Page 46 of Just (Fake) Married (Calloways vs. McGraws #1)

THIRTY-ONE

HARMONY

Harmony: Remember when you told me not to sleep with him?

Sunshine: Fuck, Harmony! Please tell me you didn’t.

Harmony: I didn’t. (I so did) But that’s not the worst part.

Sunshine: Of course it isn’t. You fell in love with him, didn’t you?

Harmony: How do you know that all the way from New York?

Sunshine: I could just sense it…fucking McGraws.

“Rise and shine! Today is the big day!” Bliss and Amity announced as they burst into my bedroom.

“I don’t wanna,” I muttered into my pillow. It had been hard work getting out of bed every morning since I’d left the lodge a few days ago and I really didn’t want to get out of bed today.

The Feud Day Festival.

I didn’t want to dress up like Widow McGraw. I didn’t want to smile at everyone and pretend like I was happy and in love. I didn’t want to answer everyone’s questions about set up and tear down. I didn’t want to get bossed around by Marion.

I didn’t want to re-enact my own fake wedding with the man I was madly in love with.

Had I done the right thing? Should I have said yes, that I would love to visit him in Phoenix? Why did I have to commit my life to this town? Why couldn’t I at least consider other options for my life?

How hot was Phoenix?

I felt the twin mattress dip at the bottom as my sisters sat down beside my feet. “This is the part where I say he’s not worth it,” Bliss said.

“This is the part where I say you can do so much better,” Amity added.

“He was worth it, though. And there is no one better,” I groaned.

“Well, it’s too late now,” Bliss said glumly.

I sat up in bed and tossed my hair back. “What do you mean?”

Amity looked to Bliss, then back at me. “He’s gone.”

“Gone! What do you mean, gone? It’s the Feud Day Festival. He’s running that stupid 5K and judging the chili cook-off. We have to do the re-enactments. We have to get re-married today!”

The animals did not like me shouting like that and Jenny howled. Bruce let out a ferocious war honk. The Calloway Chaos machine was in full swing.

The door opened and my mother, wearing her tye-dyed fuzzy robe, brought in a very large mug of coffee. “You’re going to need this,” she said, pressing the coffee into my hands.

“When did he leave? Where did he go? Did he leave me a note? Where’s my phone?”

I’d stuffed it under my pillow last night and I reached for it now. No text. No voice message. Dying battery. Of course.

“How do you know he left?” I asked them.

“Apparently, he told Marion that he needed to leave for an emergency and that she had to find a replacement for him, if he didn’t make it back in time,” Amity said. “Darryl J. will be playing the role of Duncan/Ethan McGraw.”

“He left without saying goodbye?” I asked them. “I…I didn’t think he would do that. What do you think this means for the festival? The Blue Ribbon?”

Mom, Amity and Bliss shared a look and Amity reached out to touch my leg.

“It doesn’t look like there is anyone coming down from the state.

Mayor Gallup said he tried everything he could think of, but apparently these blue ribbons are a big deal and trying to get someone to come to your fair is like trying to get a Michelin reviewer to show up at your restaurant. ”

I put my coffee down on the bedside table already crowded with mugs and collapsed back into bed.

I pulled the pillow over my face and wailed, “We failed. Me and Ethan. Our marriage. The festival. We failed at everything. Carter’s going to lose the ranch, the town will…

how is this happening? This is all my fault! ”

“No, it’s not,” Mom said, in her stern mom voice.

She pulled the pillow off my face and I tried to wrestle her for it, but she smacked my hands and I let it go.

She threw it over her shoulder onto the floor.

“None of this is your fault and I’ll be having words with anyone in town who says differently.

This was all a crazy idea cooked up by Leroy McGraw and I should have put my foot down in the first place. ”

“We had to try, Mom,” I moaned.

“Well, you did. And look what you got for it. A broken heart,” Monica said grimly.

“Now, here is what we’re going to do. We’re going to get up, put on those ridiculous costumes and make this the best Feud Day Festival these tourists have ever seen.

And whatever happens after that…happens.

And it will be no one’s fault, because the fate of a ranch or a town doesn’t rest on the head of one individual. Am I understood?”

“Yes, Mom,” Amity and Bliss said simultaneously. I was silent until they both pinched me.

“Yes,” I finally agreed with them.

Because that’s what we Calloway women did. We survived. The four of us grabbed each other’s hands and squeezed.

“I love you,” I breathed.

“We love you, too,” Amity said. “And we can do this. We can do all of this. We don’t need a single McGraw to help us do what we do best.”

“Fuck shit up,” Bliss said and Amity punched her.

