Save The Date

by K. S. Thomas

  Three hours and a hundred or so needle pricks later and we had managed to pin the dress onto the mannequin. Well, the basic shape of it anyway. There were several layers still to come.

  “I need a break.” I slid myself into one of the dining room chairs. “My fingers hurt. That last needle actually drew blood. If Savannah doesn’t show up here soon with that sewing machine, we’re not going to get much further than this today.”

  While I was having a marvelous whine to myself, Stephanie had taken to pacing. She was tapping the side of her chin with her pen as she went. An odd habit if you ask me, but it seemed to help her think so I never questioned it. Although, I’d been tempted to plenty of times. Especially when I’d seen the ink marks it left behind.

  I was about to continue on with a healthy pathetic sob, when I heard the glass doors to Noonie’s old hutch open.

  “Hey. I’ve seen this place before. What is it?” Stephanie was already closing the space between us, her hand outstretched and waving around a picture frame.

  “Um, you’re going to have to stop doing that if you want me to actually see what you’re talking about.” I reached out and placed my hand on her wrist to steady it. “Oh, that’s the lake house,” I answered matter-of-factly. “How do you know about it?”

  “Hang on.” Next thing I knew, Stephanie was running from the room. A moment later I heard footsteps moving rapidly over the stairs and my confusion only mounted. Then, I heard the entire show backwards as she made her way toward me again.

  “Here.” She handed me a large flat package.

  “What is it?”

  “It’s Savannah’s collage. Check it out.”

  I ripped open the end and slid the board out carefully to have a look.

  “Oh.” Right there in the center of it all was a blown up picture of the lake house. “My mother’s planning on moving the wedding to Lake Kentucky?”

  “I guess. How far is it?”

  “Four hours. And that’s if the traffic is decent. Actually, if that’s where she’s throwing the wedding maybe we should just go ahead and get started without her. We could go out there and check it out. I’ll talk to Noonie Skeeter and see about setting something up. Who knows, at this rate, we may just stay through the weekend and work from there. Might make more sense anyway. Plus, there’d be less distractions.” I was rambling and no longer paying attention to what Stephanie was doing. In hindsight, not a great move on my part.

  “You mean distractions like Emerson?”

  Just like that, she had my undivided attention again. “What now?”

  “This is the two of you when you were kids, isn’t it?” She was holding up a second picture frame. Apparently it had been buried somewhere in the hutch along with the other one from the lake house.

  I took a step toward her to get a better look. It was Emerson and I. The two of us had been reading. He was laying on his stomach while I had been comfortably stretched out on his back as if it was a lounge chair. I had no idea this picture had even been taken, but I remembered that afternoon perfectly.

  “Yeah, that’s us.” I took the frame from her hand and went to put it back into the hutch. No need to waste any time taking useless trips down memory lane. That guy, he had been MY Emerson. But the guy outside riding around on his damn horse looking like a country music sex god, he was Savannah’s. And the less I was confronted with things that suggested otherwise, the better off we’d all be.

  “That has got to be the most darling thing I’ve ever seen. I’m serious. How freaking adorable were you two?”

  “I’m sorry, did you just use the word darling? How old are you?” I slammed the door on the hutch ever so slightly. Then, I flinched at the sound. Way to follow through.

  Stephanie came to stand in front of me, arms crossed over her chest. I could tell I was in for a lecture.

  “Cal, I’ve been working for you for nearly two years now and we’ve been going non-stop with wedding after wedding since the day I started. Which means, I’ve gotten as close to a live-in lover as you are probably ever going to get. I know how you take your coffee. I know what to order for you off of any take-out menu. I know when you get your period because our cycles have now matched up and I even know what side of the goddamn bed you sleep on. I know all of your likes and dislikes, my friend, and you likes Emerson.”

  I threw both my hands up at her in frustration. “Where are you getting all of this? Some stupid picture that was taken a gazillion years ago?”

  Steph smirked. “No. I got it from the way you first said his name, Emerson, like it was a dessert or something. And the way you kept stealing glances up at him the entire drive up to the house even though you were clearly forcing yourself to look the other way. Add the light in your eyes when you saw the picture just now which, by the way, turned burning red half a second later, and I’m getting a pretty clear visual of the situation.” She tilted her head to the side, leaning her gaze and forcing me to look her in the eye. “Of course, the fact that you haven’t actually denied it isn’t hurting my theory either.”

  I pressed my lips together stubbornly, trying to thwart the inevitable. I didn’t even last three seconds. “Fine. If you must know, I used to have a little crush on Emerson.” I could feel the heat rushing to my cheeks and I had no idea if it stemmed from fury over having been bullied into making such an admission or simply humiliation. It was probably the latter.

  Steph raised her brow at me. “Used to?”

  “Um, yeah. For wedding planning purposes, I think it would be best if we stick with that terminology.”

  “Whatever you say, boss.” She shook her head, quietly laughing at me. I’m not sure why she was holding back at this point. Wasn’t like I couldn’t hear her snickering away.

  “Oh, now I’m the boss again? A minute ago you were my live-in lover.”

  “It’s not a healthy relationship, but it works for us.”

