and shortly before Bernadine pulled in beside Sondra’s car, with, of course, Alaska’s door right beside where Sondra stood.
Thankfully, Sondra’s eyes were on him as he parked the four wheeler on the other side of her car.
It wasn’t a deliberate move. He would prefer to have parked behind or between the two cars, but, part of him thought thatSondra might leave in an angry huff, and it might be better to not have anything parked behind her car that she could run into on her way out.
“Ezra Clybourn. Are you going to explain to me exactly what that phone call was about yesterday?”
He sat on the four wheeler for a moment, his thumb mindlessly flipping the gas lever, while his brain, maybe in fight or flight mode, encouraged him to turn tail and get out of there. It wasn’t too late.
But, he stood, flinging one leg over the seat, and landing on the ground and striding around the car where he stood at the front of the two vehicles parked in front of the house. Alaska had gotten out of one, and she had a shy smile on her face, like she was expecting her husband-to-be, to look happy to see her, and to greet her, since he hadn’t seen her all day, and it was their wedding day.
“Sondra. I can’t believe you drove eight hours to get here.”
