Chapter Three
When Wilber came back to the cabin that evening, he no longer seemed angry. He was just sad. It took everything Bobbi had in her not to beg him to forgive her for her words.
She’d finished the dishes and was sitting quietly reading a book Kaya had written about the first Westons who had settled at the ranch. “Are you all right?” she asked softly.
He walked into the living room and sat in a chair perpendicular to her spot on the couch. “I don’t know what I am. I thought we were about to celebrate thirty-five years of happy marriage, and you’re telling me you’re not happy. I can’t even figure out what to think!”
She closed her eyes for a moment, wanting to make him feel better, but knowing it was past time for how she’d been feeling to be out in the open. “Wilber, I’m not asking for a divorce. I’m asking you to work with me on our marriage. I feel like we’ve been drifting further and further apart. We’re at cross purposes, and I want to feel like we’re on the same team again.”
“What’s it going to take to convince you that I still love you? And that I’m willing to do what it takes to make our marriage work?”
She bit her lip. She wanted to say, “Let me stay with my grandbabies,” but that wasn’t fair. Yes, it was the issue that was upsetting her the most at the moment, but there was so much more involved.
“I’m not sure. I do know we need to communicate better. Are you willing to try?”
He nodded, a bit of hope entering his eyes. “I know we can make things work. Don’t cancel the celebration yet.”
“I won’t. The only person who knows about it is Pastor Kevin. Everything else has been kept on the down low. Everyone knows the chapel and kitchen are booked for the day, but no one knows why yet.”
“Sounds good.” Wilber stood up and moved to sit beside his wife, putting his arm around her. “Tell me about your day.”
Bobbi took a deep breath. Asking about her day was a good start. They’d been spending every waking moment in one another’s company until they returned to the ranch. It hadn’t been a question that had been asked often. “I went and talked to Jaclyn for a little while.”
He grinned. “Crazy as ever, I hope?”
“Of course. Then I went and saw Kelsi. I got to hold Willow for a while. The girls are smiling and cooing. I just want to bring them home with me and never let them go.”
“Of course you do. I love them too. They’re beauties.”
“When I got home, I walked down by the lake. It still calms me the way it always did.”
“I’m glad.” Wilber leaned over and kissed her cheek. “I’m going to leave you to your book. I’m tired, and I have some plans to make.”
“What kind of plans?”
He shrugged. “You’ll see.”
As he left the room, she smiled. He really was a good man, even when she wanted to use an epilator on every square inch of hair on his body.
She thought back to the day he’d walked her around the ranch for the first time, and they’d talked about what they would do with the Old West Town if they’d been running the ranch.
“We need to have the bakery working, too,” Wilber told her, her hand still held tightly in his. “And maybe a floral shop. Wouldn’t it be nice if a man wanted to propose on the ranch and he could just go get flowers from a shop?”
“Or he could pick wildflowers. I think that’s more romantic anyway.” Bobbi smiled at the idea of someone picking flowers for her.
“So you’d rather I took my ATV up into the mountains and picked you a bouquet of flowers than I spent an arm and a leg on a dozen roses?”
She nodded. “You can stop at the store and buy me roses anytime. You have to have forethought to go into the mountains for wildflowers.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. You’re going to be different than any girl I’ve dated, aren’t you?”
She frowned at the idea of him dating other women. “You tell me. Am I different?”
He took her hand and brought it to his lips. “You are very different, but in such a good way.” He turned and headed a direction she hadn’t been yet. She was excited to see all the aspects of her new home. She wasn’t sure she’d stay for long, but so far, she couldn’t imagine leaving.
As they walked, he pointed out different things. “This path leads to the lake. We have rafting and it’s one of the big draws for tourists. Especially in the summer. In the winter, they’re here to play in the snow.”
She smiled. “I’ve seen snow a few times, but never much. Southern Oklahoma isn’t known for its snowstorms.”
