15 Chapter 14

The days slowly turned into a week and Elizabeth warmed herself by the river and the ranch daily as if they required her attention. These comforting and quiet ventures were mostly taken so that she would be distracted about the letter and the convincing of Jasper which weighed her down. During her walks at the Pebble stone river it never ceased to amaze her to hear nothing but the slosh of water as it bumped into the rocks or slid ever so quietly through the pebbles underneath.

Everything was so still that she almost forgot the wailing sirens and honks back home, which were her usual sounds of familiarity that were now long gone.

And as for the Crawford ranch, the more she visited the desolate acres of paradise, the closer she felt to the letter, and trespassing was not a problem anymore as she later learned that Nolan was a watch keeper at the ranch.

She realised that he was beginning to prefer her around, when she found him intruding the breakfast club regularly much to Vivian’s dismay. This discovery made her fumble her words in his presence, while unprecedented beams and laughs escaped her no matter how hard she tried to purse her lips. She began to feel stupid at her immature breakouts and hated it even more to put her dilemma of embarrassment to words. Elizabeth noticed his cheekiness had dissolved to a friendly affection, not completely enough for her to accept him whole heartedly like the Miller-Woods,’ but there was a slight difference, ever since that evening by the ranch.

*****

On the morning of September 23rd Elizabeth made her way out onto the streets toward the town square to pick up some essentials and when she stepped closer to the town square she noticed that the streets were vehicle-free as people were crowding the streets while they wrapped twirls of red , yellow and white fabric around lamps. Children were speeding across the streets with tiny red flags with minuscule yellow and white tulips speckled on them, their childish amusements sprinkling the air. Elizabeth saw Billy from the chop shop, in a cleaner pair of pants and a shirt that did not include metal gunk on them, and his white moustache trimmed with much effort, offering the town’s folk cold beer and an encouraging, but a very unhelpful wink for the effort.

The Streets were alive with a bustle of explosive energy. With a quizzical frown Elizabeth walked into the heart of the town and as she reached the town square she stopped in amazement. The usual empty town square with its cobble stone boulevard was now scattered with red and yellow tulip petals, just like the bunch of tulips she had seen on her first glance at the town. The fountain at the centre of the square was surrounded with a long string of fairly lights which were hoisted above and connected in a star pattern to the five lamp posts at the corners of the town square, which would magnify the glorified statue of Lazarus Wroth rising from the centre of the fountain.

Elizabeth caught her breath at the sight before her. She kept turning around trying to catch the whole surrounding with her eyes and paused at the sight of Ruby who was fixing a stall in a corner. When she reached Ruby a thick waft of roasted pecans, baked blueberries and chocolate distracted her senses.

“Ruby these look tempting,” Elizabeth said as her eyes were pulled towards a range of creamy pies that were lined along teasingly, on her stall table.

“Elizabeth, darlin!” Ruby chirped and looked up from lining her pies. Elizabeth forgot her drooling at the zesty glow that emanated off Ruby.

“Hey Ruby, what’s uh all this jazz?” Elizabeth asked while gesturing the town square and trying to pry the cause of Ruby’s glow.

“Oh, its founders’ day in Chelseaville,” she said and picked up a chocolate chip tart off a tray and offered it to Elizabeth.

Elizabeth did not know that places came to life on Founder’s Day. While she nibbled on her tart and gazed around in wonder she could not help noticing how jovial Ruby was, she was not this soft around anyone and a hopeful part of her guessed a certain passing delivery man was to be praised for.

“This is all so pretty. What’s with the colours?” Elizabeth inquired eyeing the three coloured tulips.

“Ah they are the colours of strength, optimism and light that were declared by Lazarus Wroth when he dug out this beautiful hell hole.” Ruby winked and Elizabeth was instantly glad to see that the old Ruby was still there. Ruby turned to the people tittering along hand in hand and she sighed inwardly, a warmth in her eyes. “September 23rd is the day we all cherish Chelseaville till the clock strikes twelve.”

Elizabeth turned to the crowd and heaved in a breath, yes it was truly breathtaking.

