He looked up, saw everyone looking back and cleared his throat again. “Well, she did.”
Alice, sitting next to him, patted his arm. “She loved you for it.”
The General harrumphed loudly and went to work cutting up his French toast.
Wye thought she felt a touch on her arm and looked up to find no one there, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that a presence was nearby. She met Alice’s gaze from across the table. Alice had straightened, her eyes wide. Had she felt it, too?
Was it—Amelia?
Cass had often spoken of the way she felt her mother’s presence on the ranch, and Two Willows was certainly an uncanny place. Despite all the General’s gruffness, his love for his wife ran deep, like a vein of ore in the ground. Amelia’s love for her family was evident everywhere in the old house, the maze, the garden…
Now that Wye thought about it, she realized the General and Amelia hadn’t had nearly as much time together as they must have wanted. Their happy marriage had been cut short by Amelia’s death. Meanwhile, here she was putting off marriage to a man she knew was her soul mate.
Who knew how many years she would get with Emerson. She’d be a fool to squander even a minute.
She felt the light touch on her arm again. A small squeeze, as if Amelia was saying, “That’s exactly it.” Then it was gone.
“We don’t have to rush into anything,” Emerson said, breaking the spell. “I can wait as long as it takes.”
Wye struggled to find her voice, which had gone shaky and uncertain. “I… I can’t wait,” she said. “I want to marry on New Year’s.”
“Are you sure?” Emerson took her hand. “Because it’s okay…”
“I’m positive.” Wye cut off his words with a kiss.
Wye spent the rest of the morning so excited she could barely breathe. She helped Cass clear up from brunch and work on the enormous dinner she was preparing, while everyone else took turns keeping Elise happy when she wasn’t napping. As the time drew nearer for Ward to arrive for dinner, however, Wyoming grew anxious. She was thrilled about her upcoming wedding, but she couldn’t expect him to feel the same way. Would her happiness make his sadness harder to bear? Should she take off her ring and tell everyone to keep it a secret—at least for a few more days?
She decided she couldn’t do that, not if she and Emerson were going to marry in less than a week.
She relaxed a little when Ward arrived, looking almost cheerful, until she realized he’d been drinking.
“Did you drive like that?”
“Like what?” He handed her several bags of chips and a bottle of wine. “Sorry. Not much open today.”
Wyoming didn’t push it, but she decided then and there she’d keep Elise tonight. She doubted Ward would protest.
Cass passed her a mug of coffee with a nod at Ward as he hung up his coat and his back was turned. Wyoming, her stomach tight with worry, passed it to him. “Get your head together,” she told him, and he accepted it, making a face.
“Sorry. Did a little too much celebrating, I guess. Had a good time with my friends.” He took a long sip of coffee and squared his shoulders. “What can I do to help?”
“Elise is napping, so why don’t you ask the men if they need a hand with anything?” She was sure Emerson and the others could keep Ward in line. She just wished they didn’t have to. She hesitated before adding, “Ward, I have some news. Big news.”
He immediately turned wary. “What is it?”
She took a breath. “Emerson asked me to marry him this morning. I said yes.”
For a moment, Ward seemed too stunned to say anything, and Wye braced for the worst, but then a smile spread over his face. “That’s wonderful! Wye, that’s perfect. You’ll have someone to help you—and Emerson’s a good guy. He’s not one to leave a woman in the lurch.”
“Of course not.” Wye was too surprised to say much else. She wasn’t sure what she’d expected. Sulking? Barbed comments about not expecting her marriage to last?
Rather than resenting her good news, Ward seemed… relieved.
“When’s the big day? I hope you’re not going to make him wait a year, like Mindy did me. All that fuss.”
“He’ll hardly have to wait at all, actually.” She steeled herself again. “We’re marrying on New Year’s Eve—right here. If we can pull it together.” Cass had begun to jot down a list of to-dos as they’d prepared dinner together. They needed to find an officiant, send out invitations… Things were going to get busy in a hurry in the morning, but for now they’d both agreed to enjoy every minute of the holiday.
“I’m really happy for you.” Ward hugged her, surprising Wye all over again. “You two will be great together.”
Just how much had he had to drink? Wye was still trying to take in his reaction as she watched him wander into the living room to find Emerson and shake his hand.
“That went better than expected,” Cass said, opening the oven to check on the turkey and side dishes.
“A bit too well,” Wye said slowly. Had she misjudged Ward, or was that the alcohol talking? Would he wake up tomorrow in a foul mood and tell her what he really thought?
“Don’t borrow trouble. Hey, can you mash the potatoes?”
After that, they were too busy for Wye to worry about Ward.
Wye woke up the following morning bursting with excitement. This was better than Christmas; she got to start planning her wedding today. As she’d expected, Ward had been happy to leave Elise with her overnight and had gone home with a vague plan to return today to pick her up. Wye didn’t expect to see him until the afternoon, so she slid out of bed without waking Emerson and went to fetch the baby before she woke up and roused everyone.
Not that anyone slept in around here, Wye thought in amusement as a half hour later the kitchen was full of hungry men and women preparing for a day of chores. Emerson kissed her on the cheek before heading out with the rest of the men, who’d decided to put a morning’s work in one of the trailers after their chores were done.
“Sure you don’t want to stick around and plan the wedding?” she teased him.
“I’ll just get in the way. Text me any questions you have, and I’ll try to be decisive,” he told her with a kiss.
“Sounds good.”
When they’d cleaned up from the meal, Cass set Elise on the kitchen floor with a number of Tupperware containers and wooden spoons. Elise settled down to banging on them happily, while Cass drew out a notebook.
“I’ve got notes from all our previous weddings,” she began but cut off when Wye laughed. “What? I can’t help it that I’m organized!”
“Your mother would be proud.” Wye had seen the big binder Amelia had left Cass that was full of tips and tricks for keeping Two Willows running.
“I hope so.” Cass flipped through the pages. Each section contained a checklist and laminated pages of information. “We start at the top and work our way through.”
“Sounds fantastic. Thank you—for everything.”
“Are you kidding? Thank you! I was afraid no one else would get married and I wouldn’t get to use this again.”