Chapter 10

They pulled in the drive just as the sky turned orange. They were dirty, sore and tired but glad to be home. Victoria was cleaning up in the kitchen when Jamie walked in and Hank right behind him. She almost bounced over to him. She was so glad he was back. Giving Jamie a little kiss and flashing Hank a big smile, she asked.

“Are you two ready for dinner?”

“Are we ever.” Hank said. “Just let me wash up.”

She was pulling two giant plates of food from the oven when she asked if they would like to eat in the living room.

“Elizabeth and I just bought a bunch of new clothes today and decided to give each other a fashion show, want to watch? Elizabeth is upstairs now putting on her first outfit.”

Hank didn’t seem wild about the idea but as long as he could eat too, he didn’t care what else was going on.

Jamie liked the idea and helped her carry their dinner in to the other room. Then she ran up to tell Elizabeth that they had an audience. They each made several trips up and down the stairs and Jamie commented on everyone. Victoria had good taste in clothing. He like that she was practical in her purchases. It was a girl thing, but one skirt went with three tops and one blouse went with several suits or slacks making more outfits out of a few items. But when she came down stairs in the dress she was planning to wear to the wedding, all the air left his lungs. It was just a dress but not to him. It was form fitting and a terra cotta color. The color of the dress made her eyes look brighter and her cheeks matched the dress without any make up. It gave the illusion that there were flecks of terra cotta in her blonde hair too or maybe there was, and he just hadn’t noticed till now, but whatever the case, she quite literally took his breath away. She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, and he was not about to lose her. They needed to talk about it. He would stop by her room later tonight.

Elizabeth was standing before him now.

“Well?”

“Well what?”

“What do you think; this is the dress I bought for Sloan’s wedding.”

It was a rusty colored dress with a matching jacket the same length as the dress.

“Mom I love it. You two will out shine the bride.”

“Well we definitely don’t want to do that, but we do want to look good. We picked fall colors to match the flowers we ordered.” Elizabeth announced proudly.

“Did you really get that all taken care of already?” Jamie asked.

“Just mention the word wedding and women can do amazing things my friend.” Hank chimed in.

Victoria was in her room putting the new things away when Jamie came in to see her.

“Hi.”

“Hi yourself.”

“Can we talk for a minute?” Jamie asked.

“Sure, what’s up?”

“I’m not really sure. There is just so much going on right now and I don’t want to let anything slip between the cracks.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I know, I don’t either. We are just both going through so much with you and the accident, me and these vandals, mom and Dr Billy, Sloan’s wedding, you know all the strange things going on. I just don’t want you to slip away while all this is going on. We have feelings for each other, and I want you to stick around, I mean if you want to. I guess I’m just worried that things will get crazy around here and you will want to leave. I know that you need to move on with your life but I’m hoping you can give me some more time.”

“I’m not really sure what you’re saying but I will stick around for as long as you want me too. Crazy or not you are all becoming like family to me and this place is like home so when I do have to leave it will be terribly hard, and I won’t just sneak out in the night. Ok?”

“Thank you.” Jamie said folding her into his arms and kissing her. He wasn’t really sure if he had come in to talk or kiss, but kiss was right up there at the top of the list. He looked for excuses every day to steal a kiss here and there.

As the wedding grew closer things did get crazy. Elizabeth planned a dinner after the wedding, Texas style. Bo had agreed to man the grill, which would produce steaks and barbeque chicken for the guests. There would be a salad bar and several other sides. They would make bite size desserts because everyone would want a piece of the wedding cake. Elizabeth and Victoria had made a special trip into Alpine to order the wedding cake. There were other places they could have gotten it, but Elizabeth had been to enough weddings in the area to know, if you want perfection, Wedding Daze Cakes was the place. This cake had four heart shaped cakes on the bottom with a slightly larger heart shaped cake in the center supported by columns and the bride and grooms stood atop that. Each cake was a different flavor. The icing flowers on each match the real flowers but also gave a clue to what flavor each cake was. The spice cake had flowers that matched Elizabeth’s dress and the orange cake had flowers that matched Victoria’s. There was a chocolate cake, which of course had chocolate flowers, and a yellow cake with yellow flowers. The large cake on top was of course wedding white. With the wedding plans, all finalized, and the food arranged all that was left was to prepare the house for the guests. Jamie had made arrangements to hire a small group of musicians, a bartender and several girls to play waitresses for the event. Elizabeth had invited all of Sloan’s old friends and most of hers. He had taken care of inviting any one at his end. So far there would be several guests staying at the house. Mimi was Sara’s best friend and Matron of Honor; she would be arriving the day before Sloan and Sara. Spencer and his new wife Annie would be arriving the same day along with Marshall and Samantha. Samantha was Elizabeth’s only daughter and Marshall was her middle child. The rest of the family couldn’t make it but had all called and sent gifts. One whole room was nearly filled with gifts. The Way children could of course have their old rooms, but Elizabeth wanted to put as many other guests in the new addition to the house. Elizabeth, Paula and Victoria spent the week before the wedding cleaning and making beds. Exactly one week before the wedding the phone calls started. The phone would ring, and no one would answer on the other end. Then they would call again, and again. Even in the wee hours of the night. Since everyone was working so hard through the day and not getting much sleep through the night everyone was getting a little testy. After two days and nights of it Jamie unplugged the phone. They were all pleased with the idea and went on about their business. Tuesday morning Elizabeth realized that they needed more extension cords, so Victoria agreed to run into the hardware store for more. It was a beautiful day and the weather forecast was perfect for the rest of the week. As she left the hardware store and started back through town, she spotted the sheriff and waved. She had recognized several other people in town and was really beginning to feel like part of the community. Once past the city limits sign, she pressed the accelerator and headed home. She had not driven much since the accident, but it was like riding a bike, you never forget. As she approached the S curves, she could see several of the ranch hands coming across the pasture to her right. They had made checking the fence along the road a daily habit since the last time it was cut. She smiled and waved but just as she raised her hand there was a gunshot and the driver window shattered. Another shot sounded but must have missed. She slammed on the brakes and sat trembling in the middle of the road. The Jeep came to a stop and Rolly appeared beside the car. He was talking to her as he opened the door, but she couldn’t make out what he was saying. He gently pried her fingers away from the steering wheel and helped her out of the car.

