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“I do. Do you want a used wedding dress?”
“Sure. Why not?” Ellen said, tugging on Alaska’s arm as they went to the crosswalk and crossed to the other side.
“I don’t know. It’s... A wedding dress. Isn’t it supposed to be just yours?”
“I don’t think so. Is there some kind of etiquette law that I don’t know about?”
“Well, just... Someone else might have said vows in that dress.”
“And so it’s broken in. It knows what to do. Just in case I faint, the dress can handle the rest of the ceremony for me.”
They laughed together and Alaska had to bite her tongue. Ellen could afford any dress she wanted, and she was going to seriously consider one in the window of the second hand store?
Not only did she seriously consider it, but after they went in and tried it on, Ellen purchased it. She paid less than a hundred dollars for it, when the ones that they had been looking at in the bridal shop were in the five figures.
The store clerk didn’t even have a proper bag to package it in, so she ended up putting a garbage bag over the top of it and poking the hanger through, and then folding up the bottom of the dress and putting it in another garbage bag and tying the two together.
“You have your wedding dress in a garbage bag,” Alaska said as they walked out of the store. She had to admit, she thought that Ellen was a little bit...too good for her. Too classy. But, seeing what Ellen had just done had made her much more relatable.
“I do. And, this makes me so much happier.”
“A cheap, used, wedding dress and a garbage bag makes you happier than the brand-new beautiful dresses that we tried on earlier?” She wasn’t sure she understood that.
“Yeah. This doesn’t offend my... I don’t even know. But it just makes me happy to think that I have a pretty dress that didn’t cost more than some people’s cars.”
“Well, I have to keep that in mind, if I ever seriously need a dress of my own.”
“Well, you know I’ve got one if you need it, and I’m not overly attached to it, so if you want it, it’s yours.”
They had been about the same size, although she was a little taller and slightly broader in the shoulders than Ellen.
Still, Alaska felt like she was having a girls day out with someone who was not out of her league after all.
This was the kind of wedding dress that she could have afforded. Although having a wedding dress was not something that she ever really thought about. Chalmer had promised her that he was divorcing Shanna and would marry her, but of course that was a lie, just like everything else that he ever promised her.
It was almost too good to be true that she could be away from him for good and safe as well.
She never met this Ezra person that Travis talked about, but Travis had seemed so confident in his ability to take care of her that Alaska hadn’t even questioned it. At the very least, she could get herself and her children there, get back on their feet, and maybe move to a different state. Somewhere where they would leave Chalmer and those problems behind. Somewhere where she wouldn’t be recognized for the things that she had done.
She wouldn’t want her children to suffer because of the choices that she’d made. Even if she felt like she had no choice at the time.
Of course, some of the things that she’d done were a lot more socially acceptable than they used to be. Maybe her children would suffer more because she decided to turn her back on all those things and go down a different path...choosing Jesus. She almost laughed at the irony.
Regardless, she tried to pull her mind away from those things, and enjoy her lunch with Ellen. She almost felt like she and Ellen really could be friends.
Chapter 26
“I already called the police. She’s not going to like it, but when they get home from shopping, we're going to take a trip into the station.” Travis hadn’t wanted to do it, but Sweet Water didn’t have their own police force so they’d have to go to Rockerton.
Still, he talked to Ford, and they agreed that there should be a record of the issues. Not to mention, they didn’t want to send her to the Sweet View Ranch if she were hiding something dangerous. Something beyond just Chalmer.
“All right. If you need me to come pick her up, I can.”
“I should be able to drop her off.” Travis had a million things to do, but Ezra was doing them a favor, and he didn’t want to put the man out any more than what they had to.
He looked around the room. Ezra had a small home of his own behind the larger farmhouse. They had agreed that it would be safer for Alaska, at least at first, to stay there. Officially she was going on the books as his housekeeper. But, considering that he was just one man, and the farmhouse wasn’t massive, there wasn’t much housekeeping to be done. He would probably end up giving her other things to do, but Travis didn’t really care. He knew Ezra would be fair, and Alaska would be treated well there.
“You know, if you and Ellen are getting married as quickly as what you said, why don’t you do it here?” Ezra shoved his hands in his pockets and leaned his shoulder against the door jamb that led from the dining room into the kitchen.