“Also why haven’t I had these before?” Elizabeth asked popping the remaining of her tart into her mouth in content.

“They’re saved for better days,” she laughed. Just as Elizabeth waved Ruby and stepped onto the cobblestone pathway, through the bustling crowd she caught her sandal over a cobble stone edge and tripped over, colliding into a tall figure.

“Oh my ba—” she stopped halfway as she made out Nolan’s messy hair, a stack of planks tucked under his arms and a goofy smile sprawled across his face. “—hey.” Elizabeth waved awkwardly and immediately suppressed the urge to smile which was creeping up her, but luckily everyone was too busy to notice her, hence she let it slip.

Nolan who kept noticing her struggle for days, did not make a comment out of it, instead he hid his smile.

“Miss Hartley,” he nodded his head lightly, “couldn’t stay away from all these bright shenanigans could you?”

“I don’t think I could, and can you please stick to Elizabeth, we are bumping into each other way too often for you to be formal,” she said.

He pursed his lips and shook his head as if the request were simply impossible. Elizabeth sighed frustrated and turned her focus on to something less irritating.

“I don’t get why nobody told me about this grand event,” she threw her hands up at the air around her.

“It wouldn’t have been a surprise then would it?” He asked in a mock serious tone followed by a wink.

“Wait…all you guys kept mum for me?”

Nolan shrugged. “It’s a small-town Liz,” he said. Elizabeth froze lightly when he said ‘Liz’. She knew she preferred the abbreviation over any other form of address, but no one had called her that except for Maya and her parents. It sent a tingle down her spine, to which she quickly shook the feeling away.

Nolan watched her eyes pull towards the busy bustle around her, and the twinkle in them from the evening he had listened to her spill her “escapades”, was once again evident. He knew he was not supposed to observe his guests too intently, but the observing was the safest compared to what he felt at the moment, where he had wanted to pick her up and twirl her around town square. He felt his fantasy escalating and unconsciously gripped onto the wooden planks.

“I should get to these,” he said abruptly, “I’ll see you tonight then.”

“T-tonight?” Elizabeth stuttered unaware, as well as taken back by his sudden need to run away.

Nolan quickly saw another opportunity to witness that twinkle in her eyes, hence he laughed inwardly.

“You’ll see,” he said and turned to walk.

“Hey what’s up with the planks?” She asked tagging up beside him.

“A last minute fixin’ at the gazebo,” he said slightly startled by her presence beside him.

“Can I be of any assistance?” She asked eyes wide with interest.

Nolan looked at her as if she were joking or teasing, but no her genuine expression of curious eyes and mouth pouted impatiently told him otherwise. He scoffed uncontrollably.

“Yeah sure if you can handle it” he smirked and walked ahead of her, “keep up.”

Elizabeth walked in behind and jabbed him lightly in the rib for him to loosen his grip on the planks and she seamlessly slipped them right out of his arms.

Throwing the planks on her right shoulder, she shot him a smug smile as he arched his brows at her impressed or startled, she could not say, but felt victorious any ways.

“Only if you can keep up now.”

They trudged through the empty ranch grounds towards Lake Evershore, taking the secret hide-way path Nolan always used. The excitement in the air soon made her forget her initial urge for essentials. The secret pathway seeped like a thin strip through the woods.

Elizabeth felt the cool dark shade of the woods enveloping her after the traipse from the town square all the way to the lake.

Nolan saw her sweat streaked cheeks turning into a pale peachy colour as she rested against a tree trunk, and he wanted to say something as always but when he saw her pile the planks onto her shoulders after a quick short breath, a determined frown drawn above her eyes, he decided against it.

Elizabeth saw the smile curl and she knew a cheeky remark was heading her way.

“I got it.” She said panting heavily and forced herself out of the shaded wood strip, while Nolan followed her shaking his head. Soon she found herself on the sandy shores of lake Evershore, as the grassy woodland grounds disappeared and merged into a thin sandy strip along the lake. The lake was a green pool of shimmer where it bobbed little waves which glinted underneath the sun.

