Because she didn’t want to fight with her parents, she had gone ahead and gotten the bachelors degree in business administration they'd expected so that she could attend law school and become a powerful force in the world like the rest of her family. It had only been a few extra classes and hadn’t hurt anything, and had saved her a lot of being lectured. But she had also gotten a teaching certificate in elementary education, which was what she truly wanted. She hadn't realized it would be printed right on her diploma and her mother had been horrified. A rather interesting conversation had ensued, and Charlie had been the object of no less than three lengthy discussions about choosing respectable careers that would make the right impression on society in her future.
By the time she kissed her parents goodbye, she had been sweetly, but very firmly reminded that even though she was their baby, they expected her to follow her siblings into career fields such as medicine and engineering and law. Her father was the patriarch of the bunch as an orthopedic surgeon, and her mother was the queen as a CPA who owned her own large and prestigious firm.
Their pressure lately made her want to do anything but capitulate, if she was honest. It brought out a rebel spirit in her that she struggled to quell because she knew it would only make her want to act immaturely.
Quite frankly, by the time she got on her plane, she was tired and more than a tad discouraged. The fact that she'd just graduated from BYU with top academic honors didn't even seem to register with her parents. What was it with them, anyway? At least she wouldn’t need to deal with them too terribly much for the next three months while she was working in Montana.
After sleeping on the plane, she ran her fingers through the curls that hung past her shoulders, pulled them up into a loose knot at the back of her head and stuck a pencil through it to hold it. She picked up her carry on and walked off the plane, glad that Fo didn't demand anything more than an honest opinion and that she play coed softball without throwing like a girl.
He met her in the terminal with a smile and she put her mortar board cap on to wear out to his SUV, knowing he'd acknowledge that she had just graduated from college and give her that little pat on the back that she could admit she wanted. Their friendship was unconditional, and if she'd have dropped out, he'd have still supported her, but he knew her well enough to know that, occasionally, after being around her family she needed a bit of an emotional lift.
As they walked down the concourse, they had to walk around a couple that was wrapped in an ardent kiss. They were all over each other and Charlie commented on their rather public display of far too much affection.
Fo shrugged and said, "Uh, well. You'll come to find out there are worse things than where you display that kind of affection, I'm afraid."
"What does that mean?"
"I'd actually rather give you a little time to adjust to Montana, but you'll find out sooner or later. That woman is my uncle's wife."
Charlie's eyes grew wide. "Are you telling me that man was not your uncle?"
Matter-of-factly he admitted, "That man was not my uncle. His wife is a flight attendant who doesn't have a great deal of scruples concerning fidelity." He looked apologetic, but tried to laugh and said, "Welcome to Montana."
She felt a bit shell-shocked. "Is the whole family like that?"
"Oh heavens no! They're wonderful. You'll love them. Well, you'll love most of them."
"Would you care to enlarge on that last?"
"Nope, that would ruin all your fun."
From the airport they drove for twenty minutes through beautiful mountains and lush green valleys. Finally, Fo pulled through a huge log gateway and down a gravel road between two rows of log buck rail fence that seemed to go for miles. After a few more minutes, they rumbled across a river bridge and into a ranch yard that consisted of a number of barns and outbuildings, sprawled around a large ranch house that sat on a hill and backed up to a grove of dark pine trees.
It reminded Charlie of an old western television series she had seen a couple of times on cable. The buildings were of squared off logs with real chinking, and except for the slew of pickups and farm machinery, the whole setting could have come right out of a western movie. She qualified that thought when she realized there was a tennis court and swimming pool between the house and a large indoor arena. Cowboy movies didn't usually include those.
Fo pulled up in front of the house and, leaving her bags in his SUV, they went inside and he began to introduce her to his uncle's family who was at that moment sitting down to Sunday dinner. His forty-five-ish year old uncle Richard indeed seemed to be a nice man and was sharper than she expected given what she had just seen of his wife. Dark haired, he had a little boy in his arms who looked liked his miniature.
