Ford: 7 Brides for 7 Soldiers

by Samantha Chase

  “There’s an issue at the airport and I need to get over there.”

  “Oh. Okay. No worries. Lunch is on me,” Ford said.

  As Ryder stood up, he looked at Ford one more time. “Look, I feel like we didn’t really accomplish anything here, but let me just say this. I didn’t think I was the kind of guy who would settle down. At least not at this point in my life. I enjoyed being single. But once I met Bailey…that all changed.”

  “I know,” Ford said. “And it’s great. I really am happy for you guys.”

  Ryder held up a hand to stop him. “Callie’s a great woman. And I think that if you got out of your own damn way, you could be happy too.”

  And before Ford could comment on that, Ryder was waving and walking away.

  * * *

  “Darn glitter.” Callie was cleaning up her classroom and already reconsidering next year’s Christmas crafts. With the holiday only a week away, her students were wild, and there was no point in even trying to get any serious work done. There were parties and pageants and it was basically just this shy of pandelirium every day.

  The only thing that got her through the craziness was knowing she was going home and seeing Ford. They had spent every night together, and she had to admit, she was getting spoiled.

  They took turns making dinner—and by making dinner, she meant Ford would pick up meals from one of the many restaurants in town, while she would at least try to put something together with a little bit of effort when it was her turn. Either way, she loved coming home at the end of the day and walking through the ranch with him to see how much he’d gotten done and hearing about the rest of his plans, and then he’d sit and listen to her talk about her day with her students. It was all very domesticated.

  It was also very secretive.

  They never went out anywhere.

  At first it didn’t bother her, because she really was tired at the end of the day. But now she was starting to wonder if it was something else for him. She remembered one of their earlier conversations when he complained about the town gossip. And while he had been referring to when he was growing up, maybe he was still having issues with it now. Her own run-in with Hildie came to mind and she wondered if he’d experienced anything similar since coming home.

  And as much as she wanted to test her theory tonight and see if he wanted to go out anywhere, they were decorating her tiny Christmas tree. She was late in putting it up because she had obsessed about not having enough space for a big one and had to come to grips with being happy with a tiny tree this year.

  Actually, they hadn’t talked about Christmas either. Funny how she was just thinking of that now. With all of his focus on getting the work done on the ranch and her being so wrapped up with school projects, it hadn’t come up. Did he want to spend Christmas with her? Was he going to spend it with his family? This was information that she seriously needed to know.

  Preferably tonight.

  “Okay, so decorating and awkward conversation, that can’t possibly go wrong, can it?” she murmured as she packed up her bag for the day. When she walked out of her classroom, she nearly ran right into several members of the local board of education. When Callie came up short, someone reached out to steady her.

  “Are you all right?”

  Callie nodded. “Yes. And sorry. I wasn’t looking where I was going.” The woman smiled at her, and Callie remembered her from her own days as a student in the Eagle’s Ridge school system. “It’s good to see you, Miss Woods.”

  “Callie James, right?” she asked. And then added, “And please, call me Diana.”

  She nodded. And then cursed the fact that this woman still managed to look so good after all these years. She remembered how all the boys in school had a thing for the busty redhead, and it was like she never aged.

  “I hear you’re doing a wonderful job with our littlest students,” Diana said. “And I give you a lot of credit. You must have endless patience.”

  Smiling, Callie replied, “I don’t know about that, but I do enjoy them. Most days,” she added, and then motioned to the glue and glitter on her skirt. “The remnants of the last of our Christmas crafts—gift bags to give to the parents after the pageant. This will be everywhere for a long time.”

  “It was good to see you, Callie,” Diana said, and then motioned to the small group of faculty members standing behind her. “We’ve got a budget meeting we need to get to.”

  With a smile and a wave, Callie turned and walked down the hall and out of the school. It still felt a little weird to have colleagues who used to be her teachers. Part of her still felt like a student rather than one of their peers.

  “You need to get over that,” she chided herself. Of course, it didn’t help when you had teachers like Diana Woods, who still looked like she was too young to be a teacher. Well, maybe not too young, but she certainly didn’t fit the image of the usual teacher. No doubt there was a new crop of male students lusting after her year after year.

  That thought got pushed aside when she got in her car and turned on the radio and heard one of her favorite Christmas songs by Mariah Carey. It didn’t matter about hot teachers making her feel inferior when there were carols to be sung and decorations to be hung. She laughed at her own thoughts and then sang at the top of her lungs all the way home.

  By the time she got there, she was in really good spirits. There was no sign of Ford—which was good, because she really wanted to shower and change clothes before he came over. So with more songs in her head, she went inside and turned on her Christmas playlist and quickly stripped out of her work clothes and took a hot shower. When she came out, she looked out the front window and still didn’t see his truck. With a shrug, she put on a pair of yoga pants and a sweatshirt and started to organize her miniscule amount of decorations.

  She was opening one of the boxes when her phone rang. Smiling, she answered, “Hi, Mom!”

  “Hey, Callie. Are you busy?”

  “Not particularly. What’s up?”

