B.J. Daniels - Wedding at Cardwell Ranch

“I already moved some of my things into the cabin,” Belinda said.

Allie couldn’t help being surprised. “Already? Why didn’t you stop by the barn and say hello?” Allie had suggested Belinda as the wedding photographer and felt responsible and anxious since this was her first wedding in five years.

“You were busy,” her friend said. “We can’t keep each other from our jobs, right?”

“Right.” She loved that Belinda understood that. In truth, Allie had been hesitant to suggest her friend. She didn’t want to have to worry about Belinda, not with everything else that she had going on in her life right now. While her friend was a great photographer, sometimes she got sidetracked if a handsome man was around. But when she’d broached the subject with the bride-to-be, Lily had been delighted that it was one other thing she didn’t have to worry about.

Dana had been kind enough to offer Belinda a cabin on the ranch for the five-day affair. “It will make it easier for you to get great shots if you’re staying up here and experiencing all the wedding festivities,” Dana had said. “And any friend of Allie’s is a friend of ours.”

She and Belinda had been friends since grade school. Lately they hadn’t been as close, probably Allie’s fault. Belinda was in between men right now, and much wilder, freer and more outspoken than Allie had ever been. But Belinda didn’t have a five-year-old daughter, either.

“You have no idea what this means to me,” Belinda said now. “I’ve been dying to photograph a Western wedding for my portfolio.”

“Your portfolio?”

Belinda looked embarrassed as if she’d let the cat out of the bag, so to speak. “I’m thinking about opening my own studio.”

“That’s great.” Allie was happy for her friend, although she’d wondered if Belinda had come into some money because it wouldn’t be cheap and as far as she knew Belinda lived from paycheck to paycheck like everyone else she knew.

The waitress came and took their orders. A light breeze stirred the new leaves on the nearby trees. The smell of summer mixed with that of corn tortillas, the most wonderful smell of all, Allie thought. They sipped Mexican Cokes, munched on chips and salsa to the sound of Latin music playing in the background and Allie felt herself begin to relax.

“I wasn’t going to bring this up,” Belinda said, “but you know that psychic that I’ve seen off and on?”

Allie fought not to roll her eyes.

“I know you say you don’t believe in this stuff, but she said something interesting when I mentioned you.”

“You told her about me?” Allie hadn’t meant for her voice to rise so high. Her daughter looked over. She smiled at Nat and quickly changed her tone. “I really don’t want you talking to anyone about me, let alone a...” She tried to come up with a word other than charlatan.

Belinda leaned forward, unfazed. “She thinks what’s happening to you is because of guilt. Simply put, you feel guilty and it is manifesting itself into these...incidents.”

Allie stared at her. Leave it to Belinda to get right to the heart of it.

Her friend lowered her voice as if afraid Nat might be listening. “It makes sense, if you think about it. Nick didn’t know you were—” she glanced at Nat “—leaving him and going to file for custody of you-know-who, but you did know your plan. Then he goes and gets himself...” She grimaced in place of the word killed. “Something like that has to mess with your mind.”

“Yes, losing your husband does mess with your mind no matter what kind of marriage you had.” Fortunately, the waitress brought their food. Allie called Nat up to the table and, for a few moments, they ate in silence.

“The thing is...” Belinda said between bites.

“Can’t we just enjoy our meal?” Allie pleaded.

Her friend waved that suggestion away, but didn’t say more until they had finished and Nat had gone back to the play area.

“The psychic thinks there is more to it,” Belinda said. “What if Nick knew about your...plan?”

“What are you saying?”

“Come on. You’ve been over Nick for a long time. His death wouldn’t make you crazy—”

“I’m not crazy,” she protested weakly.

“But what if he did know or at least suspected? Come on, Allie. We both know it was so not like Nick to go hunting up into the mountains alone, knowing that the grizzlies were eating everything they could get their paws on before hibernation.” She didn’t seem to notice Allie wince. “Didn’t the ranger say Nick had food in his backpack?”

“He didn’t take food to attract a bear, if that’s what you’re saying. He planned to stay a few days so of course he had food in his backpack.”

“I’m not trying to upset you. But if he went up there to end it all, that was his choice. You can’t go crazy because you feel guilty.”

Her stomach turned at the thought of the backpack she’d been asked to identify. It had been shredded by the grizzly’s claws. She’d been horrified to think of what the bear had done to Nick. She would never forget the officer who’d brought her the news.

“From what we’ve been able to assess at the scene, your husband was attacked by a grizzly and given the tracks and other signs—”

“Signs?”

“Blood, ma’am.”

She’d had to sit down. “You’re telling me he’s...dead?”

“It certainly looks that way,” the ranger said. Four days later, the search for Nick Taylor was called off because a winter storm had come in and it was believed that there was little chance he could have survived such an attack without immediate medical attention.

“Nick wouldn’t,” she managed to say now. In her heart of hearts, the man she knew so well, the man she’d been married to for more than six years, wouldn’t purposely go into the woods with a plan to be killed by a grizzly.