  “Ain’t that the truth?! Well, lover, I’m going to go track down my grandmother. Want to get started on packing up all this crap so we can move it back upstairs? Even if Savannah does show up here tonight with that sewing machine, I sure as hell don’t plan on using it anymore.”

  Steph was already moving in the direction of our mannequin. “I’m on it.”

  “That’s why you’re my person.” I pointed at her dramatically as I backed out of the room and left to search for Noonie Skeeter.

  I spent longer than necessary hanging around the property that night. I’d hoped my paths would cross with Lissy’s at some point during the day, but it hadn’t worked out that way. After the way she had acted the night before, I couldn’t help but wonder if she was avoiding me on purpose.

  “You takin’ off or stayin’?” It was Burke.

  I looked down at Reesie sitting at my feet. “Depends. Which do you want me to do?”

  He smirked, handed me a blanket and full cup of coffee and said, “You’re stayin’. Majestic’s lookin’ like tonight may be the night. Was just headed to her stall myself, but I’d just as soon have you spend the night here. My pillow top mattress is better on my joints than the bedding in her stall.”

  I nodded. “Have a good night.”

  I watched as the old man bent down to pat my dog and then walked out giving me a backwards wave. “And thanks for the coffee.” Finally I’d have an excuse to go up to the house. Pattie’d have some sort of sweet pastry sitting up in the kitchen which was bound to partner well with coffee.

  The house was quiet when I walked in through the front door. No one ever locked the place up. Which I suppose would seem strange to outsiders, seeing a place like this, knowing the kind of wealth that filled it and then finding out nobody was doing anything to secure it. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. Troy Ashcraft was rumored to sleep with a shotgun under the bed and I’d seen Skeeter in action with a bullwhip. Anytime I heard the expression “looks can be deceiving” those two were always the first thing that came to mind. They had to be in their eighties by now and
aside from Troy’s enormous size and natural lack of smile and the scary alert look in Skeeter’s eyes, the pair wasn’t exactly intimidating. But knowing what I knew about the Ashcraft patriarchs, I’d be the first to tell you not to cross them. Hell, maybe I’d tell you to go for it just so I could see you get your ass whupped.

  Of course neither were near as terrifying as Pattie, who’d likely come after me with her cast iron skillet if she walked in and caught me stealing a healthy portion of her peach cobbler.

  With a mounded plate in my hand, I stood out in the dark foyer for a moment contemplating my options. I had hoped for a possible run-in with Lissy, but aside from the low hum of chatter coming from upstairs there was no sign of her. I half considered going up there and knocking on her door, but it was already after nine and just showing up at her bedroom without an invitation might not have gone over well. So I left again, as undetected as I’d entered.

  As I walked back to the barn and had my seat on a stack of hay bales in the aisle across from Majestic’s stall, I tried to sort it all out for myself. In a way, being with Liss was completely comfortable. I knew her. She knew me. Maybe I hadn’t seen her in two decades, but when we had spent time together, she’d been around non-stop for three months and I’d had no choice but to get used to sharing my space with her. Only now things were a little bit different.

  I still felt like it was perfectly normal to reach out and take her hand, or wrap my arm around her, only she was probably far less likely to beg me for a piggy back ride when she got tired or try and climb up onto my shoulders when she wanted a better point of view. Still, she felt like Lissy. Just a new, updated version.

  She was a woman now. A woman who had all of the best parts of the little girl who had made me laugh over and over again. Who had taught me about patience. Had made me understand the responsibility I had to look out for those more vulnerable than myself. Even at six, she had challenged me, had pushed me to be better without even knowing it, simply because she needed me to be, and I had grown up to be a better man because of her. Except I’d never even realized it until that very moment when I was sitting alone in the dark waiting for Majestic’s foal to arrive.

  Five hours later and there was still no change. I was starting wonder if tonight was really going to be the night. Either way, if I was going to stay awake any longer, I was going to need another cup of coffee.

  I left Reesie to watch over the laboring mare while I went to get a refill from the coffee pot in Burke’s office. Not surprisingly, it was cold and iced lattes weren’t my thing. So, my mug filled, I headed back over to the main house to pop it into the microwave.

  Considering it was now after one o’clock in the morning, I had no false hopes this time of crossing paths with Lissy. Which is why she scared the shit out of me when I nearly ran into her walking out of the kitchen in the dark.

  “Holy shit, Liss,” I hissed, now wearing half of my coffee. “Why don’t you turn on a light?”

  “Why don’t you?” she shot back, looking slighted. “What are you doing sneaking around here in the middle of the night anyway? I thought you had a place off property.”

  “I do,” I could hear myself sounding indignant as well, as if she’d just accused me of robbing the place blind or something. “We’ve got a mare about to foal. I’m on night duty.” I peered down at my clinging wet shirt, “And not that it matters now, but my coffee was cold and needed a reheat.”

  She had to squint in the dark to see what I was talking about. “Oh. Sorry.” Then, “Wait, did you say one of the horses is about to have a baby?”

  “Uh-huh.” An unexpected opening and I’d be damned if I didn’t jump on it. “You wanna come see?”

  Even without any light I could tell she was smiling.