The gazebo was not an amateur she had expected when she saw it the far end of the pier. The pier divided to the right and stretched out further across the shore into a dock where people were sailing boats, fishing boats and a fancy Catamaran tied next to another bobbing vacantly. But the lake was far from empty, in fact it was busier than the town square was as groups flocked the pier and gazebo adorning them with lights, flowers and fabric.

“Oh, uh let’s go fix the gazebo,” Elizabeth said resuming her long span of silence.

“No, we won’t,” he said taking the planks from her hands.

Elizabeth shot him a glare thinking he had pranked her into walking here as another means of testing his guests.

He smiled plainly. “Indulging views are meant to get lost in, if anything, so don’t hold that back for this,” he said eyeing the gazebo and before Elizabeth could feel bad about herself anymore he led her onto the pier.

After hearing Nolan’s explanation, she learned that the gazebo needed the planks to fix unattended corners of the floorboards that were obliterated by termites. Nolan led her inside the gazebo and while he greeted people around Elizabeth fell into herself as she observed with her watchful eyes a group of young girls who sat by the fence edge and pinned fabric twirls onto the pillars, but soon her were distracted by the lake that glowered behind the busy bodies.

In doing so she lost track of helping even though Nolan had refused, that she didn’t realise it, until Nolan’s voice greeted a vaguely familiar voice. She turned back around and saw Nolan pat Jasper’s back, and Elizabeth knew there was space for a few more people inside he gazebo, but the moment she spotted Jasper she felt a vague claustrophobic wave cave in around her.

“Elizabeth Hartley was it?” Jasper smiled tightly as he caught her by the gazebo fence.

“Yes, hello again, Jasper,” Elizabeth smiled trying to break the awkward tension, but his smile remained hostile.

“Y’all have met before?” Nolan piped in incredulously.

“Yes, we have,” Elizabeth laughed shortly to which Jasper nodded his head tightly. She yearned to crawl into a burrow and hide.

Nolan felt the silence creeping on him like the sweat streaking down his neck and decided to fill in.

“Alrighty then, let’s get on with the gazebo!” he said in an exaggerated high tone much to Elizabeth’s relief, which diverted Jasper’s attention from hers to him. To her amazement Nolan did not try to refuse her help as she reached for the planks as if he had just witnessed her struggle to not look stupid in front of Jasper.

Following Nolan’s instructions, she pulled off a few planks which came right off as the termites and dew had done their deed with perfection, and nailed back the new ones, which went well without her bludgeoning her own fingers to the nails. But what made her unsettling was how Jasper did not fail to watch her like a hawk on hunt for prey. She could not blame him for keeping an eye on the new woman in town who could possibly ruin his relationship with Daddy dearest even more than it already was. She decided this was her time to shine and impress Jasper, prove him that she was here to help and not cause any trouble.

Luckily, she did not have to be pretentiously firm and rigid with her tools because the spirited enjoyment of woodwork, and common labour was already running through her blood. When she was young her father used to take her to their vacation cottage in Vancouver for thanksgiving and she would never rest until all trees have been climbed upon and hung upside down along the drooping branches, until her limbs and palms were sore and bruised. Apart from that her father had always made certain that he was the stated man of the house to fix all the little leaks, short circuits, wobbly desks, and tables with Elizabeth by his side for assistance. Lorraine had been utterly furious that he opted out for domestic fixings rather than calling the help, but Elizabeth’s younger self enjoyed any moment where her father was not glued to his desk scouring over files and papers.

These moments taught Elizabeth that sharp hands and knowledge on tackling a hammer, some nails and a couple of screws and bolts was a definitive upper hand a girl in the city could possess.