  “I wanted to get up into the attic to get some more decorations, and you know how much I hate crawling up there.”

  Unable to help herself, she chuckled. “That was my job every year,” Callie reminded her. Then she looked around the room. “Um…I can take a quick drive over and get what you need for you, if you’d like?”

  “I was hoping you’d say that!” her mom replied. “Can you stay for dinner?”

  “You know normally I’d jump all over that offer, but I…I kind of have plans with Ford later.”

  “Ford Garrison?”

  “How many other Ford’s do you know?” Callie teased.

  Her mom laughed softly. “Sorry, I guess I didn’t realize you were spending any time with him. I know he’s working on Margaret’s house and you probably see him every day but…you haven’t mentioned anything.”

  “I’ve been telling you all about the work he’s doing.”

  “Callie Marie, you know what I’m talking about. If you’re spending time with Ford—dating Ford,” she clarified, “why haven’t you said anything?”

  Good question.

  Callie sat down on the couch. “I don’t know. It’s all just…it’s a little…”

  “Okay, okay, I get it.” She paused. “Is it serious?”

  Another good question. “We’ve been spending a lot of time together and we get along really well, but he’s here to do a job and then he’s going to go back to Virginia.”

  “Still? I would have thought with everything going on with Margaret that he’d come home and take over the company like he’s supposed to.”

  “Supposed to? What do you mean?”

  Ruth stammered for a moment. “It’s just…well…” Then she sighed. “Sweetheart, everyone knows that Ben wanted Ford to take over the company for him.”

  “I know that, but Ford seems to have made it clear that he’s not interested. Besides, someone else is running the company now.”

  “Dennis Allen? That’s just a temporary
thing until Ford takes over.”

  “How do you know this?”

  “Oh, Margaret and I still talk fairly often. After Ben died, I used to go over and visit with her a lot. She told me how Ben put things in place so that Garrison’s could be run until Ford took over, but at that point, Ford was still in the Navy and no one knew when he was going to come back.”

  “So…wait. Are you saying that Ford owns Garrison’s?”

  “He does.” She sighed again. “It would mean the world to Margaret for him to move back. And when I was visiting with her a few days ago, she mentioned how much she wished he’d move into the ranch. Poor dear. She can’t figure out what else she can do to make him come back to Eagle’s Ridge for good.”

  “I don’t know if there is anything she can do. This just isn’t where his heart is, and the more people pressure him, the more he’s going to want to stay away.” It saddened her to even say it, but it was the truth.

  And now she was depressed.

  Like seriously depressed.

  “Listen, Mom, let me go and grab my keys and I’ll be over in a little while. Okay?”

  “Sounds good. Thanks, sweetheart!”

  Within minutes, she was walking out the door. Just as she locked it, Callie turned and saw Ford pulling into the driveway in front of the ranch. She waited and then waved as he climbed out. He was smiling and jogged over to her.

  “Hey! You just getting home too?” he asked, kissing her on the cheek.

  “Actually, I’m just heading out. Mom needs some help getting decorations down from the attic and she has a fear of climbing ladders, so…”

  He chuckled. “So you’re going to climb up and get them for her.”

  She nodded. “I’ll probably be about an hour or two, so we can decorate after dinner if that’s okay with you.”

  “Or,” he began and pulled her in close, “I can go with you and we can stop at a tree lot and get you a real tree.”

  “A real tree? Ford, the cottage is tiny, and I don’t think there’s enough room for anything more than my tabletop tree.”

  With a shrug, he took her by the hand and led her over to his truck.

  “Ford…”

  But he wasn’t listening. “C’mon. It will be fun. Trust me.”

  And that’s just it. She did trust him.

  Even though she knew in a few weeks he was going to break her heart when he left.

  Nine

  His conversation with Ryder had been playing on a constant loop in his mind, and it was the main reason Ford felt it was important that he go with Callie to her mom’s. It hit him how he hadn’t taken her anywhere and they were living in their own little world, and maybe that’s why he had on rose-colored glasses where she was concerned. Maybe if they went out and interacted with people, he’d realize that this was just a casual thing and it wasn’t going to be a big deal to end it when he left.

  Even thinking it made his chest tighten, so he had a feeling he was simply fooling himself.

  That didn’t mean he wasn’t going to try to prove himself wrong.

  “Tell me where we’re going,” he said as he drove down the driveway.

  “You need to head through town and cross Sentinel Bridge,” she said a little flatly.

  Reaching over, he took one of her hands in his and brought it to his lips and kissed it. “Hey, what’s wrong? I thought this would be fun.”

  When she looked at him, he saw a hint of sadness in her eyes. “I just wasn’t expecting you to want to go with me to my mom’s, that’s all.”

  “I don’t see what the big deal is. I haven’t seen Ruth in years. It will be good to see her.”

  Beside him, she sighed.

  “Wait…did you not want me to go with you?”

  “It’s not that. I’m just…” Another sigh, and then she twisted slightly in her seat to look at him. “You and I grew up very differently, Ford. You always lived on the good side of town in a big, beautiful house, and it’s very different from the way I grew up.”