He grinned. “We’ll go skiing, sledding, and snowmobiling. I promise you’re going to love River’s End Ranch in the winter. And the fall. And the summer. And the spring. You’re just going to love the ranch, because it’s so amazing.”
“I can’t wait to see it in the winter. I can just picture it with a blanket of snow covering it.”
“I don’t know if an Oklahoma girl is going to be able to handle an Idaho winter. I guess we’ll see…”
“Oh, try me. I’m tough.” She stopped walking, staring in surprise at a small house along the path. “Who lives there?” She could see bunnies hopping along through the grass.
“Jaclyn.”
Bobbi shook her head. “I’m buying her a gnome. She keeps talking about fairies, but I think gnomes are really the brains behind the operation. As soon as I get my first paycheck, that gnome is happening.”
“What operation?”
“How am I supposed to know what operation?” She started walking again, pulling him along behind her. Suddenly she was in a huge hurry to see the lake for the first time. “Do people swim in the lake?”
He nodded. “Sure. The temperature isn’t exactly warm, so you’ll have to get used to it, but people swim there all summer. We’re in the process of building a pool as well. That’ll be up and running by the beginning of July.”
“That sounds like fun. Why have a lake and a pool, though?”
“Different people are looking for different things. Some people don’t like swimming in a lake, because there are fish in there as well. And we’ll have the pool heated, so there will be a draw to that. Some don’t like to swim in pools, because they feel like the chlorine is unnatural. So we try to accommodate as many as we can on the ranch. We’re building cabins for the guests to stay in right up against the lake. They will be started as soon as the pool is completed.”
“Sounds like you’re changing everything around here fast.”
He shrugged. “It’s kind of a test my parents are putting me through. Dad and I are running the ranch together for a while, but they are leaving all the major decisions to me. He guides me, and tells me if he thinks I’m making a mistake, but at the end of the day, I make the choices. They’ll retire before too long, and it’ll all be my responsibility.”
Bobbi frowned. “Is that what you want?”
“I don’t really know. It’s something I’ve always known I’d do as soon as I was old enough. That’s how the ranch is run…has been for generations. So I’m doing exactly what I’m supposed to do and passing the test. At least I hope I’m passing. I don’t get a lot of feedback from my parents.”
“You know, I thought that it would be great to finish school and know where I was going to go and what I was going to do, but I’m not so sure now. I have my whole life in front of me. I have choices. You don’t.”
“But I have family. My family loves me, and they will guide me for as long as I need to be guided. I won’t be left alone to try to figure things out.” He stopped on the white sand beach in front of the water. “We had the sand hauled in to make it seem more like an ocean beach.”
Bobbi looked around her. The mountains were just behind the lake, and she could see the river that fed into the body of water. “This is beautiful. I could spend all day here just soaking up the atmosphere. What is it that’s so calming about water?”
“I have no idea. I know my mom is the same way, though. Anytime she gets stressed out or upset, Dad brings her down here or tells her to take a hot bath. I think that’s why a lot of the cabins are being designed to have hot tubs on the back deck. Dad is convinced women are calmer around water.”
She wrinkled her nose. “I don’t know if I like those generalizations, but it does work for me.” She squatted down to rub her hands over the dog’s head and neck. “How’s it going, Don Juan? Do you love the water too?” Don Juan let out a bark that had her laughing. “I think he understands me!” She glanced up and saw Wilber watching her with a half-grin on his face. “What?”
“Just thinking that you’re going to be a fabulous mother. The way you are with that puppy tells me everything I need to know.”
She sighed. “You keep trying to move faster than I can handle.”
“I know. I’m sorry. I just don’t want you to forget that I think you’re very special.”
She stood, turning to face him. “I have bad blood.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“My dad came home from work one day to find my mom talking to a man. He killed her. With that kind of violence in my family, how could you even think that I’d be worthy of marrying? Or having kids with? What if my father’s violent tendencies are passed down to my kids?”