“Let’s get you off the road and we’ll wait over here for the sheriff.” He was now saying.

Walt was the other man in the jeep, and he had called the sheriff and Jamie. Jamie was clear across on the other side of the ranch, so it was no surprise that the sheriff got there first. He was trying to ask Victoria some questions when Jamie did finally get there. Pushing the sheriff out of the way Jamie grabbed her. He didn’t care who saw or what they thought.

“Honey are you ok?” He was asking. She was still trembling but finally focused on his voice.

“Jamie! What happened?” She asked.

Jamie looked over to the sheriff.

“What the hell did happen? All Walt told me was that someone shot at Victoria.”

“Well Jamie right now that’s all we know. I waved to Victoria as she left town just a little while ago and she headed out here. Rolly and Walt said they were headed this way to check the fence line and saw Victoria, she waved and boom there was a shot. And then another. It looks like when the window shattered it cut her arm but nothing serious. I just think she’s shaken up, but I have to say, someone has it in for the Way vehicles. Elizabeth is going to freak when she hears that someone shot up her car.”

“Well maybe but we’ll deal with that later; in the meantime, can I take Victoria home now?” Jamie asked.

“Sure, I still need a statement from her, so I’ll just follow you back to the house and talk to her there.”

Jamie put her in his jeep, went over and talked to Rolly and Walt for a minute and then headed home. Sheriff Tubber followed after he and Walt had pushed the car off to the side of the road. When Jamie carried her into the kitchen Paula and Elizabeth both smiled.

“Jamie in case you haven’t noticed, you don’t need to carry her around anymore.” Elizabeth said with a little laugh. But then realized that Victoria was very pale, and Jamie was not smiling.

“Someone just shot at her mom.”

“Oh my God, Victoria are you alright?”

Victoria tried to smile.

“Put her at the table. I’ll grab a blanket and Paula; will you pour her a cup of tea?”

Jamie put her at the table and pulled his chair close enough that he could keep his arm around her for comfort. Elizabeth and Paula joined them.

“What happened?” Paula asked.

“Well from what I get, she was driving home and at the S curve someone took two shots at her. I’m glad to say that your car got the worst of it.”

“My car?” Elizabeth asked.

“Yea, sorry mom but they shot out the driver window.”

“Is that how she got cut?” Elizabeth asked noticing that her arm was bleeding. As she got a washcloth and band-aid she thought out loud.

“Who in the world would do something like this? Jamie what have we done that has caused all this?”

“I don’t know mom, but somebody is definitely trying to make a point. This happened at the same place Dr Billy’s tires were shot out.”

Later that night after everyone else had gone to bed Jamie picked up the phone and called Sloan.

“Hey Sloan, it’s me Jamie. I hope I’m not calling too late, but I had to wait till everyone here went to bed before I called. We have been having some more problems since you left, and I needed to ask you something.”

“Sure, what’s going on?”

“Well I can fill you in, but I need to ask this question first. When you were here, and we had the tires shot out from under Dr Billy and the fire and well you know. You were the first to suspect that they were connected and then that whoever was doing it was after Victoria. Why? What made you think they were doing these things to mess with her?”

“I don’t know I guess it just seemed logical. The doctor was coming to see her and the building that burnt was being used to store her belongings. Why what else has happened?”

“Just a couple of things. Someone took a hammer to my windshield and slashed my truck seats. That happened the morning I was taking her to get the leg cast off. We have been chasing steers all over the place because someone keeps cutting the fence, there have been phone calls at all hours with no one on the other end and just hours ago someone took two shots at Victoria just down the road from here. As you can imagine, I am starting to believe in your theory, but I can’t figure why anyone would want to hurt her.”

“Are you asking me to run a background check on her?”

“No, of course not. I lo ... I mean I know all I need to about her; this has nothing to do with her past. This is someone here. I understand all the actions against her but why do they keep cutting the fences? Victoria doesn’t go out to round the cows back up or even go out to fix the fences. All they are accomplishing by that is making me work later.” As the words came out of his mouth, he had the answer, why. “I get it. If I’m out working late maybe someone is watching her or going to go after her when I’m not around.”

“Well it could be. I suggest you keep a close eye on her and maybe we can work out a plan when I get there. Sara and I will be there Thursday in time for dinner. I understand that Mimi will be there tomorrow, and Samantha is coming home too.”

“Yeap. This is going to be a wonderful weekend and I’ll make sure none of this nasty mess interferes with your big day. I am so happy for you, but I have to admit that I’m still in shock. You are getting married. What ever happened to our brotherly vows?”