  “Callie, none of that stuff matters to me. I don’t care about which side of town you grew up in. That’s not the reason I’m with you,” he said earnestly.

  “Why are you?” she asked quietly.

  Damn. This was a lot deeper than he thought it was going to be. All he wanted to do was go out and get a Christmas tree.

  “I’m with you because you’re an amazing woman with a great smile, an amazing laugh, and I enjoy talking with you and spending time with you,” he replied. “What’s this all about?”

  “I’m a little embarrassed for you to see where I used to live,” she said, her voice barely a whisper.

  It never occurred to him that this would be an issue. He’d certainly never given it a thought. All his life he’d heard about the damn feud over this town, and he always thought it was ridiculous. There was a time when he probably had looked at some of his classmates differently because they were from the bad side of town, but he outgrew that way of thinking and found some of the best friends he’d ever had.

  “There’s nothing you need to be embarrassed about, Callie,” he said, squeezing her hand. “My parents and grandparents owned those places you talked about. Not me. It’s not about the home, it’s about the people who live there. And I would really like to see your mom.”

  That seemed to relax her because for the remainder of the drive, she talked about how her day was at school and the kinds of decorations she was more than likely going to have to pull down from her mother’s attic.

  When they arrived, the expression on Ruth’s face when she opened the door was priceless. “Oh, my goodness! Ford! Look at you!” She pulled him in for a fierce hug, and it didn’t matter that he was almost a foot taller than her, she made him feel like a small boy. Leading them into the house, she offered them something to eat, something to drink, and seemed to be fluttering around nervously.

  “Mom,” Callie finally said, “relax. Ford offered to drive me over because we’re going to go and get a tree for me.”

  Ruth looked at her oddly. “What happened to the tree I gave you?”

  And then Ford felt like crap. How was he supposed to know that she had given that little tree to Callie?

  “Nothing happened to it,” Callie said as she looked around uncomfortably. “Although it sort of leans a lot more than I remembered.”

  “Well, that’s because it’s almost ten years old, for crying out loud,” Ruth said with a small laugh. “It was on its way to Goodwill when you mentioned needing a tree.”

  He almost high-fived himself with relief as he listened to this exchange.

  “It’s a good little tree,” Callie said, and then immediately walked over to the corner of the living room where the ladder was propped. “So what am I getting down for you?”

  As much as Ford knew this was their thing, he simply couldn’t let her be the one to climb up into the attic. He walked over and took the ladder from her hands and then smiled at Ruth. “Let me help. Please.”

  Both women looked at him and then each other.

  “Um…it’s probably easier for me to do it,” Callie said. “I know exactly where everything is.”

  “Callie—”

  “There’s a box with some garland and bows for the windows, and another box of lights that I need,” Ruth said, and then looked at Ford. “But if you’re looking to do a little something, I do have some boxes I need moved out to the garage.”

  “What boxes?” Callie asked as she positioned the ladder under the attic panel.

  “I figured I’d start packing some things up now and do a little at a time, so by the time I’m ready to put the house on the market, there won’t be so much to do.” With a small shrug, she added, “Not that there’s a whole lot here, but it never hurts to be organized.”

  To him it made complete sense, and Callie must have agreed because all she said was “Oh” and climbed up the ladder.

  Ford followed Ruth out of the room and down the hall to what must have been Call
ie’s room.

  “I know I’ll need to sort through so many things and get rid of a lot, but some things have to come with me no matter what,” she said, pointing to a stack of boxes.

  Picking two of them up, Ford followed her out to the garage while Ruth talked about the things she wanted to keep and what she felt fine letting go of. There wasn’t much he could say, so he simply listened. They made two more trips out to the garage and as he was turning to leave, something in the far corner caught his eye.

  A dollhouse.

  “I’ll probably need to rent a truck just to take stuff to the dump,” Ruth was saying. “Or I wonder if I can call the sanitation department and have them just come and pick it up. Do you know, Ford?”

  But he really wasn’t listening. He walked toward the back of the garage and, as he got closer, his heart kicked hard in his chest.

  He’d made this.

  Memories flooded his mind of the weekend he’d spent in the workshop with his grandfather, being forced to build this. His hand shook slightly as he reached out and touched it. The hours he’d spent meeting all of his grandfather’s specifications, the attention to detail that had been expected.

  “That’s something I’ll never be able to give away,” Ruthie said quietly from behind him. Ford looked over his shoulder at her. “Your grandfather built that for Callie for her tenth birthday. She was so excited.” She paused and Ford could hear the emotion in her voice. “I can still remember the look on her face when he brought it over.”

  Ford stepped closer and turned the dollhouse around to inspect it. He remembered cutting his hand when he’d hand carved the banister for the tiny staircase, and how his grandmother had given him fabric to cover those same stairs to look like a runner.

  Ruth stepped beside him. “We had to move her desk out of her room to make space for this, but it was so worth it. I can’t tell you how much time she spent decorating this house. She used to tell me that it reminded her of your grandparents’ house.” She laughed softly. “I suppose it does resemble it a little. Maybe Ben did it intentionally or maybe it’s just a coincidence but—”