Marrying Mr. Wright, page 17
part #3 of Mysterious Ways Series
Expression earnest, her friend nodded.
She’s serious, isn’t she? “If you want to do it, okay.”
A broad smile curved Carrie’s mouth. “Fabulous.” Scooting forward on the pew, she tapped the pastor on the shoulder and whispered to him.
He pivoted enough to make eye contact with Carrie, smiled, and nodded. They leaned closer like conspirators, whispering back and forth.
Concern growing, Amber watched them. Carrie’s way too eager. What’s up with that?
Music played, people stood, and voices filled the room.
Ben’s shoulder brushed hers as he took the hat from his knee and got to his feet.
She glanced at him and stood at his side.
“Everything alright?” He bent close to be heard.
“I guess.” She spoke loud enough for him to hear over the singing. “Carrie wants to plan our wedding.”
He grinned. “Should we be afraid?”
“Probably.” Amber chuckled then caught another glare from the elderly woman in the front. She sobered and shifted backwards slightly so Ben blocked her view of the woman. I can hardly keep myself from running as it is. How am I going to stand in front of all these people for the wedding ceremony? A knot lodged in her throat.
“That’s Mrs. Worth.”
Jarred, Amber blinked at Ben. “What?”
“The woman in the front pew giving you the sourpuss look.” He nodded slightly in that direction. “Mrs. Anabel Worth.”
“A member of the Liars Club, I presume.” Otherwise, why’s the woman glaring daggers at me?
“The ringleader.”
“Wonderful.” Not!
The music ended, and people filed out of the church.
Carrie touched her arm to get her attention.
Pastor Avery stood but didn’t leave, shaking hands and bidding farewell to people who stopped to see him.
Amber turned to her friend, who leaned around her to tap Ben on the arm.
“Ben?”
“Yeah?”
“Would you mind taking Amber to Jackson this afternoon and playing tour guide? Pastor Avery and I intend to work on the wedding plans.” She reached behind Amber to touch or grab someone else. “We need Macy’s help, too.”
“Not a problem.” Ben grinned, put a hand at the small of Amber’s back, and turned a broad smile on her.
Oh, no…. If I go to Jackson with Ben, I’ll have to call my parents in front of him instead of Carrie. Carrie knows how difficult they can be. Ben doesn’t. Whoa! Wait! Girl, what are you thinking? What’s there to protest? Spend a whole afternoon alone with Ben? Sounds great. Parents or no parents.
“Should we invite Heather?” Ben asked.
“No!” Carrie and Amber practically yelled simultaneously.
“Okay.” Ben chuckled.
Amber met his gaze. “Heather’s still upset. Until she’s ready to talk, we need to leave her alone.”
“Oh. I see.”
“Are you sure about this?” Amber asked her friend.
“Definitely. Have fun. See Jackson.” Carrie leaned closer and lowered her voice. “Call your parents. Pastor Avery, Macy, and I will take care of everything.” She shared a conspiratorial look with the woman standing behind Amber.
“If you’re sure….”
“Positive. Go.” Carrie waved both hands to shoo them away. “Enjoy.”
Amber turned to Ben. “I guess it’s you and me.”
His broad smile had returned. “I’m sure I can handle that.”
~ ~ ~
Thank you, Lord. Ben could hardly believe how God had smiled on him. A whole afternoon, just him and Amber. In Jackson, no less. No one to interrupt, and we can blend in with the normal tourists.
He led her out to the truck. Tension bled off of her with each step until she appeared relaxed. One of these days I’ll convince her she doesn’t need to worry about making the right impression.
“Yo, Mr. Wright!”
Groaning, he halted. “Didn’t leave fast enough,” he muttered for Amber’s ears only.
She grinned.
He turned to wait for Trevor Walker. “Have a nice honeymoon?”
“You bet.” Trevor’s eyes shone with happiness and contentment, and more than enough humor to make Ben uneasy. A dimple appeared in the man’s left cheek, causing further concern. “Your turn’s coming.” He glanced at Amber. “I see you haven’t wised up and run away yet.”