Nolan watched Elizabeth take over the reins with ease and he could not find it in him to object or be agitated that someone else was raining over his work, because he was impressed. He found himself foolishly realising how he had overlooked the possibility of a girl from the boroughs pulling on some man gloves with her delicate knees on a chipped wooden floor while drilling holes into a plank. A part of him guessed she wanted some sort of validation for her work as she constantly kept glancing at Jasper in an unsubtle manner, but he could definitely tell that she was beginning to forget her primary motive of picking up that drill as she finished the planks with him, and easily befriended the young girls from the cheer squad at Chelseaville High. she lent them a hand with the fabric twirling by balancing herself on the ledge with her feet dangling to the sides, completed with a childish grin on her face as the girls conversed with her.

“Got your eyes on her for quite a while now,” Jasper joined Nolan, who was leaning against the pier outside the gazebo. Nolan pursed his lips without taking his eyes off Elizabeth.

“I have haven’t I?” He said to no one in particular, a half smile dancing in his face. When he turned to Jasper, he caught his usual frown lined readily, much like old Crawford’s.

“She’s trouble I tell ya,” Jasper noted nonchalantly.

“Come on Jas, don’t tell me you’re afraid of some city girl,” Nolan nudged Jasper on the side, who shook his head with a vain laugh.

“Don’t go tootin’ your own horn Nolan,” Jasper clapped Nolan’s back and leaned towards his ear, “the way you’re drooling over her, you my friend should be runnin’ for the damn hills.”

“What are you talkin’ about?” He smiled smug.

“You’ll see,” Jasper warned and walked away.

Nolan stood there dumbfounded and always impressed by his friend’s ability to ward off women for him now just because he was unavailable. Pretty selfish of him, Nolan thought cheekily. Just as he took his eyes away from Jasper he turned around to see Elizabeth heading his way.

“You did some real work their Miss Hartley,” he said nodding towards the gazebo as she halted in front of him.

“I did,” she nodded her head in agreement for once unaware that he had referred to her as ‘Miss Hartley’, “thank you for allowing me to step over your routine.”

He laughed in confusion.

“Step over?”

“Couldn’t help but notice your prying eyes, I uh didn’t mean to take over your work.”

“Woah hold it now,” he laughed, “I’m always open for an extra pair of hands.”

She stood there wondering if he was on something as his beam proved genuine and not cheeky at all.

“Okay, then.” She said still looking at him in awe.

“Well if you’re done here you can tell me if you’ll come to the barbecue tonight back at the inn?”

She was taken back that he was asking her something rather than stating it.

“Oh right,” he smiled sheepish, “there’s an annual barbecue shenanigan Vivian holds at her place—a mandatory founders day thing with some close folks from town. You should come.”

Elizabeth was affirmative he was not himself as she remembered Vivian saying how Nolan was not very welcoming of outsiders into his family.

“Are you sure you’re not saying this to make up for being a quarter of a jerk this whole time?”

“Just a quarter? I guess I’m not so bad after all.” He smiled; his sea blue eyes bright.

She eyed him seriously ignoring the twitch in her chest. “I’m serious, you’re welcome tonight.” There was not a trace of tease in his voice, and Elizabeth bought her hand up awkwardly to cover her half agape mouth.

“I’ll be there.” She blurted when she had planned a calm and chill response beforehand, but the way he looked pleased made her not feel so bad about it either.

*****

Elizabeth only brought a few dresses along with her, because she had no clue how steamy Alabama was going to be. Hence the last unworn dress that remained was a peach coloured sleeveless summer wrap dress. Throwing her one-for-all denim jacket on to ward off the chill evening breeze, and lifting up her brown curls to a decent chiffon, which was lopsided compared to the perfect one Maya did so effortlessly, Elizabeth stepped out on to the backyard in her Doc martens reaching towards the Miller-Woods cottage house.

Right at the front yard of the house a big wooden table was set down and a few tails of fairy lights were twirled around the pillars of the porch. Elizabeth thought Nolan meant a family barbecue which would be nice and quiet, but now she knew what he meant by a few close people from town when she spotted Ruby, Hailey and Jasper, Chop shop Billy and even Jack Derby, and another guy whom she had never seen before in beach shorts and a floral shirt, with a party cup swinging in his hand violently as he gestured his hands while talking to Jack who was successfully impressed.

