Page 5 of First Date: Divorce (Wyoming Marriage Association #1)

Sheriff Grainger would check in with them — or check on them —by phone over the next couple days, then be on hand for the wedding charade, before a final meeting before she and Eric checked in at Marriage-Save on Friday afternoon.

In the meantime, the folks from Far Hills would take care of the wedding plans. The important preparations to fool the people at Marriage-Save were in her hands.

Well, hers and Eric Larkin’s, she supposed.

“Let me take you to Rebecca now, K.D., so we can get your measurements for the dress. Why don’t the rest of you enjoy the porch a while.”

Ellyn’s kind suggestion had nearly as much authority as the sheriff’s orders.

“I need to get back to Bardville,” Eric said. “Work to take care of with not being available next week. Tal has room to drive K.D. back along with Cully. See you all later.”

He was out the door before Cully Grainger grumbled a curse and went after him.

As Ellyn led her to another room, K.D. saw through the kitchen window the moment when the sheriff caught up with Eric by the driver’s door of his vehicle.

The sheriff was emphatic.

Eric Larkin was not happy.

The sheriff was more emphatic.

Eric Larkin grimaced, controlled it, gave a curt nod, and slid into his vehicle.

*

“This used to be the ranch office, but when Luke got a separate office, we turned it into a sewing room. Good thing. You would not believe how many brides, grooms, and guests need last minute repairs to get through a celebration without showing more than they intended.” Ellyn opened the door to a room that included a sewing machine, a long table, comfortable chairs, a hanging rack, and a half circle of full-length mirrors.

“Rebecca? K.D. is here for measurements.”

Rebecca smiled. “Perfect timing. I zipped over to the house for one dress and we have two others here that might do.”

“Jo-Lynn never picked up those other dresses?” Without waiting for Rebecca’s answer, Ellyn said to K.D. “We had a bride a couple months ago who had four dresses — four — and couldn’t decide until the last second to wear one down the aisle and another to the reception.”

“Yup,” Rebecca said. “Let’s try the one she didn’t wear down the aisle, first.”

In less time than K.D. would have believed, they had her out of her serviceable blazer, shirt, and slacks, and stepping into a dress.

Before K.D. could even focus on her image in the mirror, Rebecca frowned. “No. It’s not you. It’s fashionable, and you’re stunning in it, but this isn’t what you’d wear for your wedding.”

“This isn’t my wedding, so if it fits—”

“No.” Rebecca unfastened the dress. “Step out and we’ll try this one.”

Ellyn tipped her head. “To really know what’s best, K.D. needs to let her hair down.”

For a second K.D. thought the other woman meant that metaphorically. Then, she put her hand to her hair bundled at the nape of neck. “Oh, my duty bun.”

“She might wear her hair up for the wedding anyway, Ellyn,” Rebecca said.

“Not in a duty bun.” Ellyn gestured toward it. “Take it down.”

K.D. complied. Even when it wasn’t in a duty bun, she wore her hair up a lot during the summer. But she had nothing against wearing it down.

Rebecca stepped back, looking from K.D. to the mirror and back. “You’re right, Ellyn. Good call. This first dress still isn’t the one, but it does change things.”

Rebecca didn’t like the second dress, either, though K.D. thought it fit well enough. On to the third. As soon as Rebecca stepped in front of K.D. — preventing K.D. from seeing herself in the mirror except for edges around Rebecca’s reflected back — the other two women said, “Yes.”

“Now, close your eyes,” Rebecca ordered K.D.

“What?”

“Close your eyes. I want you to be surprised by the dress when it’s all done.”

“Isn’t the superstition that the groom shouldn’t see the dress beforehand? Never heard anything about the bride being surprised.”

“It is the tradition that the groom not see the dress.” Ellyn’s slight emphasis on the word tradition gently reproved K.D. use of superstition . “But I think Rebecca’s right this time.”

“Of course I am. Face this way, K.D., and let me start pinning.”

K.D. realized this way provided the only angle in the room where she couldn’t see her image.

“Why are you all doing this?” she asked abruptly.

“To make it more fun,” Rebecca said. “It’s a bit shorter, especially with heels, but that’s flirty.”

“I think K.D. was asking about putting on the wedding, rather than making the dress a surprise for her.” Ellyn turned to her. “Or, perhaps, you mean us looking into Marriage-Save?”

She’d surprised herself by asking the question. Once asked, she wanted the answer — answers. “Both.”

“You could look at it as a practical matter and say it’s bad for business,” Ellyn said. “If Far Hills becomes associated with marriages that fail, who’d want to use us as a wedding venue?”

Rebecca made a sound that might have resulted from trying to pfft around a mouthful of pins.

“Okay,” Ellyn conceded. “It’s not an important business for Far Hills.

More like something we do now and then to help people.

But we still don’t believe couples trying to make their marriages work should be taken advantage of.

And all for money. We’re fortunate, all of us,” she added, “to have found love here at Far Hills Ranch. We’re not prepared to see others lose it, if we can help it. ”

“Yes, we are fortunate and, yes, we do want to help.” Rebecca turned to address her next words to K.D. “But Ellyn’s the leader. Even with being that pregnant, she’s working like crazy to set this all up.”

Ellyn sent the other woman a mock frown. “Don’t you have more pinning to do?”

“No. All done. Besides, it’s time for dinner, I can smell the guys cooking steaks. Help me get K.D. out of this dress — carefully! Don’t hurt the dress.”