“Our kids, and I don’t believe that. What kind of family did your dad have?”
She shrugged. “I never met his parents. I knew my mother’s parents, but they wanted nothing to do with me after my mom died. They said I reminded them of him, and they were done with me.”
“That’s sad. How could they blame you for what he did?”
“No idea. But I haven’t seen them since her funeral, and I lived in the same town as them. I caught a glimpse of Grandma in the grocery store once when I was there with my foster mom, but she turned and ran out of the store. She hated me.”
He wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer. “I will never hate you. It seems to me that more than anything you want a family—people who will love you forever. Am I right?”
She nodded. “Don Juan will love me forever.”
“He will. But so will I. You’ll see.”
She shrugged, thinking he’d lost his mind, but not having the strength to argue at the moment. “I’m getting hungry. Are you hungry?”
“Sure. There are picnic tables over this way.” He walked toward the tables, the dog trotting along behind them. “I had Mom pack the picnic, so I don’t even know what we have. I hope you like it.”
She shrugged. “I’ll eat it whether I like it or not.” She’d had no choices in the foster homes where she’d been raised.
He opened the picnic basket and pulled out two paper plates, napkins, and two cans of root beer. “Root beer is kind of a ranch thing. I have a feeling my ancestors made their own, but I have no proof of this.”
“Why do you think so then?”
“Because the whole family has always loved root beer. How could our ancestors have been any different?”
Bobbi laughed at his reasoning. “You’re silly, you know.”
He nodded. “I do know. I’m just glad I can make you laugh. You’re too serious most of the time.”
“How can you say that when you don’t even really know me?”
“I just know. I feel like I’ve been waiting my entire life for the day you walked onto this ranch. How could I not know little details about you?”
Bobbi took a step closer to him, leaned forward, and rested her forehead against his shoulder. “No matter what happens tomorrow, I’ll always treasure this moment with you.”
“Tomorrow, I’ll spend time trying to convince you we’re meant to be together. And you know what I’ll do the day after that?” he asked.
She shook her head. “What will you do?”
“The same thing. I will spend the rest of my life proving to you that we can’t be whole when we’re apart. You were meant for me.” He put fried chicken on each of their plates and added a heaping portion of potato salad. “There are brownies for dessert if you eat all your dinner.”
She laughed. “I’ll do my very best!” Chocolate had always been a weakness of hers, but her foster mother had called it “the “devil’s food,” so she’d rarely had the opportunity to eat it.
While they ate, Don Juan slept at their feet. She was pleased that he wasn’t one of those dogs who would constantly be begging for people food. She’d give him some, of course, because she wanted to treat him, but she’d do it on her terms.
After walking her back to his parents’ house that evening, he cupped her face in his hands, leaning down to kiss her goodnight. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” he told her, leaving her at the door with just a peck on the lips.
She stood and watched him walk away, a hand against her lips. His kiss—well, she had nothing to compare it to, but she knew it had to be the best kiss in all of Idaho. All the world! Kissing him made her skin tingle and her toes curl. She wasn’t in love, because no sane person would fall in love with someone they’d only known for forty-eight hours, but she sure was in like. She was very, very much in like!
Bobbi looked down at the book in her hand, wondering how things had changed so very much in thirty-five years. Were they just taking each other for granted? Or was there more to it? She didn’t know, but she was determined to find out. She wasn’t willing to throw away the life she’d worked so hard to build.
As she slipped into bed beside her husband, she worked hard to transform her thoughts. He was snoring, something that usually annoyed the snot out of her. She would think of his snores as his way of letting her know he was all right. All. Night. Long.
*****
Bobbi was up early the following morning, having agreed to run the diner for the day. The twins had a checkup, and Kelsi wasn’t about to let her mother go to the doctor in her place. She quickly dressed, and walked across the ranch’s grounds toward the diner. Not much had changed in the place since she’d worked there thirty-five years before.
