Page 4 of First Date: Divorce (Wyoming Marriage Association #1)

K.D.’s head swung around to look at him over her shoulder. At least her fist didn’t follow.

A camera stuttered in a tattoo of shots.

“Hope I caught that.” Kendra flashed a smile from behind a camera.

“Everyone, please,” Ellyn said with amusement. “I know this is urgent, but I do think we have time to let them in the door.”

The others opened a path for them.

Once inside, Ellyn gestured to an expansive table in the huge country kitchen, with three men already seated there. “Let’s sit at the table to discuss this.”

“Do you all know Eric, who has his law practice in Bardville?” Ellyn said from the head of the table as others took seats, several nodding that they knew him. “And this is Deputy Hamilton from Montana. She’s agreed to work with Eric as our undercover couple.”

“K.D.” she said.

“This is my husband, Grif,” Ellyn said. “That’s Kendra behind the camera, and Daniel.” A dark-haired man raised one hand. “And Rebecca and Luke.”

As Eric nodded hellos, he watched her take it all in, watched her clear eyes making connections between people he still worked at getting straight.

Cully and Tal sat at the end of the table. The residents of Far Hills Ranch plunged into a discussion full of the shortcuts used by people who knew each other well.

It centered on putting together a mock wedding, followed by a mock reception by Thursday.

Though the conversation darted to other topics, including a school play, ranching work, concerns about “those people” at Marriage-Save, and, oddly, the growing season for tomatoes. He’d missed how that applied.

“…and that should be enough for a simple menu,” Ellyn concluded as she wrote notes.

“ Simple ? And there won’t be anyone to eat it all,” K.D. protested. “Even if there has to be a wedding for pictures, there won’t be guests, so we don’t need food.”

“You better have food. I’m comin’,” Grainger said. “I’m looking forward to another Far Hills spread.”

“There goes the budget,” Grif muttered.

Ellyn smiled. “Don’t worry, Cully. We’ll have food. Though you’ll have to hold off until we have photos to prove we had a spread. Speaking of photos… Kendra, can you make some look like they’ve come from other events, other times in their marriage?”

“Sure thing.” She’d been snapping or videoing him and K.D. practically non-stop. “Next time you’re out here, bring different clothes, sunglasses, winter hats, things like that.”

“I didn’t pack—”

Kendra interrupted. “Sorry, of course you didn’t, K.D. Don’t worry. We’ll dig up plenty around here.”

“Good.” Ellyn added another note to her list. “We’ll need a cake. I’ll do that. Nothing too frivolous, not for you two, yet a bit unexpected. And fun. Definitely fun. What else?”

“Music,” Rebecca said with a slanted look at Luke that spoke of history. Luke slid his hand under the table and Eric would wager it ended up on Rebecca’s leg.

“We don’t need music for—” K.D. started.

“Video,” Rebecca inserted firmly. “You have to have a wedding video along with photo albums. Marriage-Save expects that. We’ll need to get photos and video on your phones and social media we set up for you, too.

Beyond Kendra’s formal shots from the wedding.

” That drew syncopated nods from around the table.

“As for a dress, I have a few possibilities with minimal alterations. Except the length.”

“I can shoot around the length,” Kendra said.

“Decorations,” Daniel said.

“Right. Let’s hear ideas,” Ellyn suggested.

Eric heard the snatches of conversation from K.D. Hamilton’s point of view, and knew it had to be confusing.

Too bad, K.D. Hamilton . You could fix this by saying you won’t participate.

He had absolutely no obligation to clear things up for her.

… and then he opened his mouth, near her ear, and what came out was, “Far Hills is the Susland family ranch. Each of the four branches has a share — Kendra and Daniel, Grif and Ellyn, Rebecca and Luke — he’s also foreman— and Marti and Robert, who aren’t here.”

She turned her face at that. “How are you tied into this close-knit group?”

The first surprise was she’d apparently absorbed all that detail.

The second surprise was how close their faces were. Close enough to…

He eased back with a shrug. “Known Cully and Grif for years. That’s why they thought of me when Ellyn found out about Marriage-Save.”

“What did she find out?”

The woman in question might have heard their low-voiced exchange, because at that moment, she spoke up.

“Do you all have enough ideas to get started on arrangements for Thursday?” She looked around the table.

Affirmative murmurs rose. “Makes it a lot easier when the couple leaves it all up to us,” Rebecca said with a grin.

“Great, then you all get started on the wedding and we’ll—” Ellyn gestured to the group that had met in Grainger’s office. “—start on the divorce.”

*

“Ms. Griffin,” K.D. said, as the outside door closed behind the others, leaving the group from the office, along with Grif. “What did you hear that made you suspicious of Marriage-Save?”