Amber smiled and shook her head. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“Glad to hear it. Ashley’d be mighty disappointed.”
Her smile faltered. “Why?”
“She’s looked forward to getting to know you. Since she’s new here, too, she’s hoping you two hit it off and become friends.” His dimple deepened. “She and Macy are already thick as thieves and share an obsession for tailless rats.” He smirked at Ben, who chuckled.
“For what?”
“He means guinea pigs.” Ben scanned the immediate vicinity. Hopefully Macy hadn’t heard him. He made a point of referring to them as “tailless rats” whenever she was around, just to rile her. “Macy bought one a few months back. It turned out to be pregnant and had two babies and lost condition. We thought it would die. Ashley has a friend in Phoenix who knows about such things. They were able to save Buttercup.” He suppressed a frown. There’s something seriously wrong with a grown man using the name Buttercup and referring to a rodent. “As a thank you, Macy gave her the male pup. I think that pretty much made Ashley and Macy friends for life.”
“Oh.”
“So.” Trevor narrowed his eyes and studied Amber. “Are you another fan of tailless rats?”
Amber shook her head. “I’m not a rodent person. I’ve faced too many wild rats in places we’ve remodeled.” She shuddered.
The rancher quirked a brow at Ben. “Suppose Macy and Ashley will corrupt her?”
“Let’s hope not. One rat lover in my family is more than enough.” He slipped an arm around Amber’s waist.
She glanced at him, her eyes widening slightly for a moment.
Ben realized what he’d done, and his breath caught. Putting his arm around her had just seemed so… natural. Did I just blow it?
Amber smiled.
Relief allowed him to breathe again. “You ready to get out of here? I could use something to eat soon, and we’ve got a long drive ahead of us.”
“Where you headed?” Trevor asked.
“Into Jackson.”
“Nice.” Trevor’s eyes narrowed again. “So, you ready to admit yet what challenge you gave God?”
“I didn’t challenge Him.”
“Uh huh. One of these days, you’ll come clean.” A sudden grin made the dimple reappear. “Once you do, think about the fun we’ll have torturing Travis about what’s coming his way. He’s in for serious pain. We can’t let that lie there untouched.”
Ben chuckled. “Right. Well, we need to get going. I’ll talk to you sometime this week.” He nudged Amber toward the truck. She didn’t hesitate to move in that direction and climbed onto the seat the moment he opened the door. He shut it and trotted around to slide into the driver’s seat but didn’t breathe a sigh of relief until the tires hummed on the road headed away from Mystery. “Sorry about that.”
“Why? He seems like a nice guy.”
“He is, but his sense of humor comes out sideways at times, without warning.”
Amber focused out the windshield, her face losing all amusement and going oddly serious.
“Is something wrong?”
“I wonder—” She frowned and shoved fingers through her bangs.
“What?”
“Will Ashley still want to meet me after she hears what Mrs. Hansen said?”
“I wouldn’t worry about it. Ashley had a run-in with the Liars Club soon after she arrived.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. She almost left town because of it, according to Trevor. Ashley has firsthand experience with how they lie like ugly rugs, so she won’t put stock in what’s said by folks around here.”
Amber laughed. “Ugly rugs?”
“Well, the things they say are ugly, right?”
“You have a point.”
Miles passed in silence.
Ben glanced at Amber, who seemed at ease and content. A huge improvement over her statuesque posture in church. Would she ever relax when they were in Mystery? “Say, did I hear Carrie mutter something about your parents?”
She grimaced. “Yeah. I need to call them while we’re in Jackson. Tell them we’re getting married.”
“Why didn’t you call them from the ranch?”
“Honestly? I don’t want them to know where I am.”
Based on everything she’s said, her father sounds like he can be a real jerk at times, but still, does she need to hide from him? “Why not?”
“Because it wouldn’t be beyond my father to show up the day of the wedding to try to haul me bodily back to Chicago.”
“Seriously?”