Smiling, Richard said, "Ah, Charlie. It's good to meet you in person. Let me introduce you to my family. This is Jamie. He's two." He nodded at the boy he held. "And these two lovely, dark haired, young ladies on either side of me are Evie and Elsa. They're four and five." He nodded next at a blonde teen with hair just a touch out of control and a cheerful smile. "That's Tuckett. Our resident court jester at fourteen and our wonderful housekeeper, Madge, there on the end. We'd die without her." Charlie took in a woman who reminded her distinctly of the housekeeper on the old Doris Day movie,
With Six You Get Egg Roll
. Madge smiled sweetly and waved.
"And that one grinning there at the other side of the table is Chase. He's my oldest son." She followed down the table to notice that Chase appeared to be in his mid twenties and incredibly full of himself. He had light brown hair and wore a golf shirt that was tightly stretched over his body builder's torso. He looked up at Charlie with a supremely confident smile.
Richard went on, "And somewhere I have another son, Luke. He's a year younger than Chase here. He didn't show up for dinner, but I imagine he's around. And my wife, Angela, is just due home from work. She's a flight attendant and should be here shortly. And that's the family. There are any number of hands around here who you'll meet eventually. It's good to have you with us. Welcome to Montana. Are you hungry? Pull up a chair."
She smiled and shook her head as Chase asked Fo, "Charlie is a girl? All these years, your friend Charlie is a girl? Why didn't you tell us she was a girl?"
Fo laughed and put an arm around Charlie's shoulders. "You're a girl?" He looked at Chase and shrugged. "I had no idea she was a girl. She plays a great game of baseball, and she kicks at Guitar Hero. She can't be a girl."
Everyone at the table laughed and Richard teased Fo, "As pretty as she is, if you never noticed, Fo, that doesn't say much for your eyesight."
Fo nodded at Chase. "Maybe I was just keeping her a secret from old Romeo here."
Chase gave Charlie another come on look. "Well, the secret is out, cuz. I have just fallen deeply in love."
Sweetly, Charlie asked, "As masculine as you are, Chase, I'm sure that would make me like the hundred and forty-sixth love. Am I right?"
Chase smiled suggestively. "Maybe."
Just as sweetly, Charlie replied, "Then I'd really rather just die an old maid, but thank you anyway." The adults around the table laughed uproariously, and even the little kids joined in as Charlie said, "It was nice to meet you all."
Fo pulled her back toward the front door, but Richard stopped them. "Fo, you'll take her to the south guest house, won't you?" Fo nodded. "Let Madge know if there's anything you need and check with Luke when he comes in to find out where she wants to work." He turned back to Charlie. "It's so good to finally meet you, Charlie. Fo has talked about you for years. I'm sure you'll love it here. Make yourself at home."
As they went back out to the drive, Fo said, "See? I told you my Uncle is the nicest guy in the world. He truly is that cool all the time."
She shook her head. "How did he end up with such a wife?"
"She's actually the third one. Chase and Luke's mom died of cancer when they were about eight and nine. She was a wonderful, sweet, kind, smart, strong woman. Then he married Tuckett's mom and didn't do so hot on the second one. She took off somewhere and then he married this third one. She's very pretty, but he would be the first to admit he made a terrible mistake. Still, he does the best he can to be a good dad. Sometimes he's just in way over his head with the ranch and Tuckett and the little ones and especially Chase. I imagine Chase gives Uncle Richard more trouble than all the rest of them put together. It's just a good thing he has Luke to hold everything together."
"Then Luke isn't like Chase?"
Fo chuckled. "No. Luke is nothing like Chase. Come on. I'll take you to your house."
"I'm to have a whole guest house? I thought I'd have a room or something."
"You get the whole house, but it's pretty small. It's actually an eighteen eighties homestead cabin that's been renovated. You'll love it. You'll feel like you’re in True Grit or something. And around this crazy place, you'll be grateful for the privacy and peace sometimes. It's on the very edge of the compound and no one will bother you."
"Where do you live?"
He nodded at a set of long log buildings off to one side as he drove past. "I live in the left bunk house with Luke. The other bunkhouse has a handful of guys and then there are a couple of houses down the road a ways where some more guys live. The married hands live in houses of their own over east of here."