But Nick had always been unpredictable. Moody and often depressed, too. The construction business hadn’t been doing well even before Nick’s death. What would he have done if he’d known she was leaving him and taking his daughter? Hadn’t she been suspicious when Nick told her of his plan to go hunting alone? She’d actually thought he might be having an affair and wanted to spend a few days with his mistress. She’d actually hoped that was the case.

“You’re going by yourself?” she’d asked. Nick couldn’t even watch football by himself.

“I know things haven’t been great with us lately,” he’d said. That alone had surprised her. She really thought Nick hadn’t noticed or cared. “I think a few days apart is just what we both need. I can tell you aren’t happy. I promise you there will be changes when I get back and maybe I’ll even come home with a nice buck.” He’d cupped her face in his hands. “I don’t think you know what you mean to me, but I promise to show you when I get back.” He’d kissed her then, softly, sweetly, and for a moment, she’d wondered if Nick could change.

“You’re wrong about Nick,” she said now to Belinda. “If he was going to end it, he would have chosen the least painful way to do it. Not one—” she looked at Nat, who was swinging nearby, humming to herself and seemingly oblivious to their conversation “—that chose him. He had a gun with him he could have used.”

“Maybe he didn’t get the chance, but you’re probably right,” Belinda said and grabbed the check. “Let me get this. I didn’t mean to upset you. It’s just that you need to get a handle on whatever’s been going on with you for you-know-who’s sake.” She cut her eyes to Nat, who headed toward them as they stood to leave.

“You’re right about the guilt, though,” Allie said, giving her friend that. She’d known as she’d watched Nick leave that day to go up into the mountains that nothing could change him enough to make her stay. She was going to ask him for a divorce when he came back.

Belinda changed the subject. “I saw your brother-in-law, Drew, earlier on the ranch.”

Allie nodded. “He mentioned he was working up there. His construction company built the guest cabins.”

“I’d forgotten that.” Belinda frowned. “I was talking to Lily about photos at the rehearsal dinner. Did you know that Sarah is one of her bridesmaids?”

“My sister-in-law worked with Lily one season at her brother James’s Canyon Bar.” Allie had the impression that Lily didn’t have a lot of female friends. Most of the math professors she knew were male, apparently. “I think James feels sorry for Sarah and you know Lily, she is so sweet.”

“I have to hand it to Sarah, putting up with her mother day in and day out,” Belinda said.

Allie didn’t want to think about it. Along with fewer incidents the past few days, she’d also been blessed with no visits from her mother-in-law and Sarah.

“Sarah’s a saint, especially—” Belinda lowered her voice “—the way Mildred treats her. She is constantly bugging her about her weight and how she is never going to get a husband... It’s awful.”

Allie agreed.

“I don’t understand why she doesn’t leave.”

“Where would she go and what would she do?” Allie said. “Sarah was in college when Mildred broke her leg. She quit to come home and take care of her mother. Mildred has milked it ever since. It used to annoy Nick, Sarah living in the guesthouse. He thought Sarah was taking advantage of his mother.”

“Ha, it’s the other way around. Sarah is on twenty-four-hour call. She told me that her mother got her out of bed at 2:00 a.m. one time to heat her some milk because she couldn’t sleep. I would have put a pillow over the old nag’s face.”

Allie laughed and changed the subject. “You look especially nice today,” she commented, realizing that her friend had seemed happier lately. It dawned on her why. “There’s someone new in your life.”

Belinda shrugged. She didn’t like to talk about the men she dated because she thought it would jinx things for her. Not talking about them didn’t seem to work, either, though. Belinda was so superstitious. Why else would she see a psychic to find out her future?

“This is going to be so much fun, the two of us working together again. Don’t worry. I won’t get in your way.” Belinda took her hand. “I’m sorry I upset you. Sometimes I don’t have the brains God gave a rock.”

She didn’t think that was the way the expression went, but said nothing. Belinda could be so...annoying and yet so sweet. Allie didn’t know what she would have done without her the past few years. Belinda had been the only person she would talk freely to about Nick and the trouble between them.

“I’m just worried about you, honey,” Belinda said, squeezing her hand. “I really think you should see someone—”

“I don’t need a shrink.”

“Not a shrink. Someone more...spiritual who can help you make sense of the things that you say keep happening.”

“Things do keep happening,” she snapped. “I’m not making them up.”

“So talk to this woman,” Belinda said just as adamantly. She pressed a business card into Allie’s hand.

She glanced at it and groaned. “Your psychic friend?”

“She might be the only person who can help you,” Belinda said cryptically. She gripped Allie’s hand tighter. “She says she can get you in touch with Nick so you can get past this.”

Allie stared at her for a moment before laughing out loud. “You have got to be kidding. What does she use? A Ouija board?”

“Don’t laugh. This woman can tell you things that will make the hair on your head stand straight up.”