When Elizabeth made it to the turf rather awkwardly she could not spot Vivian, the girls or Davis, but as she scanned the crowd her eyes instantly picked up Nolan who was standing over a grill tipping charcoal. He was out of his usual self and has donned up in a neat pair of grey pants and a white shirt, which intensified his eyes. Elizabeth was about to be drawn towards the grill when Jasper interjected her view with a cup in his hand.

She stepped back and plastered a beam on her face while eyeing the cup suspiciously.

“It’s just whiskey,” he laughed tensely, and Elizabeth shrank inwards at his vibe and the sickening thought of sipping whiskey before the night had even begun. She took the cup politely.

“Jasper,” she smiled.

“Did Nolan invite you?” He asked bluntly and Elizabeth felt her cheeks warming up.

“Yes, he uh, he did.”

He scoffed lightly enough for Elizabeth to want to pour the whiskey over his head, and smoothly led her away from the crowd towards the riverbank. Elizabeth agreed and stayed quiet until they reached the riverbank because she was certain he was seeking to question her far away from Hailey.

“Look,” he began before Elizabeth could even brace herself, “I don’t really know why you’re still here, even after I said that my father is not takin’ that letter.” His voice was mingled with fear and anger.

“Jasper I don’t mean to hurt your father,” she said calmly.

“Of course, you don’t mean that, but the longer you stay here with that letter, the sooner it’s going to be out in the open hurtin’ people.” Elizabeth knew the fear that lurked behind his darkened eyes, and she wanted to remove herself from this position as fast as she could, but she could not bring herself to do that.

“Why don’t you—” Elizabeth stopped as she saw Hailey waving at her from the crowd with a terrified quizzical frown on her face. Elizabeth quickly swatted her hand casually to indicate all was okay. Jasper spun around to see Hailey concerned and before he began to walk away he turned back to Elizabeth with a mix of worry and anger flashing his face.

“I think you’re a good person, because Hailey believes so,” he said, “all I ask from you is to stay away from my father, he doesn’t need that letter anymore.”

She wanted to scream that he really does and there’s proof too, but she knew it would get her nowhere closer to Harrison. She stayed silent, without giving him any sign of assurance and he eventually walked away steaming.

Turning back to the river she allowed the sloshy noises calm her over, letting the wave of pricking needles pass through her. Why couldn’t he give his father a chance?

“You alright?” came Nolan’s voice behind her and she looked around in surprise that she lost her foot and the cup flew off her hand only to drop near his feet.

“I’ll give you a heads up from a mile away next time,” he said apologetically, hiding a smile.

“That would be peachy,” she laughed lightly, feeling her tense rippling away. “And yes, I’m alright.”

“I know why Jasper’s tight around you,” he said, “he’s rarely his best when it’s his old man.” He picked up the cup and frowned at it, “and you could use somethin’ better than whiskey?”

“Yes. To all that,” Elizabeth said and walked with him towards the front yard, “you and Jasper seem close.”

“Buddies since high school is all” he shrugged. Nolan saw Elizabeth’s very unsubtle shock of expression and laughed.

“We don’t look like it, hell the man has never held a fishing rod or a tool before, but apart from all that he never cuts out weekends with a couple of beers by the lake.”

“It’s hard to picture a laid-back Jasper,” Elizabeth said sadly.

“He can be an ass at times, but he’ll also eventually see that things could be different.” He said eyeing her hopefully. Elizabeth did not feel prideful at the thought of having way too many people looking up to her.

“You really think I could do this,” she said disbelieving his honest tone. They reached a table with bottles of alcohol and bowls of oranges, limes and cherries stacked and lined neatly. He quietly picked up a cocktail mixer off the table and spooned a few cubes of ice into it, followed by a splash of gin, Southern comfort, orange juice, and amaretto. He shook the shaker effortlessly and poured the results into a glass, wedged half a cherry on the rim of the glass and held the glass out to Elizabeth with pursed lips. She accepted the glass in silence and watched the oranges and the reds swirl inside glass as she bought it to her lips and the moment the cool elixir touched her tongue her eyes lowered down dreamily as the fruit notes of the cold whiskey dampened all the taste buds in her mouth satisfactorily.

