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Travis leaned down as Ellen lifted her head, and the crowd cheered as they kissed.
Alaska had spent a whirlwind three days trying to coordinate everything that had led to this moment.
She’d been kind of dropped in the middle of everything, with two small children to boot, but she remembered what Travis had said about Ezra taking a chance on her, and she didn’t want to let the man down.
Actually, in the three days that she’d been there, she’d barely seen him, but when she had... She wanted to sigh every time. He was the kind of man a girl could have daydreams about.
Except, he would not look at her and think of her as anything other than someone that he needed to help. He would never consider her as any type of romantic interest.
A man like Ezra did not marry a girl like her. Particularly since she already had two children to someone else. Someone else’s husband.
That was the kind of thing that Ezra would never consider doing. Not in a million years. She’d been around him enough to know that he was as moral and upright as a person could be. She laughed a little, since he reminded her somewhat of Abraham Lincoln. Or maybe that other general in the war. What was his name? Grant, she thought.
Wasn’t he a president too?
She couldn’t remember, but it didn’t matter. He just reminded her of someone who was old-fashioned, upright, very moral, and very strict.
She admired him, for sure. He ran the ranch with an iron hand. There were a lot of things that needed help, improvements that had to be made, and he was busy from the time she got up in the morning until she left his house at night. She didn’t know what time he got up, or what time he went to bed. She never saw him except when he was working.
Part of her wanted to see if she could get him to take a break once in a while. It would be healthier for him. Maybe that’s what she should do. She’d been wondering what in the world she was going to do to keep herself busy once the wedding was over. Maybe, taking on Ezra and his health would be a good start.
Who was she kidding? That was just an excuse to get to work with him even closer than what she had been. Or maybe she just wanted to see him interact with her children more. As taciturn and serious as he was, it was adorable to see him with the kids. There was a gentle, soft side of him that came out when he interacted with the baby, Alice, and it melted her heart every single time.
Travis and Ellen pulled back and smiled into each other’s eyes, before the preacher announced, “May I present, Mr. and Mrs. Travis Feagley.”
The crowd cheered again.
She called it a crowd, but it was basically the Clyborne family, as well as people from Sweet Water. Anyone who could get off at such short notice. They put everything together in three days, which had been quite a feat, and while she certainly hadn’t done all the work herself, she felt like she’d made it possible.
“You did a good job,” a voice said beside her, while a heavy hand landed on her shoulder.
Alice slept in the car seat by her feet, while Eugene held her other hand and she tried not to startle as she turned and looked up into the dark eyes of Ezra. Even though she knew he must be almost forty, and was way too old for her, even if he would have been interested in a woman like her, since she was just twenty-six, her heart still raced.
“Thank you,” she said, knowing that she sounded breathless, but trying to cover it. Telling herself it was because he startled her, and not because that was what happened to her whenever he was around.
“You deserve a day off. You’ve crammed two weeks of work into three days. You do that, and then come to my office the day after tomorrow, and we’ll talk about your future.”
She nodded, blinking, and trying to process what he said, and she didn’t get any words out before he walked away.
Was he going to send her off somewhere else? That’s kind of what it sounded like.
She’d been a little nervous about today, but Ezra had assured her that the guests were being checked, and that they would specifically be looking for Chalmer.
He hadn’t said they would keep Chalmer out, but she felt safe nonetheless.
Her heart continued to beat erratically, as her eyes refused to leave the man, watching as he walked away. Tall, straight, wearing blue jeans and a button-down, his head covered with a cowboy hat, and his feet in worn boots.
It really wasn’t the way he wore them, it was the confident way he walked. The quiet way that he retained authority without resorting to a lot of yelling, or even a lot of words. He barely ever said more than three or four sentences at one time, and she hadn’t heard any profanity out of him, or anyone else on the ranch, at all.
It was an entirely new world for her. One she was determined to fit in.
As long as she could keep from falling in love with her boss.
~~~
