“Are you really a minister?”
“Fully ordained thirty years now, Miss Jones.”
She turned to me. “Are we really doing this?”
“Only if you want to.”
“But you do?”
“More than anything else in the world.”
“Better go get the clerk and the judge, then,” she said to Dipper.
I so wanted to say the words she wouldn’t let me a couple of minutes ago. Tonight, she wouldn’t be able to stop me.
“Um, what about our company? I’d rather they not know before my grandparents.”
“I’m with you on that, and I’ll handle it.”
“I hear there’s some paperwork you two would like to fill out,” said Mabel, who had taken off the apron she was wearing earlier. “Come with me.”
We followed her to the lobby and waited while she unlocked the door with the town clerk sign above it. It took us less than five minutes to complete the documents that would change our lives forever.
“Come with me,” Mabel repeated, but this time she was speaking only to Maisie. She patted my cheek before they walked away. “You’ll see her in a little over an hour.”
“Where are they going?” I asked Dipper.
“To get ready.”
“Oh, crap. I haven’t brought our bags in yet.”
“Maisie won’t really need it, but I’ll take it to her anyway. You know, in case she wants to put on a little makeup.”
“I brought a sports coat, dress shirt, and a pair of slacks. No tie, though.”
“You’d be surprised how often I hear that.”
I led him out to my SUV, and while he took Maisie’s bag to her, I called Diesel.
“What the fuck are you up to?” he said, skipping any kind of greeting.
“We changed our mind.”
“Clearly. Didn’t think it was important to respond to any of my texts?”
“Sorry. Is there anything I need to know?” I silently prayed there wasn’t. Now that Maisie and I had set this plan in motion, I didn’t want anything to interfere with it.
“Only me looking for answers. I finally called Onyx.”
“Listen. I need a favor.”
“What’s that?”
I had no idea how to ask while not giving anything away. “I need some privacy tonight. Between six and seven.”
“How close can we be?”
“We won’t be leaving the property.”
“I see.”
“I’d rather you didn’t.”
“You know how to reach me in the event of an emergency.”
“I do.”
“The crew and I are staying at the place next door. We’ll stand down until you signal us. One way or another.”
“I appreciate this.”
“I hope whatever it is, is important.”
It was the most important thing I’d done in my life.
14
MAISIE
“Thanks,” I said when Dipper dropped my bag off in our room. Somehow, I doubted Ranger had booked the honeymoon suite earlier, but that’s where Mabel said we’d be spending the night.
“What is his real name?” I asked when he closed the door behind him.
“Charlie MacIntosh, but everyone’s been calling him Dipper for the last couple of years. He likes it.” She walked over to a closet I hadn’t noticed near the door. “There’s something I want you to see.”
When she pulled it out, I gasped.
“Whose is that?”
“It was mine. Hard to believe I used to be the same size you are now. Would you like to try it on?”
A part of me felt like it was too much, but wasn’t it all too much? Wasn’t this as surreal as everything else that had happened between Ranger and me, not just in the last few days, but since the day we first met? He’d admitted he had feelings for me in the same way I did for him.
“I would love to.”
Mabel placed the most beautiful wrap around my shoulders and led me through the lodge. “Don’t worry. You’re our only guests tonight, and Dipper and Owen are already at the chapel. Judge Thomas and his wife, Cora, are there too. They can serve as your witnesses. Oh, and Cora plays the piano.”
“You’ve thought of everything.”
“Why do you think they call this the Love Lodge, sweetheart?”
“I just thought that was the name.”
“Goodness, no. Back when it was built, it was known as Long Lake Lodge. Not quite as romantic, right?”
We were about to step out a side door when panic overcame me. “My grandparents. They’ll be so hurt I didn’t tell them.”
Mabel shook her head. “Al and Mary will understand better than most.”
I was stunned. “Do you know them?”
“I was a few years younger than they were, so I wasn’t allowed to watch, but where do you think they got married?”
“You aren’t serious.”
“I am.”
That explained why this place seemed so familiar. The photos I’d seen were all in black and white and not taken by a professional photographer. That’s why I hadn’t recognized the chapel. Along with the fact that the trees on the property had grown so much taller in the years in between.
“You really don’t think they’ll be upset?”
“I doubt they told their parents—or their grandparents.” Mabel put her hands on my shoulders. “Ready to go marry the love of your life?”
“He is, you know.”
“Of course I do, dear. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have the judge sign off on the waiting period.”
The chapel looked even more beautiful. Maybe it was because the lighting was more dramatic since it was dark outside. The same familiar feeling as earlier in the day came over me. And a sense of peace. The worry I had over my grandparents being hurt or angry faded away when I raised my head and saw the look on Ranger’s face.
Cora began to play, and I walked toward him. It didn’t matter that there was no one by my side. As soon as I reached the front of the chapel, he would be. Not just for now, but in my heart, I knew we’d be together forever.
My eyes filled with tears when I saw his were, but we were both smiling too.
“Dearly beloved,” Dipper began. I heard little of what he said as I stared into my love’s eyes.
When it came to our vows, Ranger interrupted him. “We each have something we want to say at the end.”
Dipper smiled and we continued.
“I, Owen Messick, take thee, Maisie Ann Jones, to be my wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part, according to God’s holy ordinance; and thereto I pledge thee my faith.”
I repeated the words back to him, then looked at Dipper, who nodded.
“I love you, Owen.”
“I love you, Maisie.”
15
RANGER
Never in my life had I seen a vision more beautiful, more breathtaking than Maisie when she walked in the door of the chapel. Mabel helped remove a wrap from around her shoulders, and I gasped. The pale cream-colored lace dress she wore looked as though it had been made for her.