"Where does Madge stay? And Chase?"
"They both live right in the main house."
"Why is Luke in the bunkhouse and Chase in the main house?"
"I'm not sure. My guess would be because Uncle Richard wants to know what Chase is up to as much as possible, but I don't know. At any rate, I'll bet Chase drives Luke crazy and he moved out here to preserve his sanity. He's pretty quiet living."
"And Chase isn't?"
Fo turned to Charlie. "Chase is pretty self explanatory. I'm sure you've figured that out. They're all supposedly members of the Church, but Chase never went on a mission and you've already seen what kind of a saint Angela is. Although, over time she does grow on you a little. She’s smart. Amazingly smart. And she has a pretty laugh.
“I won't say anything about Chase except to say he's ridiculously concerned with Chase and only Chase. His life’s work is body building and then sharing that physique with women at a part time job in at a health spa in Whitefish. And honestly, I think he does that just so that my uncle doesn’t boot his fanny out of here.”
He gave her an apologetic smile and continued, “For the most part, the Langstons are wonderful people and I think we'll have a good experience here. Just don't believe everything Chase tells you. He's been known to tell people what they want to hear."
"And Luke?"
"Luke is as easy to figure out as Chase or even more so. He's just the other side of the spectrum. He served a mission to France. He’s absolutely bulletproof, selfless, and works the ranch like a machine. I'd trust him with my life."
Fo pulled up to a small cabin that was maybe twenty four by twenty four with a porch than ran the length of the front and a view all the way across the valley to the south. Charlie loved it on sight.
She was pleasantly surprised when she got inside to realize that quaint though it was, it was furnished luxuriously and had every modern convenience hidden away within its rustic ambience. It consisted of a bedroom, bathroom and combined living room and kitchen, with a loft over the bedroom half. The kitchen cabinets and appliances were all faced with barn wood and the counters were some kind of dull gray green stone that just fit the rustic tone of the room.
She smiled as she touched the little button that dispensed crushed ice from the refrigerator door. What would the pioneer women have done for something like that in the eighteen eighties? A fieldstone fireplace and hearth filled one end of the room, and a hook hung down from the inside with a small cast iron cauldron suspended from it as if waiting for her to start making a homesteader’s dinner at any moment. She felt as if she should be wearing a prairie dress and high button boots as she stood there.
The Taco Rocket was already parked out front beside Fo's SUV, and he'd brought her other bags in and set them neatly beside the queen size antique bed covered with a handmade patchwork quilt. She wandered into the bathroom and found the most unusual fixtures she'd ever seen. The sink was an old-fashioned enamel washbasin, and she wasn't sure, but the bathtub appeared to be a galvanized water trough like she'd seen in the corrals at historic museums. On closer inspection, she realized it contained a luxurious tub fitted with whirlpool jets and the barn wood cupboard next to it housed a towel warmer.
She turned to Fo. "Check this out. It's like the Ritz Carlton gone pioneer. This is incredible! Who came up with all this, do you suppose?"
"I don't know, but whoever did it went to a lot of trouble to make it luxurious without ruining the feel of the original cabin."
The log ladder drew her and she climbed up far enough to poke her head over the rim of the loft and look around. It had a simple barn wood floor over log joists and contained only a set of handcrafted twin beds, a bedside table and a single rocking chair under the window. The beds were covered in the same patchwork quilts as the bed below, and she was willing to bet the rain on the tin roof would sound just as it had a hundred and thirty years ago. She let out a contented sigh as she climbed back down. This little log cabin had a peace about it that was like a thick down comforter to her soul. She mentally compared it to her parents’ huge brick Tudor that stood on its perfectly manicured estate lawn back in Waterbury, Connecticut.
Fo laughed and seemed to know exactly what she was thinking. "It's slightly different from the Dr. Evans' estate back east, huh?"
Shaking her head, she said, "Just a little. It's day and night from your parents’ estate as well. How did your family and your Uncle's family end up so opposite?"