She nodded. “He’s gone to such extremes before.”
“Wow.” I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. I mean, the guy was willing to prostitute his own daughter for money. I don’t imagine there are too many lows he won’t go to. “What about your mom?”
“Mother is the world’s greatest enabler. She won’t defy Father’s dictates, no matter how irrational or unreasonable they might be.” Sorrow flashed for an instant, then Amber sighed and shook her head slightly. “Anyway, Carrie came up with the idea to call them using my cellphone, which of course means going somewhere with cell service. They won’t be able to track me then. All they know is I’m in Wyoming. Even if he illegally accesses my cellphone’s GPS, he’ll only know I’m in this part of Wyoming.”
Would the man really go so far as to engage in illegal activity? Yikes. “I see.”
“If they take the news better than I expect, I’ll tell them where I am. If not, I’d rather they not know and cause trouble.” She rolled her eyes. “I can imagine how the Liars Club would react to my father showing up.”
Ben half-smiled then set his gaze on the road ahead. “Well, I trust your judgment. You know your family.”
~ ~ ~
Amber stared at the screen on her cellphone. They’d moved into a service area. Two bars showed in the upper corner. As she watched, a third bar appeared. Strong signal. No excuse not to call. “There wouldn’t happen to be a big dead zone between here and Jackson, would there?”
Ben chuckled and shook his head. “Afraid not.”
“Fine.” She sighed, scrolled through the contact list to her parents’ home number, and hit CALL. Maybe they aren’t home, and the staff is too busy to answer the phone. I can leave a message on the machine. Cowardly, yes, but so what?
It stopped in the middle of the second ring. “Phillips residence.”
Crud. One of the housekeepers. “Hey, Hillary. It’s Amber. Is my mother around?”
“Of course, Miss Amber. She’s talking to the florist. He’s dropping off flower arrangements for tonight’s dinner party.”
Thank you, Lord, I don’t have to be there! “May I speak with her, please?”
“Let me see if I can pull her away. Hold on.”
Amber covered the mouthpiece of her cellphone with her hand and looked at Ben. “She’s putting together a dinner party for tonight. I’m so glad I’m not there, especially after the last fiasco.”
“Amber?”
“Hello, Mother.”
“Is everything alright? Are you still in Wyoming?”
“Yes.”
“No, André, that won’t work. I didn’t order white lilies. I ordered purple orchids. You’ll have to take the lilies back. I don’t want them. I want my orchids.”
Amber sighed and waited for her mother’s attention to return to the phone.
“I won’t pay a penny for them. It’s not my fault your office fouled up and sent the wrong flowers. I’m not paying for the incompetence of your staff.” She sighed.
The sigh of a put-upon martyr.
“Amber, are you sure you’re alright?”
“I’m fine. I called to let you know—”
“If you break those, I won’t pay for your carelessness.”
Amber clenched her teeth to keep something very unladylike from slipping out of her mouth.
“This isn’t a good time, Amber. I’m very busy. Your father dropped this dinner party in my lap at the last possible minute.”
Meaning, a week or two ago, most likely. She sighed softly and muttered, “I have no doubt you’ll pull it off, and no one will guess it’s thrown together so quickly.”
“It’ll take a miracle. André’s staff is hopeless. They brought the wrong flowers in entirely the wrong color. They totally clash with my color scheme.”
White clashes? Since when? White goes with everything. Don’t ask. Not your problem.
“Now they’re trying to throw vases on the floor that are actually correct. Right vases, wrong flowers. The caterers haven’t even arrived yet. What a mess.”
“I’m sure it is,” Amber said by rote, fully aware of the commiseration her mother expected.
“Now, why was it you called? Do you need money or something? Carrie didn’t finally get you into legal trouble, did she? Please, tell me you’re not in jail. Do we need to call the lawyers?”
“Nothing like that.” She’d never been able to dispel the notion her parents clung to that Carrie was a criminal bound to land Amber in prison. “I called to tell you I’m getting married.”