  “Seriously? That would be amazing.”

  “Alright then.” I nodded, trying hard to contain my enthusiasm. “Go put on some boots and let’s go.”

  A few minutes later, we were outside, making our way down to the barn.

  “Oh shit.” I heard a scuffle behind me and caught her arm just as she was tumbling down.

  “You okay?”

  She was straightening herself out again already. “Yeah, just tripped.”

  “Sorry, I should have warned you. The walkway is pretty uneven. Guess I’m just used to it.” I slid my hand down her arm until my fingers anchored in hers. She didn’t say a word, just pressed her palm to mine and kept walking while I led the way.

  Once inside, we quietly headed toward the back. I could hear Majestic groan. Things were progressing faster than I’d thought.

  “Stay right here,” I whispered when we reached the spot in the aisle where Reesie was still sitting exactly the way I’d left her. Then I opened the stall door, and slowly crept in along the side of the wall so I’d be close enough to assist Majestic if she needed me to.

  She was already lying on her side and the foals hooves had begun to pass. If all went as it was supposed to the baby’s head would be out shortly.

  Majestic was breathing heavily, stretching and shifting her weight around in her effort to best position herself to push. After a few more sessions, the head was free. Majestic and I had been through several births together already. She was a pro and most times, I was merely there for moral support. While she rested up in preparation of the hardest part, the shoulders and hips, I slowly reached over and gently removed the smooth, thin, white sac still covering the foal’s head. Then, taking a strand of straw, I tickled its muzzle, ensuring the foal was alert and breathing.

  From then on, I sat back and watched as Majestic performed a perfect birth all on her own. Soon, mother and child were both resting side by side, worn out from the excitement of the night’s events, but both strong and healthy.

  Careful not to disturb them, I gingerly made my way back out into the barn aisle, where Liss was still standing, eyes glistening and smiling from ear to ear. I knew exactly how she’d felt. Didn’t matter how many times I saw it, few things in life could compare to the lengths a mother would go to for her child, starting with bringing it into the world safely.

  We stood there, neither of us saying anything. Just watching. Then, when the colt began to stir, I felt her hand grip my arm just above my wrist, squeezing it tighter as she watched in anticipation while the foal stood for the very first time.

  I could have stayed there with her all night. Not talking. Just being. It would have been more than enough for me. But, I knew she wasn’t here to keep me company. She wasn’t here for me at all. She was here for the wedding.

  “I better get you back up to the house.” I nudged her gently in the side and she began to walk toward the barn doors again.

  Once we stepped outside, she paused, and then, out of nowhere, flung both arms around my neck, pressing her body to mine in the process. I was so stunned, I froze.

  “Thank you.” Her breath tickled my ear as she whispered. “Just, thank you.”

  Then, as I was coming to my senses and about to return the gesture, she released me and hurried out into the darkness toward the house.

  Chapter 7

  With no sign of my mother and a simple three word text notifying me that she would ‘be there Friday’, Steph and I took off in Noonie Skeeter’s truck and headed out to the lake house. Considering Savannah hadn’t showed up with the new sewing machine until after nine p.m. the night before, Stephanie and I had taken the night off and spent it lounging on the bed watching a Sex In The City marathon and stuffing our faces with Pattie’s homemade peach cobbler à la mode.

  Shortly after Steph had gone to bed, I had ventured back downstairs for a glass of water to dilute all of the sugar still surging through my system. That was when I had run into Emerson. Naturally, I decided to omit my late night outing to the barn when I saw Steph the next morning, but I was still thinking about Emerson as well as Pattie’s sweet peaches as I was making the best out of my limited driving skills headed toward the lake house.

  “Do you have any ide
a what you’re doing over there?” Steph asked after I spent five minutes checking my mirrors before actually taking the plunge and changing lanes on a highway riddled with cars all desperate to get around me.

  “Yes!” It came out automatically. Honesty took a second longer. “No!”

  “Yeah, well it shows,” she grumbled as she double checked her seatbelt to make sure it was fitted nice and snug.

  “Hey, I offered you the driver’s seat and you refused,” I retorted.

  “I don’t have a fucking license,” she gasped. “I’ve lived in Manhattan my entire life. No one I know actually has their own car, except your family.”

  “Yeah, well, my mother might have a car, but it comes with a fucking driver! Not like I’ve had a lot of chances to practice either.” The more I talked about it, the more I began to panic. This had been a bad idea. Why had I been so determined to make the drive myself?

  “If you had just let Emerson give us a ride like your grandmother offered, we’d probably be halfway there by now.”

  Oh right. We were better off with my driving. Well, at least I was.

  “Listen to me. I am going to get us there just like I said I would. It’s not like I’ve never driven. I’m just a little rusty.”

  Stephanie squinted her eyes at me. “How rusty?”

  I let my hand teeter in midair. “Eh….rusty like I haven’t driven since Burke the barn manager let me do figure eights in the back pasture last time I was there.”

  “And when was that?”

  “Um, about nine years ago.”

  “Fan-fucking-tastic. Well, I hope you’re happy now, because we’re both going to die, all because you were too afraid to sit in the car with secret lover cowboy.”