“Please, call me Ellyn, K.D. You sound like a law enforcement officer when you call me Ms. Griffin. It started with a friend of my mother’s who’d worked there in housekeeping for nearly a year,” Ellyn said. “She kept saying something was hinky .”

“Nothing more specific than that?” K.D. asked.

“No. And, in fairness, this friend is not the most reliable source. But I suppose that stuck in the back of my head when I encountered one of the first brides married here at Far Hills Ranch. She said they’d hit a rough spot after he changed jobs.

They went to Marriage-Save for the same program you and Eric will attend, and before she knew it, they were embroiled in a contentious divorce.

“Shortly after, we had three couples in a row want to use Far Hills Ranch for second weddings whose first marriages ended in divorce after a stay at Marriage-Save. We said no because we want to keep this operation small and we didn’t know any of the people.

But I began to ask around. I have a list of fourteen divorced couples with similar experiences. They have two things in common.”

Ellyn looked at Eric, inviting him to explain. K.D. turned to him.

“They’ve all been to Marriage-Save and the same divorce lawyer is involved every time. Not me,” he added, amusement emerging despite himself. “I checked into her track record. It went from so-so to darned impressive, coinciding precisely with Marriage-Save coming to Bardville.”

“We’ll keep looking into her, while you two are at Marriage-Save,” Tal Bennett told K.D.

“We’ll also do background checks on Marriage-Save employees,” Cully said.

“You think the lawyer has someone inside Marriage-Save.” K.D. made it a statement not a question.

“Let’s say it’s our hypothesis,” Cully said.

“People who’ve been to Marriage-Save aren’t her only clients, but they sure are her most lucrative ones.

She’s gotten an impressively large settlement for her client — sometimes a woman, sometimes a man — every time the couple has stayed at Marriage-Save. ”

“You see us—” K.D.’s head-tip added Eric to the us . Barely. “—as your hypothesis checkers?”

“Exactly. If you can find a link between this lawyer and someone at Marriage-Save, even better.”

“One of the counselors seemed most likely,” Ellyn said, “but I asked as many of the couples as I could and they had various counselors.”

“Which means,” Cully picked up, “if it’s a counselor he or she is picking up information about other counselors’ couples.

Keep your ears open for that. If someone touts this lawyer.

After you leave the program and Bardville, you’ll monitor incoming contacts we’re setting up for you as Mrs. Eric Larkin in case the lawyer reaches out directly, K.D. ”

“What’s the name of this lawyer?”

Eric answered. “Gail Bledsoe. Everything we’ve gathered is in a report. My assistant will have a copy for you. Any luck with floor plans?” His question was directed at Grainger.

The sheriff nodded. “Marriage-Save is supposed to clear changes because of the historical status, but we know work’s been done, including before they arrived, so no guarantees. But this should give you a general idea.”

He pulled out a tablet.

K.D. reached the prime spot behind Cully first. Eric craned to get a good view.

“My contact says this—” Grainger jabbed one strong finger at a central cluster of offices. “—is where the business is run.”

Ellyn said. “I haven’t been there since Marriage-Save moved in, but I heard they’re using the second floor for guests, the first floor as counseling rooms.”

Eric spotted four tiny letters in a corner of a smaller square at the end of the row of offices/counseling rooms.

Safe .

A good starting spot for searching for a paper trail connecting Marriage-Save and Gail Bledsoe.

Had K.D. noticed? He looked her direction without moving his head, but couldn’t tell what part of the diagram she focused on.

“…and walk together around or outside the grounds.”

Cully had been talking about the Marriage-Save schedule, and he hadn’t listened.

The sheriff continued, “Most days, a lot of the guests get into Bardville. Some walk, some come in a van. Jessa’s shop would be a natural place to stop. If I’m available, we can meet in the back of the shop, or she can pass on anything you gather to me and vice versa.”

“Good,” Eric said.

“So that leaves you two needing a problem,” Ellyn reminded them.

Tal Bennett spoke for the first time. “The closer you stick to reality with this and everything else the better — easier to remember, and gives what you say the ring of truth, since neither of you gets an Oscar anytime soon.”

Grif turned to Eric, giving him the kind of look dentists give patients when they’re about to do something that’s good for them, but hurts like hell.

“How about different views on whether or not to have children?”

Settling near two longtime friends had seemed like a good idea when Eric left Chicago.

He’d also been grateful Pauline chose to make the move as his assistant.

Over the past months, however, he’d recognized that being around people who knew your secrets — like Hilary’s refusal to consider having kids — might not be the best place to hide out while trying to put Humpty Dumpty together again.

The relief from the heavy silence that followed Grif’s comment came from an unexpected source.

“That works if you want kids, Eric. Because I don’t want any. Or a husband, for that matter,” K.D. said calmly.

He appreciated her matter-of-fact tone.

“Then you’ve got the right idea, K.D.,” he said. “Go straight for the divorce and skip the messy marriage part.”