Page 43 of Played

I give her a look. “We’re not in the dark ages, Trudy. Plus, she’s past her first trimester, so it’s okay.”

Trudy frowns. “I figured Dougall Harris wouldn’t like letting the cat out of the bag before they got married. I mean, for all intents and purposes, he all but arranged this marriage between the two of them. And it looks like he’s working on a second one from what I see.”

I bark out loud. “Please! I am not marrying Ethan Harris!” Suddenly all eyes are on me, and I shrink into my seat. There is nobody here that I recognize, except for Jack Ford, who smiles at me, but thankfully he says nothing. He’s standing with his wife, Kristina, who I recognize from an article I once read about them. Then they take a seat up front and forget about me.

“Would you keep your voice down?” Trudy hisses, but she chuckles at the end of her sentence. “God, talk about lack of discretion!”

I whisper. “I’m sorry. It’s just…I can’t believe you alluded to that.”

“Well, Dougall Harris is a man that gets what he wants, Freya. And it looks like he’s got his heart set on the two of you getting together.”

I shudder. “I think it’s a little creepy, don’t you?”

“Which part? Him wanting you and Ethan to get back together, or the fact that you slept with two of his boys, and yet he still wants you to be the mother of his grandchildren?”

I shudder again. “All of that. Isn’t it twisted, Trudy? God, maybe you are right. Maybe this family is a nut farm.”

“Duh. Newsflash. Every family has crazies. And every family, at one point in time or another, is a nut farm. Including mine. Including yours.”

I give her a look. “Just what part of my family belongs in a nut farm?”

“Don’t even get me started.” She says, and after I think about it for a moment, I say nothing more. My parents separated after a squabble with inheritance and my brother making a career change at their expense, only to reconcile a year later, and now they’re so close it’s nauseating. They do weird things together, too, like every month they both need to check something off their bucket list. And I have a crazy aunt that has no fixed address because she’s a groupie for some band, and she tours all over the world with them.

“Fine. Your family is no picture of perfection, either.”

She raises a hand as we take off. “Which proves my point. Every family has crazies. Maybe Dougall Harris is this family’s crazy.”

“Oh, goody.” I say facetiously, as I grasp the armrest in terror, while we feel the nose of the jet point upward. “Can you please just let me die in peace?”

Trudy sighs and takes my hand in hers. “I don’t know how you manage to travel so much with this insane fear of flying you have.”

“It’s simple. My love for travel outweighs my fear of flying.”

“I’d say you’re your family’s crazy.”

I frown. “Could be. Seeing as I’m going to this wedding.”

“We’ll have fun.”

“Yeah, so far it’s a blast.”

Here’s how much faith I have in tonight: I didn’t bring an overnight bag. All I did was stuff mini toiletries, shorts and a t-shirt and a pair of flip flops into my larger purse and called it a day. My dress can be balled up and shoved into my purse when all is said and done. As we land at the Ford ranch, I suddenly start to rethink my whole speculative stance. “God, this is like a fairytale.” I comment, observing the white picket fences, the horses grazing in the pasture, the huge, elegant ranch house, the equally beautiful guest house behind it, and the fields and fields of lush, green grass and landscaping.

“Nice, huh.” Trudy says, sucking her teeth, seemingly unimpressed.

“What, it’s like a postcard, isn’t it.”

“Sure.”

I look at her. “Well, what’s your problem?”

She shrugs. “Nothing. You know me. I have shiny object syndrome.”

“God, you and I are such opposite creates. Sometimes I wonder how we’re even friends.” I say in awe, not being judgemental.

“Opposites attract, Freya. You appreciate all the nature and greenery and shit because you come from, like, the greenest place in the world, but I’m an American through and through, so shit like this doesn’t rattle me. Come on, let’s go find where we’re sitting and set our bags down. At least that’s one thing we don’t have to worry about here.”

“What’s that?”

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