Chapters (55)
“All right, honey. You look ready to travel, so I’m going to help you pack. You’re coming with me and you’re going to stay with us on the 8T8 for a while. If you feel like you have to earn your keep, you can always cook for Ezra and the boys, but I’d rather you stayed with me at the big house.”
“I don’t think I can go, Juanita. I really haven’t decided what I’m going to do next.”
“You can think about it on the ranch. You’re going to see some beautiful country, visit with us, catch up with your brothers, forget about your troubles for a while. When it’s time, you’ll know what to do, one way or the other.”
“I would love to come, Juanita. But I’m so worried about the farm.”
“Honey, with what you’ve been through, the farm is the last place you should be. If you go back there, I know what you’ll do. You’ll work fourteen hours a day until you end up back in the hospital.”
“I’m afraid I’ll have to go back, sooner or later.”
“Then you’re going to have to make it later, because I’m not going to get married without you.”
“What?”
“Eli and I are getting married. I would not do it without my best friend there to see it.”
“You finally said yes?”
“I did. Eli is still not poor enough, but it’s been more than three years that we have been married in every way but on paper, so we will have a wedding and then we will do one of those things, what does Jake call it? A wingding.”
Emaline laughed at the way Juanita pronounced wingding. “I’m so happy for you, Juanita.”
“Good. So you will come with me now and stay for the wedding?”
“Well, I can’t say no, can I?”
“No, you cannot. Now are you ready to start packing?”
Emaline could not think of more reasons to refuse.
“Okay, Juanita,” she said. “Let’s go.”
The two women embraced again, long and hard, then started gathering Emaline’s things. On the way out of town, they stopped at the Arrowhead Diner so that Emaline could tell Calla she was leaving. Then they were on the road, the tires of the Pontiac popping over the tarred cracks in the pavement on U.S. Route 26, speeding west.