Best Woman

The wedding was only two months away now and Annabelle knew she needed to arrange something, a last blowout before Evan settled down.

It was at work, she realised what it could be: the ranch.

Annabelle’s grandfather, Holly’s father – Clyde Hartman was a loving, traditional man and his wife, Annabelle’s grandmother: Lucille: known as just LuLu was also a caring, kind and sweet natured grandmother who did everything she could for her children, her grandchildren and her whole entire family.

When their daughter died, their relationship with Eddie ceased slightly, they needed to heal and so did he – in their own terms. They had moved down to Texas, where Clyde was born, and bought a ranch, with livestock included after Holly’s death.

Now they live contently, running the farm with a small number of staff and supply a small produce for the local groceries. Annabelle and Leo use to visit every summer, but once college hit and time passed, they eventually stopped going. Annabelle was still close with her grandparents and she knew they’d allow her to visit.

During her lunch break, with her next client expected at two, Annabelle made some calls and within the hour, it was all arranged – now she just needed Evan to agree.
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“You want to take me to a ranch?” Evan asked incredulously, as Annabelle grinned cheekily at him.
She nodded eagerly: “Yup, remember that time you visited me during the summer? You loved it there! I figured instead of arranging an awkward night out, we could spend some time together before you go off and get married…” Annabelle explained, and grinned although she silently thought:

And leave me.

Evan sighed, shaking his head uncertain: “I-I don’t know Annie….Ellie will kill me…” he started and Annabelle gave him a firm look, hands on her hips which caused Evan to smirk, he loved it when she did that.

“Evan Lucas…” she warned, and Evan’s smirk got wider, he knew she meant business when the middle names came out.

“I can’t miss work –” he started which caused Annabelle to glare harder.

“You’re practically best friends with your boss!” she reasoned, and Evan sighed, rolling his eyes.

He did really want to go.

“Annie.” He stated and Annabelle rolled her eyes, and crossed her arms.

“Fine…fine…last thing I do for you…” she started and Evan groaned, she was going to go off on a tangent about how he was “ungrateful” in their friendship and how she always does stuff for him, and how she cares for him and gets it thrown back at her.

He threw himself back on his bed, grumbling incoherent words: “…and I work all week and I try and help you plan this wedding…” she continued.

Evan counted to ten in his head: “One….two….three…” he said silently to himself.

“And I always book our dinner plans and cinema tickets…” she ranted.

He tried to keep it together, he tried to not let her win:

“But all you do is throw is back at me, and you know I love you –”

Bingo! Those three words were all it took for Evan to cave:

“Fine!” he shouted, and Annabelle silenced, grinning like a Cheshire Cat, she knew it would work.

“We’ll go to the ranch…I’ll call work and we’ll leave Friday, yeah?” Evan asked, sitting up and looking at her. She smiled and nodded, knowing not to speak. As he got up, she silently clapped her hands, did a bit of a happy dance as Evan was leaving the room.

“Stop doing the dance!” he shouted, and Annabelle froze – damn, he was good.