“No,” Amity said. “Solve problems. Help people. Organize shit. Be amazing.”

Be amazing. I could do that. Kind of. Maybe. I could fake it. I’d gotten very good at faking it.

“Okay, sisters,” I said, getting out of bed. As far as pep talks went, that had been amazing. My heart was still broken and there were going to be a lot of tears and pints of ice cream in my future. But today, we had to be Calloways. “Let’s move. Today, we ride.”

The festival was an incredible success, beyond even my wildest daydream.

Chuck was selling BBQ faster than he could make it.

The 5K run went off without a hitch, though there had been a number of folks who had attempted it wearing cowboy boots, which lead to a host of nasty blisters that Dr. Blackfeather was treating.

Everyone in town came out, and according to the ticket sellers at the games and food trucks, we had almost a thousand tourists. A thousand!

Everyone was playing games. There were a lot of Calloway and McGraw t-shirts (more Calloways than McGraws, I was happy to see) and everyone was using the QR codes posted around town to reveal maps on their phones.

Maps that lead them to…well, me.

I was dressed up in the 1880’s corset and dress with straw poking out the buttons. I had straw in my hair and dirt smudged all over my face to show that I’d already been pushed down Widow’s Peak and I had climbed back up to exact my revenge.

Darryl J., playing Duncan McGraw, was a very enthusiastic scene partner and every time people walked by he shook his fist in my face and said, “Marry me or die!”

We stood by the statue of the gallows where Widow Calloway had once awaited her fate after she’d pushed Duncan McGraw off the peak to his untimely death.

And yes, there was yet another poster on the community board. Unavoidable, I suppose. It was Ethan’s picture – not a very good one - with the tagline underneath:

Wanted: Ethan McGraw

Fortunately, the tourists had no idea what that meant. Unfortunately, everybody else in town did.

“What do you mean Ethan left before the festival?” Mrs. McCormick asked, as soon as she spotted me by the gallows. She wore a long skirt and a bonnet. She wasn’t in any of the re-enactments, but she liked to dress the part.

“There was an emergency,” I said vaguely.

“What kind of emergency is more important than Feud Day?” Marion wanted to know. She was enraged by Ethan’s absence. She’d been wearing a McGraw shirt and had changed to a Calloway. “This messes up our entire finale.”

“It doesn’t,” I insisted. “Darryl J. will be Ethan and we’ll get fake married and it won’t make a bit of difference.”

Darryl H. popped up behind Marion. “I really don’t know how I feel about my husband marrying another woman.”

“It’s pretend,” I hissed. “Now if we just stay cool, the tourists will never know.”

“I’ll know,” Ida Strunk said, approaching the crowd that was starting to gather around us. She looked like a black cloud on a sunny day. “I want to know the truth. Was this marriage ever real at all?”

“Ida,” Irma scolded her sister. Irma wore a linen dress the color of a tangerine, that was surprisingly low cut.

She told me when she’d first arrived that she was looking for a handsome tourist to take home.

“Of course it was real. It was clear how those two kids felt about each other. All you had to do was look at them.”

Oh, God, I was sick to my stomach with guilt and regret and heartbreak.

It had all been fake. All the kisses and hand-holding.

All the touches and pet names. Maybe now was the time to come clean.

This was my home, and these people were my neighbors and I’d been lying to them for months.

Now Ethan was gone and all of this seemed so pointless.

“You’re right, Ida,” I nodded, the straw catching against my chin for the very last time as I yanked it free. Marion made a low sound of disapproval. “Maybe it is time for the truth. And the truth is…”

“Hold up!”

Everyone surrounding me startled at the sound of Ethan McGraw’s voice.

There he was, standing in the middle of the town square, wearing a formal black tuxedo and a pair of hand-tooled black leather cowboy boots with silver tips.

I’d never seen anyone look so handsome or so welcome in my life.

Beside him was a shorter bald man, in a pair of khaki pants, making his way through a basket of Chuck’s BBQ ribs. His eyes were round with delight as he took in everything. Behind him was Tag, with his arms crossed like he was going to catch the man if he made a run for it.

“Ethan,” I breathed. “You came back.”

More folks gathered around the gallows and I wasn’t sure what to do.

“Yeah,” Ida shouted. “And I want to know why you were gone in the first place! This was our big day.”

Ethan smiled at me, then spared a glance for Ida. “Yes, it is our big day. Everyone! Can I have your attention?” he called out, waving his arms to bring everyone milling around the square closer together. “I would like you all to meet Mr. Sosalski from the Wyoming Tourism Board.”