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“After that phone call, I’d be a fool not to. What were you thinking?” She looked around, her eyes skimming over Alaska, dismissing her as unimportant, and instead she seemed thoughtful about the ranch, the buildings, and the work that was going on. “Did you think that this was going to be too hard for me? Do you think I’m not ranchers wife material?”
At that, Alaska’s eyes went from him to Sondra, and they widened. It was like she was figuring out that Sondra was not just another visitor to the ranch, but had a personal connection to Ezra.
“Alaska, this is Sondra. She is...my ex-fiancé.” He hated to introduce her like that, because it made it sound like he had asked her to marry him, when he hadn’t.
Before he could introduce Alaska, Sondra spoke. “Ezra. You and I need to talk. You can’t keep putting me off. And you’re going to have to open your mouth and speak actual words. You can’t just... Ignore me.”
“Alaska and I are getting marriedtoday.”
That probably wasn’t the best way to say it, but he knew he wasn’t going to be any good at it.
Lord? Maybe I should just give up trying to have anything to do with women.
He’d already tried that. And then somehow Sondra had gotten entangled with him, and they’d ended up engaged.
“What?” Sondra said, sounding shocked and angry and like she wanted to grab a hold of someone and... He wasn’t sure, but he took a step closer, feeling like he needed to protect Alaska. Which was hilarious, considering that Alaska was tiny, but scrappy, and could probably take him down if she wanted to. She ran with those kinds of people. Where Sondra was soft and probably had never balled her hand up into a fist in her life before, let alone thought about getting into some kind of physical fight.
He didn’t answer her, but just stood there. Honestly, he had no idea what to say.
“Maybe you two need some time alone,” Alaska said, and she sounded sad. Humble.
“You and I are leaving. We’re going to the courthouse. We have an appointment at two o’clock.”
“It sounds to me like you and Sondra have some things to talk about first.” Alaska’s eyes met his, and then she lowered them before she closed her door, and Ezra held his breath while she walked past Sondra to the front of the car.
Bernadine had not gotten out of her car, and Alaska walked around to where she had rolled her window down.
“Thank you. If you ever do that again, I’d love to help.”
“I’ll be in touch. It sounds to me like you have your hands full for now. Call me later.”
At that, a small smile curled up Alaska’s lips before she nodded.
“I will. Maybe not today. It looks like it’s going to be... Complicated.”
“Don’t be afraid to allow Nelda to keep your kids. She loves them, and she’ll be good with them.”
Alaska nodded, and Bernadine put the car in reverse and started to back away.
“I’m going to go see where Nelda is.” Alaska tossed that out as she walked by him, not stopping.
“Alaska.” He didn’t mean to have her name come out the way it did. He kind of barked it, like he was giving an order, like he wanted her to stop. But he did, and it worked, because she stopped mid stride, and turned to look at him.
The look on her face was part hurt, part inquiry, and part stubborn defiance. Like she wasn’t going to allow someone like him to hurt her. But he had, he knew.
He should have told her about Sondra, should have told her that he was engaged, or at least she thought he was engaged, and explained everything. Explained it so that she understood.
He swallowed. He hated it when he did stupid stuff like this and wished he was back out, chasing cows or fixing fence or standing in a thunderstorm digging a ditch. Any of that would be better than what he was doing right now.
“Talk to Sondra first. Then you and I will figure things out.” She didn’t wait for him to give any more orders, and maybe she knew nothing would be forthcoming since his mouth now seemed to be opening and closing like he couldn’t figure out what to say, which was exactly right.
“Don’t leave.” For some reason, it scared him to think that she might get someone to take her away from there. He didn’t just want to help her, although he would have said that was the dominant motivation behind everything he was doing. But there was something about her, something that he didn’t want to lose.
“I won’t. Not until I talk to you.” She sounded reluctant to say that, but he was pretty sure that once she said the words, she wouldn’t go back on her word. He wasn’t sure why he thought she would keep it, since he didn’t know her that well, but... Maybe it was the responsible way that she had put together Ellen and Travis’s wedding, the way she had done everything that needed tobe done, and the few things that went wrong, she stepped up and took responsibility for.
Someone who could take responsibility for things when they didn’t go right was a person of character in his book.
It was funny, because he never really thought about that before.