“Of course, you can,” he said encouragingly after she had taken her sip, but a dutiful frown quickly followed him, “but don’t forget to go through Jasper before you rush into Harrison. You’ll do that won’t you?”

Elizabeth saw the difference, a familiar resonance of protectiveness in his eyes for his family and she gulped back.

“Uh huh,” she said and turned back to her drink which was beginning to look and taste like sunshine and breeze in a glass. “this is beautiful.”

“That’s a Southern slammer for you,” he winked and poured a single slosh of gin with a few ice cubes into his cup.

The evening preceded into one full of laughter and conversations buzzing wildly and as the night tumbled in unaware the long wooden table set up began to pile up with dishes of clam bake, corn on the cob, the biggest array of grilled meat, an honest pot of fried chicken, old fashioned jambalaya produced with Billy’s efforts, the creamiest pecan pie from Ruby, mac and cheese from scratch from Hailey and Jasper and a box of authentic sweet tea brewed in the heart of Fairhope from Jack Derby. She gasped inwards at the spread that had so much love, it could top all thanksgiving dinners combined.

As they clamoured around the table and sat down for dinner, Elizabeth paused to take in the smiles, even Jasper was being nice enough to pass her the clam bake. she knew this setting was something she could easily fall in love with.

Towards the end of dinner, Sage ran up to Vivian and whispered into her ear, where everyone was sitting on loungers on the front yard turf indulging themselves with sweet tea. Vivian pulled out her phone and stood up.

“Alright everyone, looks like Sage here has got somethin’ for us.” Vivian said brightly and motioned Sage to the centre of the circle of grown-ups. She shuffled shyly and kept switching glances back to Vivian and Davis who were now muttering sweet encouragements.

“What’s going on?” Elizabeth whispered to Nolan who was smiling at Sage on the lounger next to hers.

“Sage wanted to sing for everybody,” he winked at Sage and gave her a quick thumbs up, “apparently a certain someone has sparked a few strings in her.”

Elizabeth turned to the girl who was now squirming at the crowd and flashed her an encouraging smile and mouthed a ‘you got this’.

Sage’s eyes lit up lightly at the sight of Elizabeth’s signal and she nodded her head and cleared her throat. Elizabeth admit that she saw the singing part coming but when Vivian played the instrumental of Uptown girl on her phone, Elizabeth could not help but be amazed by the kid’s bold move, if she was even aware of it. But that was not what made eyes go rocketing up, it was when they realized that Sage had been smart and specific enough to replace the song to a uptown “boy”. When sage softened down and relaxed her pitch to every lyric smoothly Elizabeth’s chest tightened with immense happiness. Mid chorus Sage drawled her version of

“…you know I can’t afford to buy him toyss!”.

Nolan’s eyes widened mortified at the reference, while the rest of the crowd chuckled and stood up to dance. Hailey pulled up Jasper who could not resist and Billy and the floral shirt guy twirled around in their drunkard mess. Elizabeth caught Ruby and Jack swaying away unaware of the song except for themselves. Elizabeth turned to Nolan who was beginning to get agitated by Sage’s heartfelt serenade to a boy he was not aware of. Now Elizabeth could not tell if it was the two slammers she had or the steamy summer breeze or the scintillating voice of Sage that made her find him irresistibly unavoidable that she leaned over and pecked his cheek. Nolan’s attention snapped at the graze of her lips that he turned to her with a look of awe and satisfying shock, but she looked the same even brighter, if he was not hallucinating over his few cups of gin.

“Let her have her fun, she’s a kid.” She said easily, feeling her nerves loosening as she pulled him up along with her. He did not even hesitate one bit like his usual self would do, but he could not keep up with his usual obscene self anyways, as this woman pulled him into a newer crazier world of her own, and he liked it so he followed after and spun her around to the serenade of a little girl oblivious about the flaky wall crumbling between him and a particular ‘city girl’.