Ellyn grinned. “Or hurt K.D.”

K.D. hardly noticed the pinpricks. She wondered why Eric Larkin got involved in this. Considering he’d said he was divorced it was highly unlikely he’d say he’d gotten lucky in love. And he’d only been here a year, so he didn’t have the emotional tie the Far Hills folks did. So, why?

She wanted to know because it could affect how he responded to things.

*

Ellyn and Rebecca hugged her when she left Far Hills Ranch after dinner.

Tal Bennett drove. At Cully Grainger’s insistence, she sat in the front passenger seat.

He spread his long frame across the back seat, then spent the first part of the drive back to Bardville on the phone, checking in with his office, deputies, and others whose roles were harder to pin down.

Neither she nor Tal Bennett said anything.

“Done,” Grainger announced. “Now, let’s give you the drill, K.D.

First, Tal will drop me off at the sheriff’s office and I’ll drive your vehicle to a B&B ranch, where we’re meeting Tal’s associate with the rental you’ll use.

Nobody’ll think anything of me drivin’ a strange vehicle and nobody’ll think anything of a vehicle with Montana plates being at the ranch, could belong to guests.

“Now, you might think this is a lot of work when the rental will have Montana plates, too — but they’ll be rental plates, easy enough to spot if someone’s looking.

Anyone nosing around wouldn’t find anything in the rental to associate you with any other life than being Eric’s estranged wife from Chicago. ”

“It’s a wonderful city,” she said with warmth and enthusiasm.

Grainger nodded. “Great. You knowin’ the city’ll help—”

“Never been there.”

Tal Bennett laughed. “Good job, K.D. You’ll do fine.”

Grainger added an approving grunt.

“About the back story—” she started.

“Already told Eric,” Grainger cut her off, “that we’re leaving details to you two. You’ll need to fill me in so the few of us around here who know Eric get it right if we’re in a situation that requires that. First time I’ve been glad he’s been so anti-social here,” he added under his breath.

Back to his official voice, he said, “Once you’re there, you two will have to play things by ear about how to report.

Like I said before, you can get messages to me through my wife, Jessa, at Nearly Everything on Big Horn Avenue.

Guests from Marriage-Save are often in her store, so that won’t raise any eyebrows.

Most important is keeping your cover while you’re there because we want Gail Bledsoe to contact you after. ”

He looked at the other man. “You have anything to add, Tal? You’ve done a lot more undercover than me.”

Tal glanced at her, then returned his attention to the road before he spoke.

“Like I said, keep it close to the truth. It’s a lot easier to persuade people you’re telling the truth when you mostly are. Also easier to remember. One lie leads to twenty others. Gets complicated fast.”

They dropped off Cully Grainger a few minutes later, she handed over her keys, and he led the way out of the sheriff’s department parking area, Bennett’s vehicle following.

If she’d been one of those women who knew how to draw things out of a man, she’d use this opportunity to hear all about Tal’s exploits, from Cabot County to the FBI and now to running his own company.

But she’d never learned that. Deliberately.

She’d refused to learn the ways her mother expounded on how to give a man what he most wanted — the opportunity to talk about himself.

That’s what Janeece Hamilton Brown used to say through all the years of K.D.

’s growing up, as she’d prepared for yet another date, yet another chance this was the man she’d been looking for.

The one who’d take care of them. The one who’d love her for herself — how many times had she said that as she’d spent an hour or more on the primping so she wouldn’t look like herself?

At a ranch with a B&B sign, Sheriff Grainger waved in greeting to an older couple sitting on the porch as evening slid toward the long summer twilight that softened the edges of day and night in this part of the world.

Grainger drove on to the back of an old barn and pulled in beside a rental SUV.

He pulled her suitcase out of her vehicle and put it on the floor of the rental’s passenger seat. “Anything else?”

She already had the backpack tote she used and transferred it to the passenger seat.

“Your new ride.” Tal Bennett held out the keys to her, with a fob that identified the rental agency.

“Tal and I’ll say good-bye for now. Glad to have you onboard, K.D.” As Cully Grainger shook her hand, he added, “Tal’s gotta get rid of me back in Bardville, so he can go do secret PI stuff, making the big bucks.”

Tal snorted before saying. “I second that about glad to have you onboard.”

“Thank you, sir, Sheriff. Where will I be staying until we go to Marriage-Save Friday? My chief didn’t remember the name of the—”

“Change of plan,” Grainger said easily. “We had a reservation for you, but we talked it over and decided you should spend these days at Eric’s house.

Closer. And, like you said, you need to know each other.

This’ll give you the max prep time. He’s got plenty of room and Pauline — his assistant — already knows what’s what, so it’s not spreading the circle any wider. ”

“But—”

“Here’s his address. He’s expecting you.

” So that’s what the exchange had been about before Eric left Far Hills Ranch.

The sheriff giving the order that she’d be staying at Eric’s house, and him accepting it — eventually.

Grainger added, “It wouldn’t hurt if you two get out and get seen together, too.

Remind him I said so. It’ll get you used to being around each other.

After all, you’re supposed to have been married for four years. ”

“Good point,” Bennett said. The private investigator kept going with, “If things are stilted between you that’s good. Adds to the illusion of a strained marriage.”

She and her suitcase were going to Eric Larkin’s house.

“One last thing,” Grainger said, “do not get on Pauline Ohlrich’s bad side. And don’t let her fool you. She can give Eric a hard time, but nobody else better.”