Page 78 of Unwilling Wolf

“Ladies!” Garret called through the house. “Are you ready? We’re about loaded up.”

“Oh shoot,” Eliza said. “Can you lace up my dress?”

Lenny set her comb next to Eliza’s on the dresser, then went to work fitting the dress to Eliza’s curves over her undergarments. This dress was forest green and of simple material, but she’d altered it to fit her figure like a glove. Her curls were already pinned, so all she had to do was fasten a jeweled barrette into the back.

Lenny looked beautiful with her hair pinned back in a low bun, and a few of strands of silky hair the color of shiny raven’s feathers fell perfectly into her face. She’d smeared a tinted salve across her full lips.

Lenny looked exotic and beautiful, right down to the long, slender feather that hung down the side of her neck. “I’ve never been to one of these,” Lenny told her.

“You and me both. It’ll be fun. If it’s boring, you and I will steal some horses and run away.”

Lenny giggled and followed Eliza out of the bedroom. “A few weeks around werewolves and you are already lawless.”

“Lawless with restraints. I will need to steal the nag. I call the oldest horse in the corral.”

They both laughed as they headed for the door.

“What’s so funny?” Garret asked from where he was gathering the four pies she’d baked this morning into big wooden box.

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” Eliza quipped.

Garret’s shoulders sank with a sigh. He turned, and froze. He dragged lightening eyes down her dress, pausing at her curves, and back up to her face.

“Do you like it?” she asked, fishing for a compliment.

She could see his Adam’s apple dip low in his throat from here. “It’s fine.”

Well, it wasn’t a glowing compliment, but Lenny had been right. The man had taken a bullet for her.

She gave him the best smile she could muster in the awkward moment, and then turned and followed Lenny out the front door.

“Holy hell, Lenny. Is that you?” Burke pushed off where he was leaning against the wagon and strode around her with a big grin. He stood back and took her in. “I think I’m in shock. I mean, you look…nice.”

Lenny nodded demurely, gave him a shy smile, and let him help her into the wagon. Garret seemed to be doing his best to avoid glancing at Eliza from where he was securing the pies into the back of the wagon, so she scrambled into the back of the wagon without assistance.

“You look right purty too, Mrs. Eliza. Don’t you think so, Garret?” Burke asked, throwing a disappointed glance in Garret’s direction as he hopped up to sit beside him.

“Hup!” was Garret’s only response as he slapped the mules with the reins. They were off. The women waved to Wells, who had chosen to stay behind with Cookie to watch the ranch. The wagon lurched for the dirt road, and Lenny squeezed her hand as Eliza tried not to let her disappointment show.

Burke turned to Eliza. “It don’t feel right, me sitting up here when you’re newlywed. Besides, a proper lady don’t belong in the back of a wagon.”

“There isn’t enough room up there for Lenny and I,” Eliza explained. “And besides, I—”

Lenny’s wide eyes caught her attention. The woman twitched her chin up toward Burke’s back. Go, she mouthed.

Ooooooh. Lenny wanted to sit back here with Burke, did she? How delightfully scandalous.

“On second thought, it is terribly bouncy back here.”

“Hop in the back,” Garret told Burke, but the ranch hand was already moving to switch Eliza places.

Garret reached in the back and grabbed a folded blanket, then settled it down on the dusty seat for Eliza to sit on.

“Thank you, sir,” she uttered, touched by the gesture.

Garret grunted, and that was the extent of their conversation the rest of the way to the barn-raising. Lenny and Burke, however, talked easily enough in the back, and Eliza was able to get lost in the easy banter between them, which made the silence between she and Garret seem not as infinite.

Chapter Twenty-Six

---