“I said—” Mother had apparently forgotten whoever she’d been winding up to yell at. “Amber, did you say you’re getting married?”
“Yes.”
“Did Spencer convince you to elope?” Her mother giggled. “I knew you two might do that to avoid the hassle of a big wedding.”
Ew. A shudder went through her. “Spencer and I broke up almost two weeks ago.”
“Then… who are you marrying?”
“Someone I met in Wyoming.”
“What? You’ve only been there a week.”
“I met him the Friday we arrived.”
“You’re marrying a man you’ve only known a week?” The strangled quality of Mother’s voice suggested it wouldn’t be wise for Amber to admit she’d agreed to the marriage within five minutes of meeting him.
Probably more than she can handle. “I am.”
“Why? Are you trying to make Spencer jealous or teach him a lesson or something?”
“This has nothing to do with Spencer.”
“Well, who is this man? What does he do?”
“He’s a rancher and horse trainer.”
An odd thump was followed by dead silence.
Oh, no. Did she faint? “Mother?”
“Amber.” Male voice.
Her heart sank. “Father.”
“What’s your mother going on about? She’s almost hysterical and seems to be under the impression you’re marrying some cowboy you met a week ago.”
At least she didn’t faint. “He’s a rancher and horse trainer.”
“You can’t possibly be serious.”
“I am. Completely.” She cast a long-suffering glance at Ben, who gave her a sympathetic half-smile.
“Spencer admitted he’d come on too strong with his marriage proposal. He’s very sorry and wants you back. If this is intended to make him jealous, there’s no need.”
What’s with these people? Do they honestly think my life revolves around a man I’ve never liked? “This has nothing to do with Spencer. We broke up because he’s a jerk. I have no interest in making him jealous or ever seeing him again.”
“Settle down,” he snapped. “You don’t have to see Spencer again, but marrying some cowboy isn’t the way to avoid him.”
Amber tightened her grip on the phone. Calling them was a mistake. “I’m not getting married to avoid Spencer. I can’t believe you even think that!”
“What do you know about this man? He might be after your trust fund. I should have him checked out. Give me his name.”
“No. On all counts.” Wonderful. People in Mystery assumed she was after Ben’s ranch, and her father believed Ben was after her trust fund. Do people only marry for selfish reasons these days? Is that why everyone assumes the worst?
“Is this some sort of late teen rebellion? After the way you behaved at the party last month—”
“No!” Lord, help me. “I’m twenty-two years old. Long past being a teenager.” Amber sighed. “I just called to let you and Mother know I’m getting married.”
“You need to come home so we can sit down and discuss this.”
“There’s nothing to discuss. I’ve made my choice.”
“I see.” Father took a deep breath and released it slowly but audibly. “How exactly is acting out like this honoring me or your mother?”
He didn’t go there. Right?
“You claim to be a Christian, yet here you are acting rebellious and disrespectful.”
“We’re done talking.” Nothing to be gained by continuing the conversation. Nothing. She forced back tears.
“Amber—”
“No. I have the right to live my life and make my own choices. I’m doing what I know is right. If you can’t deal with it, there’s nothing more to say.”
“But—”
“Goodbye, Father.” She hit END then, for good measure, shut off the phone. Knowing Father, he’ll call back. I don’t want to hear it. She shoved the phone into the glove box and slammed it.
“That didn’t go well.” Ben’s voice reminded her that she’d had an audience.
“He decided I’m marrying you to make Spencer jealous or as some form of rebellion. He even suggested you’re only marrying me to gain access to my trust fund.” Amber grimaced apologetically.
“I didn’t know you had one.”
“Exactly.”
“He didn’t hear a word you said, did he?”
“He never does.” Tears filled her eyes. “I knew how he’d react.” Amber pivoted in her seat to face Ben, nearly strangling herself with the seatbelt. She shoved it out of the way. “Why can’t they accept that I’m an intelligent adult?” She sighed. “Dumb question. It’s about control, pure and simple. He wants it. I’m not willing to let him have it. He actually accused me of dishonoring him and my mother.”