The day after their first kiss, Wilber had come to the restaurant for lunch. She was washing dishes when his mother called her. “Time for your lunch break!”
“I’ll take it in a few minutes. I want to finish this sinkful.” Bobbi had always been very conscientious about her work, but with the Westons giving her a job and a place to stay, she felt like she needed to do as much as she possibly could for them.
Kelsey shook her head. “No, it’s time for your lunch break.”
Bobbi wanted to continue arguing, but she knew it was no use. Mrs. Weston was very easy on her most of the time. If she wanted her to take a lunch break now instead of later, she would definitely do it.
Untying her apron, she walked out front to one of the booths. As she started to sit, she heard her name called. “Over here, Bobbi!”
Bobbi turned to see Wilber sitting at a booth, nodding to the other side. She slipped in across from him. “Are you the reason I’ve been told that I have to take my lunch break now and not later?”
“I can’t control my mother! Do you think I can control my mother?”
She shook her head with a laugh. “No, I would never presume to think anything like that!”
“Good, because this was all her idea.” He picked up her hand and brought it to his lips. “One I wholeheartedly agree with, of course…but her idea.”
She tried to pull her hand away, blushing profusely. “You shouldn’t do that in such a public place. People will talk.”
“They’ll say, ‘Wilber has good taste. That girl is pretty special.’” He nodded to her menu. “Do you know what you want?”
She shrugged. “I’ll just have a cheeseburger.”
“Onion rings or fries?”
“Rings sound good.”
“Here comes Mom.” He ordered for both of them, asking for root beer for them each to drink. As soon as his mother turned away to put their orders in, he pulled a bouquet of wildflowers out from under the table. “I got up before dawn to go up into the mountains and pick them for you. Does this mean I get brownie points?”
She took the flowers from him, burying her face in them. “Thank you.”
He grinned, holding her free hand. “I listened to what you said.”
“I see that.” She frowned down at the flowers. “I have to put them in water so they don’t die! I’ll be right back.” She slipped out of the booth and took them to the back of the diner, putting them in a glass of water. Truthfully, she could have waited longer to put the flowers up, but the tears in her eyes wouldn’t have been possible to hide. She didn’t know whether he frightened her more than he pleased her. The emotions were probably neck and neck. She was free to pursue a relationship with him, but it felt very wrong to her. But why?
She put the flowers on a windowsill, where she’d be able to see them all day as she worked, before drying her tears and walking back out to the front to sit with Wilber. She kept expecting someone to jump out from behind a bush and tell her that she wasn’t good enough for him. She believed it, so it wouldn’t be hard to convince her.
“How about I come over tonight and watch a movie with you? My parents have a VCR, and they have more than ten movies to choose from. I’m sure we could find something you haven’t seen.” He picked her hand up again, saying nothing about her eyes, which she knew must be red. She’d never learned to cry gracefully.
“What about you? Will there be a movie you haven’t seen?”
He shook his head. “I’ve seen them all a dozen times, but that’s okay. I want to spend time with you more than I want to watch a movie.”
“All right. But only if Don Juan can watch with us. One of the movies they have isn’t Old Yeller, is it?”
He laughed. “No, but I’m pretty sure they have The Shaggy DA.”
“Oh, that’s definitely a classic doggie movie. Yes, that’s the one we’ll watch!”
When his mother stopped by the table a minute later with their plates, he said, “We’re going to watch something on the VCR tonight.”
“That’s fine. I think your father is taking me to Riston for dinner anyway.”
He narrowed his eyes at his mother for a moment. “Who’s going to cook for us, then?”
Kelsey shrugged. “Do you cook, Bobbi?”
“I do. I don’t enjoy it a lot, but I can sure do it. I’ll cook for us tonight.”
Kelsey smiled. “I think that’s a fine idea. You’re welcome to use anything in the fridge.”
Bobbi sighed. How had she been roped into cooking for him? It was only their third time to go out. Surely, he shouldn’t be expecting her to cook yet!